Ants, Grasshoppers and Giants

Kids,
I have so much to tell you but I need to move slowly.  I need you to really understand what I'm saying as we talk.  These are difficult topics...and highly debatable...and they SHOULD be debated!  Even if nobody else will talk about it, we will.  Heck, even the Bible talks about this stuff in Proverbs 6:

Go to the ant, you sluggard;
    consider its ways and be wise!
It has no commander,
    no overseer or ruler,
yet it stores its provisions in summer
    and gathers its food at harvest.

One concept we need to understand early on is the difference between Grasshoppers and Ants...remember that fable?  I'm going to stretch the fable to include Giants. Ready?  Let's go.

There are Ants, like your mother and I.  We put away a small amount of savings over time, knowing that seasons change.  Saving is difficult for us as we could easily spend my entire paycheck several times over.  If we are careful not to eat out frequently and minimize the purchase of trinkets and toys, we can save a modest amount of each check.  I want to point out that our ability to save has nothing to do with my ability to earn.  It has everything to do with our ability to resist spending.  As we said last time, the best thing we can do to preserve that savings over time is to buy gold.  (As a note, FOFOA more commonly refers to us as Shrimps...in reference to our comparison to Giants.)

A large number of people, and you can't tell who they are, don't have any savings at all, let alone savings preserved in gold.  These are the grasshoppers in the ant and the grasshopper fable.  They live from day to day, never preparing for winter, never considering that tomorrow may not be as easy as today.  Again, it's impossible to tell who is a saver and who is not...they may even look very, very wealthy.  We will talk about this some more another time (or you can read it here if you are ready).

There is a third group worthy of our attention: the Giants.  These are primarily central banks and are also individuals who make money very efficiently.  In fact, they are so good at making money, their biggest concern is keeping what they've already got, not making more. They have to either find a place to park money or stop making so much money!  FOFOA highlights the definition of a Giant in an article by pointing us to some commentary between Another and Mr. Gresham:

Mr. Gresham: "We who read here generally buy the coins, one ounce and less. The "Giants" you speak of are usually buying the large bars (100 ounce?), yes?"

ANOTHER: "I ask you, how many of your bars in tonne? This is the small purchase size."

FOFOA goes on to spell that out.

Good question. How many 100 ounce bars are in a tonne? The answer is 321 and a half. Or 32,150 ounces. And this is a "small" giant!

Kids, mother and I are far, far from being Giants...we certainly don't have $45,000,000 to buy gold!  To be completely honest, we barely qualify as ants. My job is both to store up something for your children and to lead you toward becoming Giants yourselves.  Even if you never own 32,000 ounces of gold I need to teach you to make decisions and live your life as a Giant would...to see the world differently.  If you will ever understand Freegold, you will first have to learn to see the world as Giants see it.

Please understand the three groups.  One group that lives in the moment.  One group that saves little by little as it can.  Another group that produces so efficiently it and stores true wealth for generations.  Two of these have a bright future.  Got it?

When you are ready, I would like you to do some more reading on this topic.  FOFOA expands on these ideas here, here and, as mentioned, here.