Hello Wilfred,

On Saturday August 10 2019 18:53, you wrote to me:

 WV>>> Gold was valuable in the dark ages...

 MvdV>> In the dark ages only those who had the means to protect it
 MvdV>> with right of might had gold. If the dark ages return and I had
 MvdV>> gold, I would not have it very long...

 WV> That was true for everything that was used to store value.

Indeed. So when we are back in de dark ages, I will not be able to hold on to 
my gold, diamonds, cowry shells, darseks or bars of latinum. Or whatever is 
considered of value by then.

Other than that, average life time in the dark ages was <40 years. I am way 
past that. I simply have no chance.

 WV>>> How likely is a full collapse? If you think it isn't very
 WV>>> likely, gold is a usefull investment.

 MvdV>> Very few people that invest in gold actually have the metal in
 MvdV>> their posession. Most of it is numbers in a "gold account" in a
 MvdV>> bank. Susceptible to the same vulnerabilities as any other bank
 MvdV>> account.

 WV> I don't know how that is with regular banks where you can have a gold
 WV> account, but that's not true for firms that specialise in precious
 WV> metal accounts. They store and insure the gold that you are the owner
 WV> of, and you pay them a fee to do so. When they go bankrupt it's still
 WV> your gold and not part of the assets of that bank that needs to be
 WV> devided between the creditors of that bank.

That may be what they say in the brochure, but a commmon saying among lawyers 
is: "posession is 90% of ownership". So when when things go wrong and push come 
to shove, it still remains to be seen how it will work out. AFAIK, there is no 
precedent yet...

 MvdV>> If weapons were as easy to get as in the US, I still would not
 MvdV>> have a chance. There is always someone faster...

 WV> It isn't all about being faster than the other. It's about skill to
 WV> use the weapons, and being able seem like a threat to the other, so
 WV> they go find an easier target. That isn't all about age...

Not having any gold, diamonds, cowry shells or bars of latinum, will make me a 
less atractive target. In my case, I believe that to be a better survival 
strategy...


Cheers, Michiel

--- GoldED+/W32-MSVC 1.1.5-b20170303