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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Vess1, post: 1052202, member: 13650&quot;]Well, what&#039;s the other option?&nbsp; What if the government came out today and told everybody to stay home, and not spend anything?&nbsp;&nbsp; They can&#039;t.&nbsp; Consumer spending is all there is to rely on any more.&nbsp; Manufacturing only accounts for a sliver.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; The US consumer has been bred to consume.&nbsp; It&#039;s what we&#039;ve grown up with since being small children.&nbsp; Commercials, adds, billboards everywhere.&nbsp;&nbsp; Which puts immense pressure on adults to buy everything thats out there.&nbsp; And nothing is ever enough.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; There didn&#039;t used to be so much stuff so readily available.&nbsp;&nbsp; Now everybody in the world is trying to make their fortune by taking a few bucks from everybody else.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp; I hear you on credit cards.&nbsp; But they have been a major driving force behind the consumer spending that is needed for &#039;fake&#039; growth.&nbsp;&nbsp; It&#039;s all extra.&nbsp; Many are to the point where they need them to live on.&nbsp; If all cards were canceled tomorrow, what do you think would happen?&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Millions of people would be instantly swamped.&nbsp; &nbsp; They&#039;re just a way for individual consumers to play &#039;government&#039; really.&nbsp;&nbsp; It&#039;s a way to help create a good but false economy.</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp; Which makes hard assets that much more attractive.&nbsp; If anybody ever needs a real gauge on what has value......&nbsp; &nbsp; Lets pretend a recently graduated highschool kid, that is a total stranger comes up to you and says they want you to finance their college loan.&nbsp; <u>But it has to be paid in real, hard money.</u>&nbsp;&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp; Lets say the cost is your entire coin/bullion collection, plus a few rolls of $20 gold pieces on the side.&nbsp; &nbsp; You own all this material.&nbsp;&nbsp; The kid wants you to hand it over to them so they can &#039;possibly&#039; graduate with a piece of paper called a diploma.&nbsp; Now &quot;they promise to pay you back with interest once they get a job.&quot;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Will ANYBODY on this board give those assets to a stranger so they could go to college?&nbsp; &nbsp; Would any amount of interest be worth that risk in say, 2000?&nbsp; 2011?</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp; Well, then why would a bank so freely give that much money to punk kids to go to school?&nbsp; Sometimes hundreds of thousands!!!&nbsp;&nbsp; Why?&nbsp; Because as you said, it&#039;s all fake.&nbsp; The numbers are just typed into the computer and the kid&#039;s school is paid for.&nbsp; <u>No real loss to anyone.</u>&nbsp; Just a credit to the college and a loan to be paid off in the distant future to the kid, regardless of outcome.</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; May seem acceptable, modern and convenient to some folks here but it&#039;s not real.&nbsp; There-in lies the root of the problem.&nbsp;&nbsp; It&#039;s easy money for everybody because it&#039;s fake.</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp; Quality of living has managed to go up because everything is mass produced as cheaply as possible, imported from over-seas, manufactured for slave wages in plants with no regulations, or is government subsidized in some form.&nbsp; Think about that.&nbsp; It applies to almost everything you can think of.</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp; Everybody in the US is left fighting for government or service jobs so they can buy the cheaper (but unending) list of goods and services.&nbsp; Only the wives don&#039;t get to stay home anymore.&nbsp;&nbsp; Need the extra income to keep up or in some instances, just to stay afloat.&nbsp;&nbsp; Now, everybody has to be employed from a smaller job pool.&nbsp; One bread-winner isn&#039;t enough.&nbsp;&nbsp; So has quality of life really improved and the dollar kept pace?&nbsp; (AC sure is nice in the summers.)&nbsp; But&nbsp; IMO, it&#039;s just changed.&nbsp; Not necessarily for the better. Unless people enjoy time spent at work.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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