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"They ate it."
MrEureka
Posts: 24,694 ✭✭✭✭✭
I recently read an essay in The Economist regarding gluttony. In it was the following text:
"In west Africa, when a spendthrift loses his fortune, we say: “He ate it.” Future generations will look back at us, across the empty seas and the rainforests razed to make way for yet more cattle, ask what happened to the earth and say: “They ate it.”"
Like almost everything else I see or hear, it got me thinking about coins. In the future, will we look at what's left of the coin hobby and market and say "They ate it"? And who will we mean by "they"? The TPGs? Coin dealers? Coin doctors? The tax man?
Or is the future so bright that I'm silly to even have such thoughts?
"In west Africa, when a spendthrift loses his fortune, we say: “He ate it.” Future generations will look back at us, across the empty seas and the rainforests razed to make way for yet more cattle, ask what happened to the earth and say: “They ate it.”"
Like almost everything else I see or hear, it got me thinking about coins. In the future, will we look at what's left of the coin hobby and market and say "They ate it"? And who will we mean by "they"? The TPGs? Coin dealers? Coin doctors? The tax man?
Or is the future so bright that I'm silly to even have such thoughts?
Andy Lustig
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
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Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
"They" would probably refer to the Internet...the Internet will aid the profiteers in eating numismatics and what will be left is a commodity of trading coins for profits (and a few last hold outs who will appreciate the art/science of numismatics, but they will surely be a minority).
That we wouldn't be just fine with every inch of land being razed and built over?
Where might you get such a crazy idea????
Some cultures say...
"Easy money flies on wings"
Happy, humble, honored and proud recipient of the “You Suck” award 10/22/2014
RickO - Do you plan to buy much at the Partick sale? Or are you just content to sit on the sidelines and watch?
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
The name is LEE!
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
The more qualities observed in a coin, the more desirable that coin becomes!
My Jefferson Nickel Collection
<< <i>People eating people was the thought that went through my mind when watching the, "Dumplings" movie. I mean, how is China and India feeding over 2 billion people? >>
Much of their food is imported from the US. We send them dollars to pay for their sweat shops to make American products using their cheap labor and they send those dollars back to us to buy food and other raw materials. It's called world trade or the world economy.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
<< <i>I recently read an essay in The Economist regarding gluttony. In it was the following text:
"In west Africa, when a spendthrift loses his fortune, we say: “He ate it.” Future generations will look back at us, across the empty seas and the rainforests razed to make way for yet more cattle, ask what happened to the earth and say: “They ate it.”"
Like almost everything else I see or hear, it got me thinking about coins. In the future, will we look at what's left of the coin hobby and market and say "They ate it"? And who will we mean by "they"? The TPGs? Coin dealers? Coin doctors? The tax man?
Or is the future so bright that I'm silly to even have such thoughts? >>
Yes. Exactly. We are consuming rather than producing mow days. There are only two
ways to "make" money. One is to create wealth through our efforts by either building a
better mouse trap or making it more efficient to use or distribute them. The other way is
to "appropriate" it. This can be done through fiat, destruction, or outright theft. Our mac-
hines and economy have become so efficient and effective that we now support vast destruc-
tion to the economy and our enviroment through appropriation being carried out by entire
industries and endeavors. Look at advertising which itself has numerous aspects of "appro-
priation" since we pay for it whether we're swayed by it or not. What's being advertised are
attack ads (truthful though) by politicians and lawyers who no longer have to get out and
actually chase ambulances. We see ads for insurance, credit card companies, and those
who claim toi be able to protect us from identity tieves and hackers. It's no matter that
most of this activity is sanctioned or actually done by government because this is the basis
of the modern economy. Mousetraps still get made though they no longer work and they
come packaged such that they can't be removed from it. Things that used to be considered
bad for the economy are now good and good things are bad. We are eating the entire world
and Congress forces us to build cities in the shadow of supposedly rising oceans as many
billions of dollars are spent to stop the oceans from rising. Either the cities will be destroyed
by rising oceans or we're wasting our money on holding baclk the tide, or maybe even both.
We are exascerbating the proiduction of CO2 by continually making the economy less effic-
ient in the name of CO2 reduction. We are eating everything and this cerainly applies to
coins since the US government considers the production of counterfeit coins in China to
be perfectly legal. Ironically real coins made in saner and more ancient times are becoming
illegal to own while counterfeits are legal. Even the authenticy for coins (slabs) are being
counterfeited legally to hold the counterfeit they contain.
