Note to preppers
This is telling, and true. From the FAQ at a website of a precious metals seller/buyer:
Q: I heard the Government can confiscate my gold, but only if its 22 karat, or only if its old gold, or new gold etc etc etc
A: We hear this all day long, and the “reasoning” is a multitude of different things. The reality is the government can take whatever they want. Your left shoe. Your waffle irons. Whatever they declare.
A couple examples
Argentina seizes pension funds to pay debts. Who’s next?
It is a foretaste of what may happen across the world as governments discover that tax revenue, and the bond markets are unwilling to plug the gap. The G7 states are already acquiring an unhealthy taste for the arbitrary seizure of private property, I notice.
…My fear is that governments in the US, Britain, and Europe will display similar reflexes. Indeed, they have already done so. …the seizure of the Fannie/Freddie mortgage giants before they were in fact in trouble (in order to prevent a Chinese buying strike of US bonds and prevent a spike in US mortgage rates), shows that private property can be co-opted – or eliminated – with little due process if that is required to serve the collective welfare
But wait! there’s more!
Acting like Robert Mugabe on cocaine, Venezuela’s dictator went on a shopping spree over the weekend, confiscating one farm and industry after another…..including a 370-acre ranch in Yaracuy state that grows oranges and coffee and raises cattle with 38 shareholding farm workers.
Chavez’s red-shirts …openedthe farm to “the masses” in a show of class warfare. ….For their big photo spectacular, they hauled in 300 or 400 children to swim in Arria’s swimming pool,….encouraging the kids to take “souvenirs.” Chavez said it was all proof he was “socializing happiness.”
In reality, the attack …was proof of Chavez’s own failures. Unable to create any prosperity, even after 12 years in power and a trillion dollars in oil cash, Chavez still resorts to crude medieval plunder to bring any spoils to his supporters.
Just remember the possibility when you’re buying food, precious metals and paying off your debt so you can set up “off the grid” living quarters.
Finding Ponies... 
aw, what are you trying to do, depress me, the both of you? I especially don’t like your theory Jim–it sounds too plausible. Any privately acquired energy options are, after all, inherently unfair.
guess I’ll just have to hide my bags of grain in the pillowcases, and fool ’em that way. ;p
have a great weekend!
I hide my canned food next to my ammo.
Linda, let’s just say I have been reading the first 4-5 chapters of the book of Daniel and taking comfort in two or 3 facts. First, God is on the throne regardless of how all-powerful and “in the majority opinion” a ruler and regime might appear to be. Human might is nothing compared to His….the other thing is that very much like Percy Blythe Shelly!s poem “Ozymanfius”, what short sighted people see as a permanent majoritty or unstoppable “progress” is often terribly short lived. Daniel and his friends managed to serve and not bow their heads to temporal rule (mob or king) because they took the long view. “Take whatever you want with whatever force you have right now- but it doesn’t make you right- or remarkable- or remembered in 1000 years…”
Well, just because it’s mine and not partially mine, it might hurt more, but the government isn’t planning to check on loan status before it seizes what it wants.
Funny you mention off the grid… I do have a theory that at some point, government will likely require that all alternative power be grid connected, under the “share the prosperity” clause. They’ll probbaly make the off-the-grid types pay for the expense as well.