“During periods of occupation by a foreign power or the collapse of a monetary system, gold’s liquidity, acceptability and portability have been particularly important qualities and may well be more pertinent than gold’s rate of exchange with paper money. In periods of economic dislocation and high inflation gold has consistently proved a better wealth preserver than other assets.” – Stephen Harmston, World Gold Council, 1996
So, which is more likely? Occupation by a foreign power? The collapse of the monetary system? Or both?
Perhaps Australia’s set for a Natural Resources War?
Well, someone in Canberra must be scared of something. Why else would Australia need 2,500 American marines stationed in the Northern Territory by 2017?
Or maybe the American marines are the foreign occupation… stranger things have happened. The West has gone to war over resources before (oil in the Middle East).
So who’s to say the next battle won’t be over iron ore in the Pilbara… or natural gas in Queensland’s Cooper Basin?
Of course, a war over Australia’s natural resources seems impossible. It would be an extreme event. But that doesn’t mean it won’t happen. The federal government has already declared a domestic war on the mining industry.
At the Sydney Gold Symposium, keynote speaker Ben Davies spoke about “Financial Oppression”.
He said, financial oppression is “where we see the State impose socialism.” That it will come about through, “mining taxes, windfall taxes, [or] nationalisation of mines.”
Well, we’ve got the mining tax… and we nearly had the windfall tax. What about nationalisation of mines? Four years ago you would have called us bonkers if we suggested U.K. or U.S. banks would get nationalised.
But it happened… unexpected things happen. And when they do, most investors are caught out by it.
Cheers.
Kris.
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{ 9 comments }
Financial oppression is when the “captains of industry” pay people who need to work to provide food and shelter for their family (i.e. without resorting to the dole) for as little as they can without any regard to their employees healty, safety or wellbeing. No one choses to earn minimum wage, but they do because they need to, they have no choice else they will starve.
These captains of industry aren’t providing jobs, they are exploiting the needs of workers who need money to survive.
That is until the working population becomes sufficiently pissed off and a revolution begins.
So spare me this ‘socialism’ and ‘mining tax’ is oppression rubbish. I have not yet seen an oppressed billionaire or millionaire. If they want to live in a strong and stable society, let them contribute a bit more. It won’t make them poorer, they will still be relatively richer than the others in society. Besides they should do it, because they have more to lose if a revolution takes place.
” Steve@1 That is until the working population becomes sufficiently pissed off and a revolution begins”
That’s what the Russians did in the 1917 Revolution and came up with a form of Socialism called Communism.
But at least the captains of industry create jobs and so we all get a choice to work on any wage. It’s better than no industry, no jobs and no food. You then have to work for yourself and grow your own food which may give you a chance to exploit someone else.
It’s the bankers and politicians you should be complaining about not employers.
Steve – captains of industry don’t want to harm anyone, workers have to take some responsibility. We can’t fool proof the world. I’m not suggesting freak accidents can be avoided, but some common sense and not being careless will go a long way to protecting each other.
Perhaps you’re talking about employers buying or installing a cheap alternative that deteriorates or is substandard and not up to task. On that score, you have a point.
As for minimum wage, if captains voluntarily pay above minimum wage, then wouldn’t that undermine those on minimum wage as prices increase to adjust to higher wages.
And if every captain paid above the minimum wage then wouldn’t that wage become the new minimum? Again prices would adjust higher and wed still have a situation where we have working poor?
I could be thinking about it to simplisticly.
I think Australia is in the middle of how europe runs its affairs and how the USA runs theirs.
Were not completely socialist and not completely free market (where the middle and lower class have been forsaken).
We may complain, but the alternatives are truly scary.
M&M …. looks like most people stay poor for life then as there is so obviously no other way and surely you dont believe the US is a free market, it has more tarriffs in place than any other country.
Go and work in a Chinese factory in conditions the “captains of industry” would love all their minions to work at ( you know , like the one,s Apple build their phones in), There you,ll find out what happens when there are no unions.
Then go to Qantas where you will see what happens when the unions are too powerful.
The answer as usual lies somewhere in between and when things get a little one-sided as they are now, people take matters into their own hands.
Kris….The banks got nationalised because the government bought them to save them from their own stupid investments.
Drood – China is a joke. Their captains play by atrocious rules.
To pay workers more while others do not will cripple ones business if not ruin it. So their hands are tied unless the rules change from above.
On a ladder China would be a couple rungs above commie Nth Korea which is itself above religious fascist regimes.
The USA is no angle. They’ve lost their way. But I can’t see how China (the worlds worst independent thinkers) could design a ferrari, or an iphone etc etc. I also like American music and block buster films. Things I don’t see happening anywhere else to the same extent.
Personally, I like chinese people… But they will be dragged into reality when things become labeled “made in India”.
That could take a while and then their over leveraging will be shown for what it is.
Drood – “looks like most people stay poor for life then”.
Hopefully not for life. Best scenario is for people to transit through being “poor”. Wishful thinking I know.
Our definition of poor is pretty high though. And for what its worth my humble home is probably better than 95% of the worlds homes. We are incredibly rich.
Back to the point. Governments have replaced kings and lords (land lords).
So in some sense there have always been surfs or working poor. Not good.
Our govt. Wants us to own property through favorable tax treatment, grants and low interest. Our govt. Wants us to be lords. Creating a divide of haves and have nots.
Its in the rules of the game. Its baked in.
like i said
I`m afraid to say that social inequality is a given.
To me this fact was impressed upon me in the late 60`s when I observed a social experiment with a class of primary school children. All 28 children were given 3 sweets each at the begining of the day.By the end of the day most children had no sweets left. Some still had their original 3 sweets and some had more ,with one child holding 8 sweets.
If by some economic magic we were able to ditribute the global wealth evenly amongst the population, by the end of the day, I daresay the results would be very similar to the classroom experiment with the wealth being very unevenly spread.
History is littered with examples of people rising out of poverty and equally the riches to rags in three generations stories.
Some countries cultures and political policies make the rags to riches easier to achieve and thankfully Australia is one of these.
The majority of those in the BRW rich list went to public schools with some not even finshing high school. In fact most on the list have no tertiary qualifications at all.
In Australia it doesn`t matter who your father is or how academic you are you just need the will to succeed and the persistence to make it happen. Advance Australia Fair !
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