by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
The British middle class is selling the family silver, literally, to make ends meet, taking advantage of the high price for scrap silver.
According to jewelers up and down the country people are beating a steady path to their doors with all manner of silver objects to be sold for scrap.
The high scrap value of silver in the first half of 2012 – and it would appear that this trend is likely to continue for some time to come – is making people think about those things that sis and lay about their homes made of Sterling or other grades of silver and which are, more often than not, never ever used. It turns out that even sets of antique silver cutlery are more worth as scrap silver than they are as antiques.
The price of silver, including scrap silver, is at an all time high due to the demand for silver by the electronics industry and is, probably, going to remain that way despite any more such supplies coming onto the market.
This phenomenon, unlike some might wish to claim, does not make a point for and is not proof that holding and hoarding silver as a precaution for hard times. It is just that the demand of the industry is there, at present, leading to those high prices. It would not be the case after a collapse of society or the proverbial end of the world as we know it.
Should a collapse of our current way of life occur, and chances are that, sooner or later, it may, nay will, silver will no longer have the value that it has when industry's demand for it is there, as it is and was in the first half of 2012. Thus hoarding silver (or gold, for that matter) as a hedge fund would be a waste of money.
Even as money, in the form of “trade rounds” and such like, such as various silver coins from wherever, silver (nor gold) is not going to buy you anything after a collapse. Nothing! Nada! The only folks that are benefiting from this is the vendors that tell you that silver, in coins or bullion, is an investment for hard times.
What this fact of the sale of silver by the middle classes does, however, show clearly are at least two things. One is that the British economy is, regardless of what the government is trying to make the people believe, in real trouble and two that they middle classes just are incapable to adjust to change in circumstances. They are far too attached to their high lifestyle and living standards.
Methinks the world is in serious trouble...
© 2012
