Gold Video

[Mega]

http://www.businessinsider.com/phili...-empire-2010-9

I said this to myself when i read somthing EJ wrote ref inflation would appear in the 3rd World. China & India etc, once they suss they getting KILLED by inflation they go to Gold/Silver........1.1 BILLION in China & 1.3 BILLION in INDIA.....thats a lot of oz!
mike

[Adeptus]

Re: Gold Video

I haven't been to China, but I have been to India several times, and I can tell you that even though the citizens are the strongest believers in gold buying and holding in the world, they are also amongst the poorest (excluding perhaps some African countries). And in this case you have to be very specific. They are so 'poor' in fact that India had to redefine what it means to be 'poor'. Please consider the below excerpt:

source:http://www.prb.org/articles/2010/indiapoverty.aspx

India's official poverty measure has long been based solely upon the ability to purchase a minimum recommended daily diet of 2,400 kilocalories (kcal) in rural areas where about 70 percent of people live, and 2,100 kcal in urban areas. Rural areas usually have higher kcal requirements because of greater physical activity among rural residents. The National Planning Commission, which is responsible for the estimate, currently estimates that a monthly income of about Rs. 356 (about US$7.74) per person is needed to provide the required diet in rural areas and Rs. 539 in urban areas.² Factors such as housing, health care, and transportation are not taken into account in the poverty estimates.

I don't have exact stats for what % of the population lives below the poverty line as defined by $7.74 USD/month/person, but I'd guess it's a number above 50%. Guess how many MICRO-grams of gold those people will ever own? ZERO.

I once was wondering through the muddy and garbage litered streets of Mumbai, and saw some destitute (poor is too rich of a word) women begging by the side of a road with young babies in their arms. I was carrying in my hands a couple of small and thin transparent grocery type plastic bags with some bananas I had just bought from street vendor. I walked over to them and gave them each a 10 ruppie note (about 25 cents) and a couple of bananas each such that I had none left for myself. I then unconciously and habittually crunched up the bags and shove them in my short pockets preparing to walk away. It was killer hot and I was wearing only shorts, a tank top and some sandals. I didnt even have my wallet on me, and had given them the last of my change. They thanked me for the bananas and the 10 rupie notes, but then 2 of them pointed at me and called me back as I was turning away to go back home and continued begging as if they wanted me to give them more. When I tried to explain I had nothing left to give, they pointed at the 2 thin transparent plastic bags sticking out of my pocket... they wanted the thin worthless grocery plastic bags, that I was just going to throw in the garbage!

I had never in my life met with such poverty, and later on during my travels, I met even lower levels of destitute human beings if you can imagine it - they (HUNDREDS of them) were sleeping on top of a 50 centimeter wide and 20 cm high concrete divider between two very busy main street city roads going in opposite directions. They were sleeping in what at first glance looked like grayish dirty garbage bags... in fact, at first, I thought to myself, wow this city is even dirtier than the previous ones I've seen; people just dump large garbage bags out their car windows in the middle of downtown main streets.... but in fact they were human beings sleeping inside very dirty cloth bags in the middle of the downtown city road! If any car in so much as got too close to the divider, surely some of them would have lost their hands or feet, and god forbid if there was a drunk driver that might go over the curb. Needless to say, I didn't get any sleep that night in my super-luxurious (by comparison) yet absolutely grossly dirty 3 star hotel room - the once while toilet seats were stained brown, to say nothing of the brown spots on the bathroom wall. It was all we could find at 3AM, after being chased by some angry looking ricochet drivers for several kms. That evening in hellish Hyderabad is forever burned in my mind!

Found a picture of their richer Mumbai 'cousins' online, just in case you think I'm making up these stories. Richer only because they can afford to sleep on the SIDE of the road (not on a thin divider in the middle of it) , wearing coloured clothing and making almost 20 times the above defined poverty line wages!!


Adeptus