JDH's quotes:
“The sad fact is that the government cannot create permanent jobs. All the government can do is take money from one person (the taxpayer), and give it to someone else (a government employee, or someone who provides services to the government). That’s it.”
“So why, then, am I conflicted?
I’m conflicted because I’m profiting from misery.”
Clearly the smart money (probably in China, Russia, and other places) realizes that the next few years won’t be great for the U.S., so they are placing their bets on something that can’t be printed: gold.
I have placed my bets in the same place, so I too stand to profit from the turmoil. Perhaps profit is the wrong word; perhaps I’m just protecting myself from the storm ahead.
~ ~ ~
When I read “So why, then, am I conflicted? I’m conflicted because I’m profiting from misery”; I thought of a powerful, memorable scene from the movie classic “East of Eden” which deals with “profiting from misery”.
Here’s the set up to the scene:
After the father's idealistic plans for a long-haul vegetable shipping business venture end in a loss of thousands of dollars, Cal (James Dean) decides to enter the bean-growing business, as a way of recouping the money his father lost in the vegetable shipping venture. He knows that if the United States enters the war, the price of beans will skyrocket.
Cal's business goes quite well, and he decides to give the money to Adam at a surprise birthday party for his father.
Cal makes a surprise birthday present of his hard earned money to his father; however, Adam refuses to accept any money earned by what he regards as war profiteering.
See:
http://www.myspace.com/video/mystery-hole/east-of-eden-james-dean-meltdown/1659205After I saw this movie while I was an idealistic, impressionable teen with no head for finance; I thought that profiting from the stock market during bad times was simply not honest and good work (as according to Cal’s father).
Physical work such as tilting the land, doing back breaking planting work, etc ... for hours on end, for hard cash was good, honest work.
So, for decades, I had no serious interest in participating in the “evil” (as according to Cal’s father) stock markets. Instead, I worked on holding down jobs to earn hard cash.
Well, my views on the stock markets have changed since then.
I am now in my fifties. I have four dependants (a great house wife and three young kids) to feed and to house.
And, times are now tough. Though I am a trained civil engineer who had previously received salaries in the six digits; nowadays, the only decent jobs I could get would be a greeter at Walmart, cashier at Safeway, stockperson at Zellers, etc... So, I eventually, concluded that the only job that is worth my time, energy, and passion is to be a no pay, stay-at-home dad.
Still, I have to get hard cash from somewhere. But, where and how?
Lucky, I stumbled onto BHSH, and found posters who have tremendous insights on how stock markets and non-Canadian governments work in real life. And, they are also very generous about educating others about what they know (I owe them a big belated THANK YOU for sharing their knowledge).
BHSH’s posters have concluded that governments and currencies are crashing, and unemployment will continue to go up. There’s going to be much more miserable times to come. But, the best way to protect one’s wealth or to profit during such uncertain times is to invest in precious metals related products.
And, I have done just that with the use of my home desktop computer. I have made handsome profits to meet my family needs for
years to come.
IMO, there is nothing parasitic about what I have done. I am certainly not conflicted at all about profiting from trading precious metals stocks during times of turmoil. No siree.
Trading precious metals stocks is a logical, smart investment move to enhance and protect my family wealth.
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