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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
I can pick up a rock if I want something heavy in my pocket.
Edit: I'm still seeing ads for buying gold, including one offering to "roll over my 401(k) into gold". Face Palm.
edited 1st May '13 2:23:03 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"The Handle: Yes but in the kind of apocalyptic society he's imagining we probably won't have many power lines active. Without electricity the electronics are just expensive paper weights.
Fighteer: Well there are certain things like food and water that are valuable no matter what society is like. Gold is only valuable if there's an established commerce system which requires a functioning government. Hence it would be useless in a post apocalyptic scenario.
edit: In a lawless society food, water, clothing, and weapons/tools would probably be traded in a bartering system. Gold is just a middle man and one that we'd remove pretty quickly in my opinion.
edited 1st May '13 2:28:47 PM by Kostya
Of course, but food is not usable as currency; it's not fungible and it depreciates (i.e., is eaten or spoils). Currency requires a system of trade, which implies a degree of civilization above the hunter-gatherer/post-apocalyptic scavenger level.
Edit: You ninja-edited my clarification.
edited 1st May '13 2:31:03 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"edited 1st May '13 2:31:57 PM by Balmung
You know it's times like this that I almost want us to break down into a hunter gatherer society just so I can watch these people try and get by on their shiny hunks of metal.
edit: The fact that I can grasp these concepts without any formal education in economics really depresses me since it means these people are incredibly stupid.
edited 1st May '13 2:33:45 PM by Kostya
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Nah, they value gold in that setting too. Remember Sierra Madre?
edited 1st May '13 2:35:24 PM by TheHandle
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.I haven't been following this thread but I just wanted to post a salient story.
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2013/05/01/1945751/south-carolina-push-poll/?mobile=nc
TL;DR:
- background info: in about a week, there will be a special election for a U.S. House seat in South Carolina. The candidates are Mark Sanford (R) and Elizabeth Colbert Busch (D). Sanford is best known for leaving office under a cloud of scandal relating to his "hiking the Appalachian Trail" when he actually flew out of the country to meet with a mistress in Argentina. Colbert Busch is the sister of TV personality Stephen Colbert.
- apparently some people have been receiving phone calls attempting to smear Colbert Busch with various (and all false) speculative questions, masquerading as a poll.
Yes, that's a bad thing those guys is doing, but I want to come back to this:
An entire 401(k)? Who the hell do they think is going to buy into that?
"The marvel is not that the Bear posts well, but that the Bear posts at all."
Yes, but people foolish enough to do that don't have 401(k)s!
Well, (A), you'd have to pay taxes on the entire 401(k) when you trade it for gold instead of little by little as you use it and (B) gold constantly moves around on the scale of value. It tends to stay relatively high, but it moves enough that it could be a problem. Also, to actually use the gold, you'd have to sell it for money, possibly invoking taxes again.
Talking about gold its value as a currency in a post-apocalyptic setting made me think of this
.
xwhatever
Yeah, salt is a good one, even though its consumable.
Sorry. Bah, audio quality sucks.
edited 1st May '13 5:39:40 PM by Maka4
edit: And they say this country doesn't have a racism problem.
edited 1st May '13 5:46:30 PM by Kostya
Obama's reaction to the claims that his skeet shooting picture was photoshopped.
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edited 1st May '13 6:07:43 PM by Kostya

edited 1st May '13 2:17:58 PM by Euodiachloris