All appropriation destroys wealth and converts it to money for the few. It destroys the ex-
istence and quality of products while pumping up the bank accounts of those doing it. This
consumption of resources is destroying what might someday be needed. Consumers make
very unwise purchases and never take garbage back to the store perpetuating the cycle of
shveling things out of the earth to merely shovel it back into landfill. Sure Buffet is right
that the mininmg of gold fits this bill as well but at least with gold we still have something
left afterward that is as good as gold. God only knows how good gold is but anyone can see
that wasting resources and eating our own wealth is fool's play made possible by the lack
of taxes on those who appropriate wealth a mountain at a time.
<< <i>This comes to mind....
At least the robber barons actually created things and paid taxes as high as 91%.
Of course most were given a leg up by their buddies in Washington but they had to create something to make money.
Now days they they destroy things and then they pay lower taxes than their secretaries.
Great medal. I should get one right away while there aren't any counterfeits.
<< <i>People eating people was the thought that went through my mind when watching the, "Dumplings" movie. I mean, how is China and India feeding over 2 billion people? >>
Uhhhh......some of them are feeding themselves perhaps??
The name is LEE!
This is the beauty of markets and the profit motive, which so many poorly informed people despise these days. Uncap human potential from the shackles of excessive taxation and regulation, and possibilities are limitless. Listen to the so-called "progressives" and poverty and hard times will proliferate. The more people who are allowed to pursue their dreams and engenuity, the better life will be. Increase control by a small number of people, and watch things will get worse.
<< <i>Liberals always think of public policy in static terms. In their world everything is going to go to hell unless they get to control it. They never consider technological advances because for them all solutions come from government. Who would have dreamed back in the 70s that the U.S would be on the verge of becoming an oil exporter, larger than the OPEC cartel? You certainly can not thank government for that advance. In fact government is now in the way with its failure to approve the Keystone Pipeline.
This is the beauty of markets and the profit motive, which so many poorly informed people despise these days. Uncap human potential from the shackles of excessive taxation and regulation, and possibilities are limitless. Listen to the so-called "progressives" and poverty and hard times will proliferate. The more people who are allowed to pursue their dreams and engenuity, the better life will be. Increase control by a small number of people, and watch things will get worse. >>
I agree. Remove all controls and cops and regulatory agencies and I will make more money than you can shake a stick at.
Well, maybe "make" is the wrong word, but I'd sure GET a lot of money.
<< <i>Liberals always think of public policy in static terms. In their world everything is going to go to hell unless they get to control it. They never consider technological advances because for them all solutions come from government. Who would have dreamed back in the 70s that the U.S would be on the verge of becoming an oil exporter, larger than the OPEC cartel? You certainly can not thank government for that advance. In fact government is now in the way with its failure to approve the Keystone Pipeline.
This is the beauty of markets and the profit motive, which so many poorly informed people despise these days. Uncap human potential from the shackles of excessive taxation and regulation, and possibilities are limitless. Listen to the so-called "progressives" and poverty and hard times will proliferate. The more people who are allowed to pursue their dreams and engenuity, the better life will be. Increase control by a small number of people, and watch things will get worse. >>
Do you know any liberals at all? (You don't need to answer, it is already clear.)
Ed. S.
(EJS)
<< <i>
<< <i>Liberals always think of public policy in static terms. In their world everything is going to go to hell unless they get to control it. They never consider technological advances because for them all solutions come from government. Who would have dreamed back in the 70s that the U.S would be on the verge of becoming an oil exporter, larger than the OPEC cartel? You certainly can not thank government for that advance. In fact government is now in the way with its failure to approve the Keystone Pipeline.
This is the beauty of markets and the profit motive, which so many poorly informed people despise these days. Uncap human potential from the shackles of excessive taxation and regulation, and possibilities are limitless. Listen to the so-called "progressives" and poverty and hard times will proliferate. The more people who are allowed to pursue their dreams and engenuity, the better life will be. Increase control by a small number of people, and watch things will get worse. >>
Do you know any liberals at all? (You don't need to answer, it is already clear.) >>
I don't think there are any in his part of the country...
You say that like we could even agree about what it means to be "liberal". Yeah, right.
Now, quit trying to hijack my thread!
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
<< <i>
<< <i>Liberals always think of public policy in static terms. In their world everything is going to go to hell unless they get to control it. They never consider technological advances because for them all solutions come from government. Who would have dreamed back in the 70s that the U.S would be on the verge of becoming an oil exporter, larger than the OPEC cartel? You certainly can not thank government for that advance. In fact government is now in the way with its failure to approve the Keystone Pipeline.
