Baloney. I've been in the throes of capitalism as an independent contractor past 20 years. I should be retiring. Instead, I'm working harder than ever just to pay all of the highly paid professionals...doctors, lawyers, pharmacists, dentists. In many cases I've got to work a whole day to pay for just an HOUR of their time. A friend of mine worked for the government for 30 years. Just retired....huge benefits, and retirement compensation. He's set for the rest of his life. How could this happen ? One word: socialism.
"preventing depression." that is left wing professors liberal economic doctrine and wrong. you will end up in an inflationary depression. take a look at Zimbabwe currently or argentina under peron or brazil in the bad old days. you will have the worst of both worlds inflation and depression like economic conditions. people use their time, not in useful activity of producing good and services, but in attempting to game the system as the currency loses value.
syswizard is not a sorehead. in exchange for job security government workers were supposed to get less pay and benefits than the private sector. instead they ended up with more job security and more pay and benefits.
If those metals have sufficient, rising industrial demand they may more than keep you even with inflation. However Most precious metals over the long haul just keep you even with inflation plus or minus a small percent. We are currently in a speculative gold bubble because of economic uncertainty. Don't count on this lasting for thirty years. The price of gold in dollars will rise more or less continuously, of course, but wouldn't it be better to take on a little more risk and try for a net gain after discounting for inflation. If you have gold that you bought 4 or more years ago., now might be a good time to take your profits and get out until the bubble bursts. The price should hold up, however, at least until the Euro situation is resolved. Personally, for long term investing i like something with compounding dividends.
Maybe stock in security equipment and monitoring companies is a good bet for the future? I hope you are wrong, but I fear you are probably right. The U.S. must rebuild its middle class and increase opportunity if it wants to avoid your scenario. There are two thing that would have to happen, but won't, I fear, before it is too late. The first is to bring military spending in line with other developed nations. We're spending at the rate of $4K/ capita the rest of the world is spending at an order of magnitude less. The second thing is to bring medical costs down to fall in line with other developed nations. We must have, at minimum, a 50% decrease to achieve that. These things can't happen overnight. But goals should be set and steady progress made. All we need to do is hold the line on costs and other nations will catch up to us. But we are not doing even that.
"We are currently in a speculative gold bubble because of economic uncertainty." gold is not showing signs of a bubble. The price should hold up, however, at least until the Euro situation is resolved. this statement is doubtful. it is based upon the assumption that gold is at its current level because of the euro crisis. assuming that case, which I don't , the gold price is likely to go lower before the crisis is resolved because the market is a discounting mechanism. " Don't count on this lasting for thirty years. " people do not have time horizons of 30 years "If you have gold that you bought 4 or more years ago., now might be a good time to take your profits and get out until the bubble bursts. " this is a fallacious type pf argument. it doesn't matter when u bought a particular asset class. one has to make a decision based upon their perception of a future target price within their time horizon.
These "stories" are just that. They have no value other than to mislead. It will always be the case that those who die younger than their actuarial death age may receive a total benefit less than, to varying degree, than what they contributed. At the same time a significant number may receive benefits considerably in excess of what they contributed. This is the nature of Social Security and a result of its most beneficial attribute.
Gold is in a speculative bubble driven by economic uncertainties. No particular economic uncertainty need be assumed. (There are quite a few currently) Now might be a good time to consider selling your gold! It is always better to sell high rather than low.
The problem with your analysis is that you are assuming this "economic uncertainty" will be resolved or HAS been resolved. Nothing could be further from the truth.