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Calexit
Poll
 | 5 votes (55.55%) | ||
| | 2 votes (22.22%) | ||
| No votes (0%) | |||
| | 1 vote (11.11%) | ||
| | 1 vote (11.11%) |
9 members have voted
| April 10th, 2017 at 5:15:50 AM permalink | |
| AZDuffman Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 135 Posts: 18204 |
All very true, but the extent in CA seems to be much more than elsewhere. The average person outside CA sees So-Cal, The Bay Area, and well not much else. CA puts on a face of how awesome things are with all the money in the state and that they can afford things like EV and other mandates. Meanwhile, they are starving the interior. Just because no secession movement has worked does not mean it may not here. The cultural split between CA and the rest of the USA is very, very real. I am not dismissing it.
USA post-1970s is a great example! The President is a fink. |
| April 10th, 2017 at 5:22:55 AM permalink | |
| Fleastiff Member since: Oct 27, 2012 Threads: 62 Posts: 7831 | Did we ever make VCRs or Microwave ovens? We invented them but the ones we made were lousy. |
| April 10th, 2017 at 5:30:17 AM permalink | |
| AZDuffman Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 135 Posts: 18204 |
Not sure on VCRs but surely we made microwaves. Not sure they were "lousy" but just "early." Later models improved. IIRC we did invent the VCR but execs at whatever company just did not see value in recording TV programs. I can see a bunch of MBA Execs pooh poohing the idea. Really can see one Don Draper type saying it would be a killer product but the rest of the company men laughing at the idea. The President is a fink. |
| April 10th, 2017 at 5:33:38 AM permalink | |
| Pacomartin Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 1068 Posts: 12569 |  Seville Cathedral was built to demonstrate the city's wealth, as it had become a major trading center in the years after the Reconquista from the Muslims in 1248. In July 1401 it was decided to build a new cathedral. According to local oral tradition, the members of the cathedral chapter said: "Hagamos una Iglesia tan hermosa y tan grandiosa que los que la vieren labrada nos tengan por locos" ("Let us build a church so beautiful and so grand that those who see it finished will think we are mad"). Christopher Columbus died in 1506 the year before the Cathedral was consecrated, and his tomb is in the Cathedral.  The New World weath created the richest society ever known in history, but by August 1588 the Spanish Armada sank off of England, and Spain started on it's road to poverty. |
| April 10th, 2017 at 7:47:30 AM permalink | |
| Fleastiff Member since: Oct 27, 2012 Threads: 62 Posts: 7831 |
Richest society ever known.... perhaps even gold reserves reach a saturation point after which gold is as valuable as a tulip bulb. Spanish Armada... a bunch of poorly constructed (thanks partly to espionage) mis-matched ships many of which could not fire broadsides since their lower gun decks would be awash if they opened the firing ports? Most of the ships had such mismatched canon that if the armada had not been dispersed by a storm it would not have been all that much of a threat to England. |
| April 17th, 2017 at 11:23:34 AM permalink | |
| Pacomartin Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 1068 Posts: 12569 | Gold was worth $20.67 per troy ounce in 1913 which the US Inflation Calculator measures the buying power in 2017 as $509. The spot price of gold is more than double at $1,290. Gold-bugs often use similar arguments to say that Gold appreciates faster than inflation.
I don't think that gold will ever totally devalue. It has had too important a role in human civilization. But Canada sold their last ounce of government owned gold, and Australia, New Zealand and Britain have very little left. |
| April 17th, 2017 at 11:34:24 AM permalink | |
| Nareed Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 346 Posts: 12545 |
If we ever do develop practical fusion power, then potentially we can turn lighter elements into heavier ones. This includes gold. But the energy requirements are funny. The heavier the element, the more energy goes into making it and the less is available for other uses. Around Iron it balances out. That is, you'd use up all of a reactor's energy synthesizing iron and there'd be nothing left for other uses. Past iron, you need to add energy. So gold will always be worth at least the energy used to manufacture it. Donald Trump is a one-term LOSER |
| April 17th, 2017 at 11:43:21 AM permalink | |
| Fleastiff Member since: Oct 27, 2012 Threads: 62 Posts: 7831 | Agreed. I may have phrased things poorly but what I was referring to was not the value of gold but what might be termed its 'marginal value'. After 200 treasure ships had arrived in Spain the arrival of the 201st treasure ship doesn't really add all that much to Spain's gold reserves. It alters no ones opinion of Spains wealth or power to have that 201st treasure ship unload its cargo into some fortress-like warehouse. That 201st treasure ship's cargo was not used to inspect the shoddy construction work of the Armada, nor to detect the fact that England had paid the shipwrights to do a poor job. The 'wealth' of Spain existed but oppulent catherals will impress enemy generals as well as the Spanish people. |
| April 17th, 2017 at 1:52:15 PM permalink | |
| AZDuffman Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 135 Posts: 18204 |
I chalk that up to the decline of the west. Governments fooling themselves into believing what has mattered for 2000+ years will never again matter. Burning the furniture to heat the house. If When the USD collapses the system around it will collapse as well. With little to sell but commodities, these western nations will become colonies and protectorates of the new powers. The President is a fink. |
| April 17th, 2017 at 6:11:07 PM permalink | |
| Pacomartin Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 1068 Posts: 12569 |
The Spanish Monarchy (closely related to Hapsburg Kingdom) took a few centuries to collapse. But when it did, it introduced a new concept, the World War. The Spanish Succession , the Napoleonic wars, and WWI and WWII are often considered the four world wars.  |