#Fortune, #Fame and #Gold
A facetious take on screen time; the power in self-promotion; and why gold is not an investment... moreover, if society fails, or zombies rule the world... gold will be worthless.
Here are a few WEALTH ramblings I’ve created / shared over the years. I do believe they still apply (eh, well, mostly) today:
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#️⃣FORTUNE
Do you want to get paid very well for crafting, and selling, one helluva psychodrama screenplay to Hollywood — say, in the same caliber of Vertigo ?
Here's the way to do it fast, without a lot of time and effort... and you only need to construct and play out one side of the conflict & challenge (two elements essential for any good relational 'big screen' drama):
<< Use PM & text dialogue >>
Truly, social media and/or texting-only can be an outlet for mental diarrhea; a modern day avenue for emotional catharsis… a very convenient way for SOME people to EMOTE — i.e., to dig up, face, and entertain their most perverted, paranoid, presumptive thoughts.
Just stay engaged and maintain the non-interactive written exchange... and... your movie script will create itself ;;)
Related post (more serious):
#️⃣FAME
- an excerpt from the book, The Ultimate Success Secret (Dan Kennedy).
“General Patton was viewed by many of his peers as a shameless, egotistical promoter.
Madonna, throughout her career, has been sneered as a no-talent self-promoter.
Brandon Tarkitoff. Donald Trump. Richard Nixon brought himself back from utter, unparalleled disgrace to respected status as an astute elder statesman through an aggressively-implemented, thorough strategy of self-promotion.
And let’s add the adage, ‘There have been many statues erected to honor those highly criticized, but very few statues erected to critics.’
You really have two choices.
You can choose to stick your nose up at the promoters, criticize them and criticize promotion, view it as unseemly, as beneath you, as crass, and stand around grumbling about it. Or…
You can get good at it and use it to create influence, prominence, prestige, credibility, celebrity, career and financial success. It is your choice.”
Sidenote: Want to hear just how realistic, and natural, a particular AI-enabled voice can be? Then click the play button below (to the right) to listen to “Adam,” from Eleven Labs, read the above text:
#️⃣GOLD
📝 My TL;DR on Gold:
When I hear talk from gold bugs transition into their desires to also allocate money in other tangible hard assets, like home, property, art, fine wine, collectibles, etc., I actually am pleased to see their cognitive abilities expand a bit.
Yet, a majority of those same bugs still can’t grasp their foundational reason to hold the shiny metal in the first place.
Gold is money, not an investment.
About the “money” part: certainly it could still be used as a medium of exchange, but until the day comes when society-at-large no longer wants to have faith in using their debit cards and other digital forms of monetary transactions at WalMart, just accept the fact that GOLD is truly more like ‘backup money,’ not necessarily ideal in this new-tech day and age.
About the “investment” part: gold doesn’t accrue interest, it doesn’t yield dividend. It, again, due to its history, could be used as universal money. Not necessarily practical money, but…[another lesson for another time]
In short, you don’t buy gold to be rich, you buy gold to… NOT be poor. Just like you don’t buy a house to be rich, but to have a roof.
🪙 My Longer #Gold Ramblings:
If society fails, or zombies rule, Gold will be worthless.
Precious metals bugs wishing and praying for a gold standard assume that THAT in itself will dramatically increase the value of their holdings.
Sure, back in the day... a dollar bill in your pocket was equivalent to carrying around a dollar's worth of gold. (Eh, 'back in the day,' I said! As in when technology, media and protective liberties were less pervasive in human influence).
But, alas, governments won't give up the most powerful tool they have in the management of their own economies (i.e, printing money), nor would 'doing things as they were' actually improve the world economic situation.
I’m not going to sit and try and change the system, or loudly be a ‘torch and pitchfork’ kinda guy — joining the ‘back to the gold standard or else’ criers; the prepper, hard-core survival types that are nearly-consumed with their personal ‘store of value’ (their stash of physical “stuff”).
But, how can you best educate your family, loved ones, associates on the idea that currency isn’t money and money isn’t currency. That the latter is just the representation of, or stand-in for, the former?
Or, that money, as commonly understood, represents both a medium of exchange and a store of value? (The ideal version of money is both. And it’s important to acknowledge the dollar HAS served in that capacity in living memory.
Here’s how I do the edge-ja-ma-cating: I simply bring in the notion of GOLD, as the words 'currency' and 'money' often get so conflated around the Midas metal.
I often just make a quick observation to my student how there’s gold seen as "money" (like when you see coins tossed around in Old Western movies); there's gold remembered as an asset to find and hide away; and there's gold the inert metal, traded as a commodity 24 hours a day, that does not have much pragmatic use.
But, the raw modern reality is this: Even though I can easily convert Amazon (AMZN) shares to cash, it doesn't mean that those AMZN shares are legal currency in the US (I'm pretty darned sure I'm not going to be able to take those share certificates and go out to a nice restaurant or buy a new car with them).
Gold bullion (in the form of coins, bars, ingots, jewelry, etc.) is certainly more recognized and/or accepted for 'exchange transactions' than certifications of stock.
Yet, the rub is still this:
Bullion is, by useful function in today's modern world, a 'monetary asset.' Just like the shares of Amazon are an asset, and not a currency, neither is gold really a currency. It’s not even useful money in this modern-day tech age! (Things like cowry shells, arrowheads, and cacao beans were ONCE useful too, ya know).
Gold bullion is more like a solid form of backup money. Or, to be presumably correct (seems right), a "currency of last resort," as ex Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan has stated many times through the years.
As in, if the public one day decides not to have confidence in the USD, CAD, YEN, etc. — all derivatives of tangible and ideal money — maybe we can all feel good about resorting to lugging around heavy and obnoxiously impractical coins.
So, the way I look at it, to put a bit of balance to it, is like this:
Certain physical-backed assets (Gold & Silver being one of those) can be a great insurance policy against… government incompetence and stupidity.
In other words, due to its history as a socially-recognized store of value, gold does have an excellent crisis-hedge to it.
Yes, gold in all its forms is a beautiful thing to own. But then we move on to the current reality at hand:
Making, managing, and multiplying “fiat” currency. In our case, ‘GROWING’ our digital dollars.
After all, those digits that show up in your bank and brokerage accounts are what they are. You can either fall for the “demise of the dollar” and run-for-the-hills (and take your MREs — Meals-Ready-To-Eat — cans with you)… or… you can work with the current system you’re in.
Which means, whether you like it or not, employing a larger percentage of your available “investable cash” in assets that TRADE — usually those can be bought and sold via a public exchange (or sometimes privately) using your money, in the form of “digital dollars” (fiat currency).
Bottom line for me… in regard to the debate over what is / isn’t money:
Until the day comes when society-at-large no longer wants to have faith in using their debit cards and other digital forms of monetary transactions at WalMart, just accept the fact that GOLD (and even real estate) will probably make you look like the ever-so-wise one if you're around to see a legit collapse of the current banking/currency system.
And, quite honestly, if there does come a zombie apocalypse or Mad Max style doomsday scenario (which, I suppose, would be mutually-inclusive to the collapse of the current banking system), any form of money (gold coins included) are the last thing people will clamor for.
In that situation, if you have some mini bottles of liquor stored up, you'll control the world. ;)
👁️ BONUS
From Matthew Kratter
90% of gold's value comes from its monetary premium, which is rapidly being eroded by Bitcoin. Shiny yellow rocks are beautiful, but a very poor investment and store of value. Watch to learn more….
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