bord, Yet again, you fail to comprehend what is really quite simple to understand. As I've already explained and provided links to, there are plenty of costs (mostly environmental devastation or damage) that occurs as a result of some mining operations that is picked up by the tax payer that the free market never even sees. How you do not get this is beyond me frankly. When underground water sources and above ground waterways that traverse far from the mine and the air get contaminated, it's the tax payers that pay that cost of remedying that serious problem. The fact that you need to mine far more silver (which is very energy intensive and relies on toxins to produce a product that can be sent to a mint) than platinum to acquire equal value tells any thinking person that silver production requires far and away more resources than to acquire that same value in the mining of platinum. Why on earth you can not get this is quite astonishing. I am done here with you....I doubt that you are even interested at all in seeing why you are so wrong on this issue. Good bye.
Nope. I fully understand. More expensive uses less resources which is more ethical. A Porsche Boxster is clearly more ethical than a bicycle because it costs more per unit and they both have wheels. You have to produce far more bicycles to obtain the value of a Porsche so clearly they use more scarce resources. Your clarity and insight on the concept of value and resource use has finally won me over. It really is astonishing how long it took me to get such a basic point. On the other point, there are a swathe of companies required to buy exploration approvals and production approvals and licences and are required to pay royalties, rentals, payroll tax and company taxes to a monopolistic coercive entity whose raison d'tre is the management and enforcement of property rights. These are many multiples of the cost of a handful of property right infringements and yet you think the core problem of new demand being greater than above ground supplies warrants buying "ethical" silver whose provenance you cannot prove. Interesting. Did they use biodiesel and ethanol sourced only from pesticide and artificial fertiliser free crops planted on land that did not disturb the local ecology and transported in Amish hay wains or refined toxic black gunk that regularly devastates sea life?
You're using 'value' as a metric that Bordsilver isn't. While you may be correct (I don't know) in more silver ore being required to be mined/refined in order to produce a quantity of silver where the silver to platinum price or spot value ratio is 1:1, I don't think people generally think in terms of that metric. They can't be compared that way, the variances of the supply chains to produce both metals are not easilly compared. The simple fact is that per unit of measurement (be it a troy ounce or a decimal measurement) there are different costs to production that result in platinum being worth more, or alternately costing more to the end user. Platinum is far rarer than silver, hence its' value per unit of measurement is always going to be higher. Are you cogniscent of how much more ore is required to produce any economically viable quantity of platinum. While writing this answer I looked up this chart that lists the adundance in the Earth's crust and also lists an estimate of worldwide production. You'll see the two metals vary widely. Furthermore to produce an ounce of platinum requires months of refining a solution to separate and isolate the platinum from other elements. This is what I talk about being hugely electricity dependant. Refining of silver is no less energy dependant but a unit of ore is refined in weeks, not months, with lower input costs. A significant difference. Also platinum can be recycled but not is not done widely. My mechanic doesn't collect old catalytic converters to scrap - it's not worth it despite the presence of precious platinum and palladium potentially there in your hands. Furthermore the discussion about 'toxins' isn't taking into account the environmental legislation that now exists in most places. The cyanide solutions used to extract silver are not just poured down a river anymore in most places - they require storage and rehabilitation at the cost of miners/refiners, not taxpayers, excepting where governments are crooked and allow the use of less than best practice procedures. What 'toxins' are emitted to the air (I'm no expert), specifically. Please don't say carbon dioxide/monoxide etc, which every industry produces.
centralPA. There is funny thread floating around about him, maybe a search for "toast" will yield some result.
I am capable of many things including being human and poor taste jokes. Shit happens but at least I can see and aknowledge my faults without feeling weak or loosing face. Our creator is helping me see the light and embrace love and cast away anger. Its a process that takes time. I wish everybody could experience it. Cheers Vern
How many poms does it take to look like a child with no class having a tantrum on an australian forum ? :lol: . The answer is .........wheelbarrow
I love the 'fearless' defense cat owners are putting up ... http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine...-is-making-you-crazy/308873/?single_page=true
Haven't finished reading it but if that is a deliberate part of cats behaviour, to control their servants (some call them owners)... Not a good example thanks Youtube but reminds me of the Brain Slugs in Futurama: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p28e2Y4uJFg[/youtube]
Short version: Cats carry a parasite named Toxoplasma gondii. It is an obligate, intracellular, parasitic protozoan that causes the disease toxoplasmosis. Also known as Toxo. Toxo lives in harmony in cysts it creates within the cat's small intestine. Because of the way a parasite 'breeds' it will would wipe itself out in the lifetime of the host cat without involving other animals. So Toxo is spread outside of the cat via the cat's feces into other warm blooded animals, including the warm blooded prey of cats, like mice, rats & birds. But instead of infecting the hosts intestine like it does in cats, Toxo usually infects other warm blooded animals brains with cysts that ooze a mind altering substance. This substance is known to reduce fear in animals. So an infected rat is not fearful of a cat, if fact the rat gets a little turned on by the fear, so it is more likely to be eaten by a cat so the parasite can infect a new cat with another strain of Toxo. This diversifies the parasites genes when it reproduces again inside a cat, completing its life cycle. Toxo can & does infect humans. Further studies have revealed the mind altering substance released by these cysts can in some cases cause schizophrenia.
Not to mention it can turn you into "the cat lady " I read somewhere thats what happens to those people they get infected with toxo & hence the not thinking straight with 100 cats & the cat crap/piss everywhere in their houses no fear of it
