What I meant was that you should not invest money in a risky venture you are not 100% willing to lose. I have money in gold, silver, stocks, bonds, and now bitcoins.
The government could come out again tomorrow and declare gold illegal to own. It's already happened once in US history. A huge vein could be struck or alchemy could be proven to actually be real. People could come to their senses and decide that gold is a shiny doodad with no real value and the price drop to almost nothing.
It could also be stolen from me. I keep some reserves on hand. You never know when the entire system will collapse, banks are overrun, and the government confiscates my deposit boxes.
I was just trying to explain that money invested should not be money you depend on for day to day living. MagicalTux is making too much money off transaction fees to simply steal your money. I'm sorry to say it, but we are small fish. If he really wanted to steal he'd wait for some BIG time investors to get involved.
What we are seeing is simply a glitch that can mostly be blamed on Dwolla. Obviously we are quick to point the finger at the one who last had our money, but all sides of the story need to be examined.
Edit: I do agree with you though. This sucks royally, and having your money "lost" in a floating transaction is not fun. But we can't say this is the first time in history money was held up by a third party. I had my PayPal account frozen with over $8000 USD in it. I lost access to this money for nearly 3 weeks. Why? Because somebody I had received money from for a sale I had made was using a stolen credit card.
I agree, and although your scenarios are extreme, this is USA.
"No Bitcoin Left Behind Act" ?/?