On Nov 19, 5:33*pm, "HeyBub" wrote:
Cindy Hamilton wrote:
On Nov 18, 9:45 pm, "Pete C." wrote:

In the event of a total meltdown of society, that gold's value will
be minimal. Food and tools to get food will have far more value than
a pretty metal that is too soft to make tools to get food.

Posit: there's nothing new under the sun.

From that, the question arises:

"How long has it been since the last total meltdown of society?"

From that:

"How likely is a total meltdown of society in my lifetime?"

(especially since society is a lot more civilized than it used to be)

Or, possibly:

"Would I want to survive a total meltdown of society?"

I'm just not worried about it.

Cindy Hamilton

Well, let's see. There was the riot in Watts in 1992. There was total
anarchy in New Orleans in 2005.

So far this year:
2009 - Protests against BART Police shooting of Oscar Grant, January 7, 120
arrested, Oakland, California
2009 - College Fest riot, Kent State University, April 25, more than 50
arrested Kent, Ohio
2009 - Spring Jam/Dinkytown riot, University of Minnesota, April 25,
Minneapolis, Minnesota
2009 - Palmer Fest melee, Ohio University, May 10, Athens, Ohio
2009 - 2009 G-20 Pittsburgh summit protests, Sept. 24-25, 193 arrested, $50K
in damage. Less lethal weapons used, including first use of sound cannon
against demonstrators in U.S.

And the year ain't over.

Looks like those melees all happened where people congregate. I tend
to
avoid groups of people.

And, honestly, I don't think a few college kids getting beered up and
losing
control constitutes "a total meltdown of society".

Of course, I remember '67 in Detroit. We could see the glow in the
sky
from our house. And I'm still not worried about a meltdown of
society.
The reason people were so shocked about the '67 riots was that society
had not melted down; 99.9% of us were completely normative in our
behavior.

Cindy Hamilton