Taxes don't bother me as much as they seem to bother a lot of people. I guess it's in part 'cuz I'm a lib. If I made some bucks on PMs, I did so in a society which facilitated it so I'm happy enough to support that society.
It bothers me that my tax dollars are going toward killing innocent people in other countries. It bothers me that corporations buy politicians so that a) they can shirk their own responsibility for taxes and b) they can use _my_ tax dollars to fund illegal wars which benefit them much more than they benefit me. But, at the end of the day, not paying my taxes is a counterproductive way to 'change the system' and is likely to bring me trouble which I don't need.
Certainly - from a different view, taxes are just bills for services rendered. What you mention about shirking responsibility and misappropriation of tax funds digs to the heart of the matter: a great deal of the global cultural mindset has shifted from one believing that, instead of taking part in a
mutually-beneficial arrangement and paying for services we find valuable, we are
obligated to pay no matter what quality of service is provided - or even if that service is detrimental to us. That trivial semantic twist was enough to create servile behaviour over a few generations; a conservative or liberal stance makes no difference in this matter.
This is just my objective observation: the final sentence (bolded) is very similar to
battered wife syndrome. Continuous (financial) abuse and beatings are tolerated because the repercussions of fighting back (fines, imprisonment) are worse than the existing level of suffering.
What the abused usually doesn't realise is that the abuse almost invariably escalates over time to a point where serious injury or death (theft, enslavement) becomes a very real possibility. If the victim quietly seeks outside help, there are many sources of support, both to escape from the negative situation and to remain safe afterward.
I understand the objections to this, including familial obligations, job security, asset ownership, etc. Regrettably, these are the very things that are preyed upon by greed. Owning a house means you have an investment in where you are - it's very unlikely you'll simply up and move because you're attached to it financially and sentimentally. The same goes for family - unless every member is physically capable of leaving and agrees to do so, it can be difficult to move. Jobs or careers have the same effect - there are many that can't be taken with you, or have no equivalent elsewhere.
Yet the consequences of staying can be
revolting, if not absolutely
horrific. For
those who can find freedom, the future is far brighter than that of
those left behind. I personally would rather be free to grow than trapped in a gilded cage, at almost any cost.
I also have interest in keeping some of my PMs off-shore. The difficulties I perceive here are that I have little confidence that a financial institution in a foreign country would put my interests first in the event of a crisis or catastrophe. I could easily see them drilling all foreign owned safe deposit boxes, for instance. Particularly if that country happened to end up allied with the US and the US issued instructions to do so. I am not blessed with any trustworthy private partners to operate on my behalf in a foreign land.
The bolded section is key. Ideally, you'd be able to do the legwork to find reputable private storage locations (like monthly storage lockers,
not safe deposit boxes) in stable regions that have a solid respect of private property. Since that's unrealistic for most, some
custodial compromises have to be made. At the very least, having just a handful of gold and/or silver outside of the country you're located in could easily be the difference between living on the streets and getting back on your feet.
A secondary issues is that I doubt it would be practical to travel freely in a situation that I am trying to protect against. So, my stash might be in Switzerland, but my ass cannot get beyond TSA to go get it.
Absolutely, although the limitations on travel will probably be more restrictive of what you take with you than being able to move yourself. Even if travel quotas are instituted, you might have to wait a month or even a year to leave, but you'll have something on the outside waiting for you. Soon, it may be very unlikely that you'll be able to take any gold or silver with you when crossing borders; imagine the horror of precious metal confiscation by customs vs. the comparatively simple struggle of getting to where you stashed it.
I'll note again that one of the HUGE draws of Bitcoin, to me, was that it would allow a transfer of PMs between two mutually interested but non-trusting parties in different parts of the world. That is, a transfer of, say, KRs could be ratcheted in using Bitcoin while keeping the transfer safe from a high percentage loss and relatively private from prying eyes.
Probably the way to pull it off would be for the principles to travel to the respective foreign counties while leaving their stashes in the care of a local trusted individual. The transfer then gets ratcheted in, and the principles drifts off to do whatever they are going to do with their newly transferred loot.
Yup! Why wait to scale the buying, unless you've got several hundred ounces of gold? Convert before leaving, make your move, then withdraw at your destination and exchange for metals again (or keep some/most as Bitcoins). One of my ridiculously long replies in the
Gold: I smell a trap thread touched on this, and I'm sure others have as well.
How many gold coins do you need to carry with you to start a new life elsewhere? If living expenses keep deflating, a single ounce of gold may come to be an average person's life savings. For now, at almost $2,000 per coin, a suitcase would easily hold a hundred ounces or so. Just make sure you've got wheels on it and hope you don't get stopped at a border. The latter problem applies to paper money too. That's where Bitcoin comes in.
The risk that needs to be managed is with the exchanges. It may be possible that some of the major exchanges *cough* Gox *cough* might freeze Bitcoin holdings at the bequest of certain governments *cough* US *cough*. System D-style exchange transactions would definitely help.
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