This is the beauty of markets and the profit motive, which so many poorly informed people despise these days. Uncap human potential from the shackles of excessive taxation and regulation, and possibilities are limitless. Listen to the so-called "progressives" and poverty and hard times will proliferate. The more people who are allowed to pursue their dreams and engenuity, the better life will be. Increase control by a small number of people, and watch things will get worse. >>
Do you know any liberals at all? (You don't need to answer, it is already clear.) >>
Yes, I met a bunch of them at last American Political Items Collectors convention. It was an eye opening experience. One told me that was good that some people lost their preferred health care coverage because the governments knows better what is good for them. Your close minded response to your own question speaks volumes.
<< <i>Yes, I met a bunch of them at last American Political Items Collectors convention. It was an eye opening experience. One told me that was good that some people lost their preferred health care coverage because the governments knows better what is good for them. Your close minded response to your own question speaks volumes. >>
Your denial of the principle of charity and instead using a principle of maximal uncharity is what actually speaks volumes. (I'd mention the issue with certain health insurance plans that only worked if the covered never got sick, injured, or in an accident, but that'd be getting off topic.)
Ed. S.
(EJS)
I personally believe that everyone with an IQ of less than 120 be used for food. Babies are tasty broiled or boiled, or in a stew, but sadly their bones are too soft to use as filler for cement. With reduced energy needs, we can save the big bucks for a Keystone Pipeline no longer needed because of lowered demand.
Also, the old are generally unproductive. Imagine how much we can save in Social Security. Unfortunately their meat is much less tender.
Just Social Darwinism. Hell, I got mine. . .
The rest of you should just screw off. Read up on Malthusian economics and the Austrian school. I found it gave me a whole new outlook when considering the social implications of "creative destruction". Markets in gold. Amoral.
Markets in souls?
"Who of you, if your son asks for bread, would give him a stone". I will be liberal in my compassion for those who find liberal crap like that confusing.
But Hell, I got mine. . . . .
Empty seas? Rainforest raized for yet more cattle? Please. As for the coin hobby. It will survive like the rainforests and the seas but maybe in a different form.
<< <i>Liberals always think of public policy in static terms. In their world everything is going to go to hell unless they get to control it. They never consider technological advances because for them all solutions come from government. Who would have dreamed back in the 70s that the U.S would be on the verge of becoming an oil exporter, larger than the OPEC cartel? You certainly can not thank government for that advance. In fact government is now in the way with its failure to approve the Keystone Pipeline.
This is the beauty of markets and the profit motive, which so many poorly informed people despise these days. Uncap human potential from the shackles of excessive taxation and regulation, and possibilities are limitless. Listen to the so-called "progressives" and poverty and hard times will proliferate. The more people who are allowed to pursue their dreams and engenuity, the better life will be. Increase control by a small number of people, and watch things will get worse. >>
It was the government that forced higher gas MPG on the auto industry that reduced the consumption of gas. With out that I do not think we would be where we are at. If we had the same MPG as Europe we would be swimming in oil.
<< <i>Do you know any liberals at all? (You don't need to answer, it is already clear.) >>
one must go not further than the Precious Metals forum. They are copiously abundant.
Though many smarter folks post there as well.
<< <i>.... Though many smarter folks post there as well. >>
A Universal Truth!
Taken far and above and beyond any Forum context, this might be considered an opportunity to meditate, as the Buddha often did, on the pleasurable follies of attachment, especially to one's own perspective.
Was it G.K. Chesterson who said that "consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds"?
<< <i>
<< <i>Liberals always think of public policy in static terms. In their world everything is going to go to hell unless they get to control it. They never consider technological advances because for them all solutions come from government. Who would have dreamed back in the 70s that the U.S would be on the verge of becoming an oil exporter, larger than the OPEC cartel? You certainly can not thank government for that advance. In fact government is now in the way with its failure to approve the Keystone Pipeline.
This is the beauty of markets and the profit motive, which so many poorly informed people despise these days. Uncap human potential from the shackles of excessive taxation and regulation, and possibilities are limitless. Listen to the so-called "progressives" and poverty and hard times will proliferate. The more people who are allowed to pursue their dreams and engenuity, the better life will be. Increase control by a small number of people, and watch things will get worse. >>
It was the government that forced higher gas MPG on the auto industry that reduced the consumption of gas. With out that I do not think we would be where we are at. If we had the same MPG as Europe we would be swimming in oil. >>
I guess you want the government to dictate to you what sort of car you must buy and how much fuel you can consume. Not everyone's needs can be set by a government official, but I know is an unpopular view, and that I am a pig for saying it.
