Dilbert, On Gold You Cannot Eat

By Major Van Harl USAF Ret

Wisconsin –-(Ammoland.com)-  Dilbert is a daily newspaper cartoon about office life and the politics of corporate business. Dilbert is the smart, but very sarcastic engineer employee of the company who is always in a battle of wits with his abusive, but also clueless boss.

This past week’s topic was the hoarding of gold. The pointy haired boss (PHB) is bragging to his subordinates that he is hoarding gold in his home for when the economy collapses.

In one cartoon, after telling Dilbert about his gold, Dilbert asks the PHB if he still keeps a key to his home under the front door mat. Possession of gold and the lack of security means you don’t keep the gold for very long.

In another cartoon the PHB states to a female employee “You’ll be sorry when the world economy collapses,” “but I’ll be okay because I hoarded gold at my house.”

The responding answer from the employee was “on day two you’ll trade all of it for a sandwich.”

I watch with a bit of skepticism the cable news channels that have the gold for sale advertisements. Now do not get me wrong I would like to be able to buy gold coins in large batches and bury them in the back yard for “just in case.”

For one thing I would love to see my child’s face as the attorney reads her our will, looking up to say “oh, by the way your folks left you a Wells Fargo strongbox full of gold coins,” “Make sure before you sell your parents home you dig it up and take to gold home to your backyard.”

But this is not going to happen in my life.

The line about trading the gold on day two of a crisis for a sandwich is what you need to concentrate on.

Gold is valuable and gets even more valuable during hard times, but always remember you cannot eat gold and you cannot use it to defend yourself from “walkers.” As of 18 Sept 2015 the price of gold was $1140.60. That amount will get you a flat screen TV and some snacks to eat during the next football game.

Always remember the difference between insurance and assurance.

• Insurance is what you buy so someone can give you a check after the crisis, that you cash, and use the money to rebuild what is broken: car, health, home and your stuff. This is assuming you are still living in a “normal” world where there are things to buy with your insurance money.
• Assurance is what you spend your $1140.60 gold coin money on in advance that will assure your chances of surviving a crisis.

So if you cannot eat the gold, how about spending that gold-buying money up front on non-perishable food. I know you do not want to spend $1140.60 on cans of food. Everyone knows you will never need it, so what you do with it after it has been sitting on your shelf for five years? If you had spent that money on a new TV or laptop computer and after five years they stopped working, you know you would just go buy another replacement electronic unit.

Never looking back on all the money you spent five years earlier on a TV–that useful money is just gone. Now I know your answer is you got to use the TV or computer for the past five years. If you had bought $1140.60 of canned food and never consumed any of it, it is still sitting there collecting dust on the shelf. Dusty cans of eatable food are the assurance, a TV is entertainment that will most likely not even work in a crisis—it is not assurance.

Gold could rise in value to $8000 an ounce in time of a major world crisis. If gold hits that level then the food production system of the US will not be working. If I have a pickup truck full of non-perishable food as the world is falling apart, and you offer me two or three gold Krugerrands because they have the falsely believed inflated value of $8000 X 3, do you really think I will swap you my food for your coins?

Perhaps the employee who told the PHB he would be surrendering his gold for a sandwich on the second day of a world crisis is not that far off.

This country only has a 24 hour supply of food in our US-wide food distribution system. In time of crisis food and firearms (really ammo) are the only two things of true value. There is nothing wrong with owning gold and silver, just do not bet your life on it. Where will you spend your hard earned assurance dollars?

Check Out AmmoLand’s Related Article : Best Survival Items You’ll Wish You Had When SHTF

Major Van Harl USAF Ret. / [email protected]

About Major Van Harl USAF Ret.:Major Van E. Harl USAF Ret., a career Police Officer in the U.S. Air Force was born in Burlington, Iowa, USA, in 1955. He was the Deputy Chief of police at two Air Force Bases and the Commander of Law Enforcement Operations at another. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army Infantry School.  A retired Colorado Ranger and currently is an Auxiliary Police Officer with the Cudahy PD in Milwaukee County, WI.  His efforts now are directed at church campus safely and security training.  He believes “evil hates organization.”  [email protected]