Quote of the Week #4

Respecting religion and civilization:

"The poor will inherit the Earth - but not the minerals." - George Bush, once joking about the Beatitudes found here: source

If the Bush quote sounds cruel, your feelings are more intact than your essential thought processes.

Suppose the poor were to inherit the minerals. What then? To what use would such inheritance be? In heaven probably none, as the streets there may be paved* with it. On Earth? Only with industry (mining, extraction, conversion, technology, etc.) and an active market are minerals valuable.

But gold is a mineral, you say. Inheritance would bring instant wealth, then?

Who are the poor, and how many do they number? Consider enough gold to instantly make all the world's poor wealthy enough never to have have to labor again. What would this bring?

The resulting shortage of labor would be self-defeating. The price of labor would skyrocket (hyper-inflation) and the cost of essential goods and services would neutralize the so-called wealth. [Currently, gold's value, like that of diamonds, is kept artificially high through supply limitations reflecting industrial demand, retail demand, and other needs].

Gold and diamonds are "sure thing" investments, some say. If this conclusion expresses how you feel about precious minerals, it may indicate how calcified, complacent or brainwashed your thought processes remain. Invest in gold mining and see what happens, if the price of gold skyrockets. Or, invest directly in gold and see what happens when you (and everyone else) try to sell it at the same time. (Hint: Can a market for any goods ever be flooded?)

Muscles are not the only tissues subject to severe atrophy from disuse. Remember, supply and demand rules.

* Revelation 21:21 21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.