“The fall of Rome, Spain’s imperial decline, the French Revolution, the end of Bretton Woods [the 1944 agreement establishing today’s international monetary system]… this is effectively a transfer of real wealth from the poor to the rich elites who protect themselves with gold,” Bertrand wrote. “We’re witnessing what may be one of the great pivotal moments in financial history yet it’s being barely discussed.”
It’ll never get old to me that the Uber wealthy know money is only valuable because everyone agrees it is. And when they accumulate too much, everyone else stops caring about it make Ng it worthless…
And their response is always to hoard a different thing that is mostly valuable only because people all agree it is.
Like, gold does have some actual uses, but none of this is being used for that. Just hoarded because people think others want it.
But shit gets bad enough, it’s like a zombie apocalypse.
You can have all the gold in the world, doesn’t mean someone will trade even a gun with a single bullet for it.
There’s just no real way to hold onto that insane levels of wealth it inequality, because it’s totally unnatural. It’s unmaintainable, but the people who benefit will try everything to keep it.
I could see wall street and other traders trading options on the gold under the dragon because it isn’t going anywhere and it’s safe from basically everything.
That market will crash if sufficiently skilled dragon hunters show up though, better ban dragon slaying.
I feel like the gold is more for using right before the worst case scenarios, in the end, they will have enough firepower, security, and other necessary provisions. After having that, just get a big enough following of people who think you’re the ideal candidate to be seen as a king for them and that’s what the rich will become in the next theoretical cycle of civilization.
They’ll try to use it for “security” but the fact is that just tells the people they pay one of two things:
There’s a bunch of gold where you work. And only you and your coworkers have guns
There’s no more gold so you might as well leave.
There’s a pretty good show with a great premise called Billionaire’s Bunker that gives a third option, the billionaires would really hate that one, but it’s pretty good plan
that’s what the rich will become in the next theoretical cycle of civilization.
On the surface, it sounds plausible. But if you dig into how the resources you mentioned are produced, the ones which would allow them to become kings, there’s a plot hole. The production can only be done in centralized factories where many workers labour. And the inputs for those factories are done in other factories where many workers labour. As long as such resources are required to maintain these fiefdoms, the rulers power would be constrained by labour power. And we know from history that when enough workers are out of a job, when enough live in poverty, workers organize to stop working and take over the factories. Then they start producing for themselves, instead of the rulers. Then the rulers end up with no guns or other technology needed to enforce their power. What’s worse for the prospects of the future would-be-kings, is that the theory which tells workers how to organize and what to do in such cases has been written, and tested, and it works. And so I think we’re likely gonna see more of that instead of new monarchies formed by former capitalist elites.
It’ll never get old to me that the Uber wealthy know money is only valuable because everyone agrees it is. And when they accumulate too much, everyone else stops caring about it make Ng it worthless…
And their response is always to hoard a different thing that is mostly valuable only because people all agree it is.
Like, gold does have some actual uses, but none of this is being used for that. Just hoarded because people think others want it.
But shit gets bad enough, it’s like a zombie apocalypse.
You can have all the gold in the world, doesn’t mean someone will trade even a gun with a single bullet for it.
There’s just no real way to hold onto that insane levels of wealth it inequality, because it’s totally unnatural. It’s unmaintainable, but the people who benefit will try everything to keep it.
On the other hand, there are plenty of people who wouldn’t mind giving you a single bullet for free.
It’s the legendary metaphor of the all powerful dragon that sits on his mountain of gold
I could see wall street and other traders trading options on the gold under the dragon because it isn’t going anywhere and it’s safe from basically everything.
That market will crash if sufficiently skilled dragon hunters show up though, better ban dragon slaying.
I feel like the gold is more for using right before the worst case scenarios, in the end, they will have enough firepower, security, and other necessary provisions. After having that, just get a big enough following of people who think you’re the ideal candidate to be seen as a king for them and that’s what the rich will become in the next theoretical cycle of civilization.
Right…
They’ll try to use it for “security” but the fact is that just tells the people they pay one of two things:
There’s a bunch of gold where you work. And only you and your coworkers have guns
There’s no more gold so you might as well leave.
There’s a pretty good show with a great premise called Billionaire’s Bunker that gives a third option, the billionaires would really hate that one, but it’s pretty good plan
On the surface, it sounds plausible. But if you dig into how the resources you mentioned are produced, the ones which would allow them to become kings, there’s a plot hole. The production can only be done in centralized factories where many workers labour. And the inputs for those factories are done in other factories where many workers labour. As long as such resources are required to maintain these fiefdoms, the rulers power would be constrained by labour power. And we know from history that when enough workers are out of a job, when enough live in poverty, workers organize to stop working and take over the factories. Then they start producing for themselves, instead of the rulers. Then the rulers end up with no guns or other technology needed to enforce their power. What’s worse for the prospects of the future would-be-kings, is that the theory which tells workers how to organize and what to do in such cases has been written, and tested, and it works. And so I think we’re likely gonna see more of that instead of new monarchies formed by former capitalist elites.
Yeah, many people, wealthy or not, do not understand what money is, or any other medium of exchange, and where their value comes from.