Here is another peal of wisdom that came from the mouth an APIC liberal - everyone's incomes should be the same, and it's the government's responsibility to make that happen. So it does not matter if you work harder or accomplish more, your neighbor should earn the same hourly wage or salary as you do, even if they chose not to work. I am not exaggerating this woman's position. This women because very upset with me, when I did not sign on to her "Occupy Wall Street" program.
If you want to apply that to college grades, why should anyone be on the dean's list? They should have their grade point averages taken away and the points given to others who are not doing as well. When I was college one kid in my accounting class stopped coming to lectures after the second week of the semester. At the end of the term, he came to me and said, "What can I do?" What could I tell him? With an accounting course you have to keep up with it week after week or you will fall behind and will almost never be able to catch up. Everything builds up from the beginning. I got a B in that course, but I guess that couple of other guys and I should have gone to the dean asked him to take a grade point away from us so that that fellow would not have to get an F.
I guess you want the government to dictate to you what sort of car you must buy and how much fuel you can consume.
Actually, the government should tax gasoline sales more aggressively, and tax new cars based on their projected emissions. Consumers and manufacturers would work out the rest, far more efficiently than anything that would result solely from government mandates.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
(from memory)
<< <i>Equality of opportunity is great and should be pursued as a societal goal. Equality of outcome is idiotic because it runs contrary to basic human nature. Anyone who touts equality of outcome is either living in a fantasy land or is someone who wants everyone else to be equally miserable while they (because they are better and superior) are exempt from the misery and live life with resources and comforts denied to the common folk. >>
My 1866 Philly Mint Set
Most of us in the Western world agree with this.
Equality of outcome is idiotic because it runs contrary to basic human nature.
I don't know that it's human nature. After all, many of us share the wealth within our own families.
Instead, I would argue that forced "equality of outcome" is idiotic because it eliminates much of the incentive for hard work, innovation and intelligent risk-taking.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
When you consider the success of the TV marketers, it's not that clear that the less-than-sophisticated end of the market is going down the toilet. In fact, things could easily go the other way, with the lower end of the market heating up as the top end continues lower. Time will tell.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
<< <i>Here is another peal of wisdom that came from the mouth an APIC liberal - everyone's incomes should be the same, and it's the government's responsibility to make that happen. >>
Implied Subtext ==> All "liberals" are Socialists.
Fox News and new age Republican debate protocol has schooled you well, Grasshopper.
<< <i>
<< <i>Here is another peal of wisdom that came from the mouth an APIC liberal - everyone's incomes should be the same, and it's the government's responsibility to make that happen. >>
Implied Subtext ==> All "liberals" are Socialists.
Fox News and new age Republican debate protocol has schooled you well, Grasshopper. >>
Well let's put this way. John F. Kennedy's opinions would not be welcome in the modern Democratic Party. Remember the statement about how "a rising tide raises all boats?"
<< <i>
<< <i>
<< <i>Here is another peal of wisdom that came from the mouth an APIC liberal - everyone's incomes should be the same, and it's the government's responsibility to make that happen. >>
Implied Subtext ==> All "liberals" are Socialists.
Fox News and new age Republican debate protocol has schooled you well, Grasshopper. >>
Well let's put this way. John F. Kennedy's opinions would not be welcome in the modern Democratic Party. Remember the statement about how "a rising tide raises all boats?" >>
True. If Kennedy were alive today he would be a Republican. I used to be a Democrat and even voted for Carter to my everlasting shame.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
<< <i>True. If Kennedy were alive today he would be a Republican. I used to be a Democrat and even voted for Carter to my everlasting shame. >>
Yes, me too. I worked in the Carter campaign in 1976 and voted for him. I passed out a lot of "peanut pins"
<< <i>"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds"- Ralph Waldo Emerson
(from memory) >>
Yeah, that..
Ike? Didn't think the Birchers were anything more than fluoride-deprived wing-nuts.
Consider the sons of "Big Daddy" Fred Koch, himself one of the founders of the John Birch Society. Ike wouldn't have a chance today.
Taft? Better idea than Herman Cain....
My plan for the End Times involves moving in with Ted Nugent. Once I'm inside the compound, you can eat whatever scraps as might accidently fall from our anointed lips. The rest? We ate it. . . .
Crossbows as part of social dialogue?
Can we have some pictures of coins with cross-bows? Genoese perhaps? While not exactly within the archer's realm, themes such as the arquebus and the AK-47 would also seem relevant.
<< <i>Hell's Bells.. I'm sure we'd all be better off if Robert Taft had been able to beat out Ike for the 1952 Republican nomination. JFK? It's been bruited about that Reagan couldn't get nominated by the Elephants today.
