According to UPS tracking, my gold will be here sometime tomorrow. I'll snap some photos and send 'em off to PCGS or the safe deposit box, depending on what I see. If they look 70ish, I'll send them. If not, to the bank for a long nap.
As US citizens and taxpayers, we are all effectively share holders in the mint. We own the company, so to speak.
You said... "Short of Nazi Germany, this runaway greed is the worst I’ve ever seen. Big business (and some government agencies, i.e. The US Mint) gouge consumers with high prices and low quality and refuse to share the wealth with U.S. labor, they'd rather lobby the government for no minimum wage" How is the Mint gouging customers with high prices and low quality? How are they refusing to share the wealth with the US labor? The mint is one of the only parts of government that is LOWERING the tax burden for us. The normal citizen does not purchase from them, just us collectors. We would not do it if we truly thought we were getting screwed, would we? We have to have housing, food, etc, but do not have to have collectible coins. We can not really be gouged on something we buy for fun. You sound like a socialist hippie.
The mint not only turns ALL of their profits over to the treasury, they employ US labor at a fair wage and provide that labor with fair benefits, allowing that labor to contribute to the entire economy. How many private companies do that? I'd buy from the mint before I'd buy from General (pays NO taxes on its profits) Electric.
This is why we have the government we have today. Guess we should all just declare ourselves conservative patriots and bend over for the unpatriotic corporations, as far too many of us have been doing. Yeah, yeah, that's it - I'll go fight a war for corporate profits and come home to find out they sent my job to Communist China.
I agree with most of this. The mint does pay better than minimum wage, but like most employees these days, they have not received appropriate COLA's. Yeah, I'd rather buy from the mint as well, but they are gouging, making a higher percentage profit than ever. Why should coin collectors have to unproportionately shoulder the deficit?
Whether one buys from the mint or not, unless we are uber rich, we all share an unproportional share in the costs of this country. BTW, the federal deficit exploded under Bush II, but it is almost gone now. Your problem with the mint's profits is very easily solved. If I feel like I'm being gouged, I keep my money in my pocket. How simple is that?
Still don't make it right. It's not just a problem with the mint, it's a problem with goods we all need.
Government employess actually receive pretty common COLA. My wife works for the government, and her pay/increases are a lot better than they were a few years ago for the private sector. And dear gosh, stop with the "mint is gouging us" act. No one is forcing you to buy from them. It is not a necessity in life, it is a pure want.
Government employees, as well as Social Security recipients have been getting a 1% COLA and reduced benefits for a few years now.
Actually COLA has been frozen for a few years, just bumped it up some this year. That does not keep them from moving up in steps or grades though, which almost all do every year. My wife's pay has increased a LOT more in the last few years she has worked for the government than it did in the private sector. This is part of the reason the government is broke.
True, I was actually referring to government employees's retirement COLA's. In low cost areas, government employees’ salaries aren't bad. I know in many cases we get a good value from government salaries. Yet, many are far too low, like for key positions. Following the rule, you get what you pay for (or you never get more than you pay for), we get thieves running the government, padding their and their cronies' pockets. That's why we’re broke.
The only reason we are broke is because we didn't raise taxes to pay for all the (stupid, necessary, your choice) wars we have fought for the past few decades.
Those with the most money, of course. But I think we are skating too close to politics. The Mint is definitely not part of our money problems!