How do all the old timers feel about "silver stackers?"

"Wait." I asked how much he had in pharma stocks. Would you have understood it better if I used a 35 word sentence instead?

 

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Probably.

 

You status quo people should try shorter sentences.

Like: Release the unicorns!

 

I to went to a University and received my four year degree in Biology. This must have caught the attention of the U.S. Army, because within a year I was drafted, trained as a Para-Medic and did a tour in Viet Nam. Upon coming home, I went back to school and got my Masters in Biology. I had originally planned on a career in medicine, but after what I said and had to do in Viet Nam (I was a "Dust-off" medic, I was taken by helicopter to a CZ, dropped down by cable, and stabilized wounded soldiers until the fighting stopped and the helicopters could land and pick-up the wounded). I revised my plans, with the agreement of my wife (I was married four months when they drafted me) I went back to school and instead of pre-med, received a M.A.T. in teaching. For the next thirty years I taught Biology in the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. High School. In 1993 I was named Teacher of the year for my innovation of bringing Special Ed kids into the Computer program in the town's schools.

While not having a formal education in economics, I studied, listened, and learned enough to provide a very comfortable retirement for my wife and myself. The reason I have given the above information is to give you an idea of where and how my opinions were and continue to be formed. I believe that people can disagree with each other and be civil about it, I believe that people who generalize about a topic are generally wrong, I believe people who are arrogant and pompous are not worth the time and effort to try and have an intelligent conversation with. I especially believe that people who have a set opinion about a topic and are not willing to listen to the other side of that topic are not worth trying to have an intelligent conversation with.

Economics is not a science, it is an art. You study and learn as much about it as you can, then you make decisions that based on that study work best for you. Only big government takes the position that "they" know best for the little people and we should just be quiet and listen and go along with what they tell us to do. I thank God that I lived and grew up during the time period that I did. A time when individual actions and thoughts were not just accepted, but encouraged. I worry about and the lives my grandchildren will have in the current state our country is in.

I give my best advise to my children, when they come to me and ask for it, but I do not tell them how to live their lives or how to think about things. I was the first in my family to receive a B.S. and a M.S., my daughter is the first to receive a PhD. Having said all of the above I would never belittle someone else, because of what they believe or tell them how they should live their lives. When asked my opinion, I give it in as little a confrontational manner as I can and I am always open to listening to the other persons point of view.

Having coin collecting as part of investment strategy for over 50 years has worked well for me. I have won more than I have lost and that is really all you can ask for. As I've stated before, I believe that having coins, in precious metal, is better than just "stacking" gold and/or silver rounds or bars. I already, in this forum, have given the reasons why I feel this way, so I will not repeat myself.

I believe that each person should do what works best for them and not let someone else tell them what they think they should think or do. Don't close your mind, listen to what other people have to say and then make your own decisions on what works best for you. I apologize for the length of this post, but I'm getting tired of reading posts from people who profess to know better than anyone else and state that what they say is the only way to do things or is the only way to think. I'm a big believer in reading, in coin collecting there's a saying, "buy the book before the coin", I believe that "buying the book" also applies to life.

 

All that's good stuff EXCEPT for one key error - economics is EVERY BIT the science that medicine, physics or chemistry is, and it responds to the scientific method just as readily. It is the "deniers" of economics as science who "are the problem" per se.

The locus of the error is people pretend that since "persons" are scientifically not quantifiable, therefore "people" also are not. That is the fallacy of composition writ large. "People" as a whole can be studied as a science while any individual may or may not conform.

This is the singular fallacy of many of my contemporaries, the "you don't know me" fallacy. I can very much know about "people like you" without knowing you, per se. I know that's an unpopular truth, but it is truth nonetheless.

See:
http://study.com/academy/lesson/the-fallacy-of-composition-in-economics-definition-examples.html

 

MEET OUTSIDE WHEN THE BELL RINGS... SETTLED ALLOT OF DIFFERNECES... YOU MUST HAVE ATTEND IN A PRIVATE SCHOOL... NUTCASE.... PROBABLY CAUSE I LOVE TO STACK AND TRADE THE BULLION.........LOVE SHINY STUFF..

 

I believe vaccines have improved mankind's state. I also own pharma stocks. They are profitable and pay nice dividends.

I also believe tobacco companies should be machine gunned. They are profitable and pay nice dividends. I do not own them.

 

Put out a memo when the shooting begins. I need about a week's notice.

 

I think it's a sign of the times, computer age. In other words, "silver stackers", were probably always around, they just became more evident b/c of the internet. Also there's more of them today since the price hike after the recession. What do I think of them? Most will learn lessons, hopefully it doesn't cost them too much money.

 

I suppose, in the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I currently work for a company that's involved in the clinical-trials industry. We make sure the right medications get to the right places, and are kept at the right temperature along the way.

I don't believe conventional medicine and "establishment research" is good because I work here.

I work here because I believe conventional medicine and "establishment research" is good.

My beliefs aren't dictated by who pays me or what I own. It's the other way around.

 

Bravos. Well said. I can't shake the image I have of all these conspiracy nuts living in their Moms' basements or in a rustic wood cabin, a la the Unibomber. All the while, their "stacks" are in some strongboxes buried under the floorboards right next to their bugout bags.

 

Yeah, we wouldn't want to confuse you with long words or complex sentences. We must remain aware of the err, umm, "differently abled" nature of many stackers. Stackers and Austrian School believers.

 

Interesting. I once worked in clinical trials, on the IT end. I did not know much about it when I started and the IT challenge was why I took the job. But I found I could not believe in what they were doing because it was all driven by Big Pharma so I left and found another position. That was about 20 years ago.

 

Show me someone who needs to throw around the pejorative "Big Pharma", and I'll show you a:

 

Finally, at long last, the tweasure will be ours. You flank Kurt and l'll get the fweeait.

 

We've reached different opinions about pharmaceutical research, but we seem to have similar principles.

I was going to say "reached different conclusions", but I won't have concluded until I'm dead. I hope. I'm really attached to some of my assumptions, but I'd like to think I'd always cut them loose if they were dragging me over a cliff. It's happened before (cutting them loose, and letting them drag me over a cliff).

 

If concerned parents don't want to vaccinate their kids, I suppose they have that right. And, if they want to have it that right, then they assume the obligation of home schooling them properly. They do not have the right to expect public schools to take their kids in violation of the law and common sense.

 

1) There's a difference between stupid and misguided.

2) Making fun of "differently abled" people isn't cool any more.

3) Making fun of people who disagree with you by calling them "differently abled" is doubly uncool.

Attack the argument, not the person. What's so hard about that?

 

Fair call.

My wife says she can tell when I'm getting buzzed because my vocabulary starts to balloon, and my sentences start getting longer and more convoluted. Too early in the day for that excuse, though. Sometimes I'm just lazy or careless about editing.

 

That's the problem - there's never an argument offered, only THEIR denigration. Austrians won't typically offer any argument because it's a key part of their paradigm - "we know this because we know this". They try to deny that macroeconomics even exists because they're all about generalizing from the individual to the economy taken as a whole. They ARE the fallacy of composition taken to extremes and they themselves trumpet it as so. They DESERVE ridicule.