Ike? Didn't think the Birchers were anything more than fluoride-deprived wing-nuts.
Consider the sons of "Big Daddy" Koch, himself one of the founders of the John Birch Society. Ike wouldn't have a chance today.
Taft? Better idea than Herman Cain....
My plan for the End Times involves moving in with Ted Nugent. Once I'm inside the compound, you can eat what scraps are left for you under the table. . . .
Crossbows as part of social dialogue? >>
I went to some anti-war rallies back in the late 1960s and early 1970s when I was a college student. Although there were some moderate people there, the most vocal were the "old left" guys who were in their 40s to them 60s, and the college student radicals. I did not care for the leftists because they had no use for democracy or even a reasonable debate about the issues. All they could talk about was class warfare centered class envy and the evils of capitalism in all of its forms.
The only debates that did break out were over Israel. The leftist Jewish students defended it while the other radicals condemned its existence. Those arguments would get very heated.
Today those radicals are the leaders of the Democratic Party. There is no room for moderates there unless they are willing to contribute money and keep their mouths shut. "Blue dogs" in public offices are ostracized. That drove me from the Democratic Party. I was once a registered Democrat, contributor and a campaign worker.
I don't follow you logic, Col. Jessup. Mitt Romney is really not much different from Eisenhower, and he won the Republican presidential nomination and was elected governor in Massachusetts. Ditto for John McCain, who was the darling of some Democrats in 2000. Far out guys like Patrick Buchanan didn't get anywhere and have since left the party. Libertarians like Rand Paul might get a foothold, but it will be a struggle. The main change I've seen since the early 1950s has been on your side, with increasing radicalization and intolerance for opposite points of view.
Let's face it. When one of the prominent members of the White House staff can equate Mother Teresa and Mao Zedong in the same sentence, it's not your father's Democratic Party any more.
I'm going to sit this one out- tempting as it is.
Pretty slippery slope here on many fronts.
What's being done
Happy, humble, honored and proud recipient of the “You Suck” award 10/22/2014
My brother-in-law, an eastern elitist radical attorney then working at the crypto-socialist National Labor Relations Board, was one of the lawyers down at RFK Stadium helping 50,000 peaceful "rioters" who threatened the public welfare to the point where Nixon had to ring the White House with buses so he could watch the Texas-Arkansas football battle that afternoon. I think it was Texas 24-23 for the #1 spot in the polls, and when RN called up to congratulate the winners, I felt pride as an American that we would all be able to remember that special day.
Let's face it, when the Chief of Staff to the Vice-President of the United States is caught in an act of simple basic treason, such as revealing the identity of an actively serving agent of the CIA, we're in trouble. Poor Scooter Libby. Remember Shrub's commitment to follow the trail no matter where it would lead to? It is almost as upsetting as the terrorist fist-bump that Mr and Mrs. O exchanged on camera.
We could go nuanced on this, but I prefer the simplistic maunderings of tired old white men like myself, only some of which think my addiction to the theory of evolution can be dealt with by an exorcism. Just to add to anyone's confusion about where I'm coming from philosophically, I, closer to the center than Attila the Hun, was shocked and offended when our President was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for doing nothing, as of that point in time, other than being a symbol of some of the globe's higher aspirations. Fuzzy-thinking pragmatic flip-floppers without the proper set of principles, perhaps. I do, however, find myself fighting my disgust with the gross intellectual dishonesty involved in the pronouncement by the Majority Leader of the Senate on Election Day 2008 that the Republican agenda for the next four years was going to be to say NO to any and every thing the new crypto-Muslim Anti-Christ might suggest he wanted to accomplish.
Did you know that Rahm Emanuel's first (rejected) response was to offer free restrooms in the Capitol Building so McConnell could be seen as so patriotic that he would stand outside that locked door pissing his own pants to support the principle that we all have to sacrifice for the good of the country. Easy-access toilets today, next week the 2nd Amendment. It's the principle of the thing. Slippery slope of socialist incursions into the body politic. Free toilets clearly incentivize demands for other character-weakening entitlements.
Reductio ad absurdum, hyperbole and rhetoric. - -
When you get into the voting booth today, try to listen to something else other than your fears. That's a prison we all get stuck in sometimes.
Crossbows on coins, anyone?
what's going on. We'll just allow destruction of rights, resources, and responsibility
unti there's nothing at all left. We'll be kept at each others' throats with distinctions
that don't even exist in the real world as the last of everything reverts to the few.
The meek can't inherit the earth until they understand the nature of the earth and
the need to request it.