Gold, Wine, and Tulips

Nobody Wonders

What gives money, or anything its value?

Solid Gold Hot Tub

Everyone is pushing gold now…”BUY GOLD” says Glenn Beck. It’s the only safe thing to hold on to. Okay. So you buy it and put it in your vault, and when the world collapses you will be a rich man, or so he says.  Frankly, I don’t know how anybody can buy gold if they lose their job and have a family to feed.  An ounce of gold is going for about $1,130 dollars.

Mmmmmm.

Glenn is funny. He  has fast became a muti-millionaire, and portends to be just like the rest of us, because once upon a time, he didn’t have much. He sees no reason why we aren’t all rushing out and filling our coffers up with gold. I know he’s getting paid to advertise it, but come on.

“Uh..sure Glenn, I’d LOVE to buy some gold. Want to lend me some money?”

When the poor get money, they blow it on a night out at Red Lobster, and I can’t say I blame them.

Gold—you can’t eat it—just like you can’t eat tulips.  Did you know that once upon a time, tulips were the most sought after investment in Europe?

From The Rich and How They Got That Way—Cynthia Crossen

“In the 1630’s there was a tulip fad in Europe. (Germany, England, Holland, France)  Bulbs became so popular, everyone just HAD to have them. People knew bulb prices were entirely detached from rational value, but they believed others would be even bigger fools than they were. At the peak of the boom, family fortunes were squandered on single bulbs. People traded land, houses, furniture, horses, sheep, cheese, anything for a tulip particularly such remarkable varieties as Viceroy or Semper Augustus. In France the entire dowry of one bride consisted of a rare tulip bulb. Eventually, sellers sold bulbs they didn’t have to buyers who didn’t have money to buy them. Neither party intended to deliver anything they were simply betting on the future price of bulbs. In early 1637, bulb prices were almost doubling every day. A tulip grower was said to have committed suicide when his entire stock was eaten by a cow. The bubble burst for no obvious reason except rumors circulating about a shortage of buyers. “

Imagine that. Trading your horse for a tulip. ( I can think of a lot of politicians that I’d trade for a tulip.)

Which brings me to the subject of wine. I have never understood the great different in value in one bottle of wine. And yet, go to any grocery store and the middle is packed with just about every different kind of wine you can imagine. A grape, is a grape, is a grape I say, so how come I can’t tell that much difference between a rather good wine, which sells for maybe twenty bucks a bottle, from one of the bottles from the HOLY GRAIL of Wine, the Burgundy Cote d’OR, in France, which sells for $750,609 dollars a bottle?

You can’t TELL me there is that much difference in those grapes. If that were the case— that one grape was worth that much more than another, then you could argue that one race of man was worth a lot more than another. (That’s another blog.) It’s just an opinion.

Recently in France, someone was attacking the vineyards of Romanee Conti, a small field of the finest Burgundy wine in the world, located just South of Paris. The vines were started long ago by lowly monks who really didn’t charge much for a bottle at all. Later, the wine from the grapes were used exclusively for the Kings of France. They are now owned by 71- year- old Domaine de lat Romanee-Conti, and they are harvested with loving care…I know.

But still.

Last year some guy was poisoning the vines and killing them off, and threatening to kill the rest if they did not receive a good size ransom. They caught the guy– but you would have thought that this vineyard was actually a field full of gold instead of grapes. The news of the destruction of these priceless vines was kept very secret until after the fact.

And if you think about it: all this man needs to do is come up with a few cases of wine a year to survive.

Nobody Thinks some wine prices are also entirely ‘detached from rational value.’  I could get drunk off a bottle of my friend Pattie’s homemade wine and be just as happy. (Not that I would of course, I come from a long line of easy marks.)  Pattie loves her wine, and I’m sure, if she had the money, she might pay big bucks for the good stuff.

So, again…What gives something value?

Desire.

If you can create a desire for anything, you can become rich. Look at the guy who came up with the pet rock. That was something we ALL needed wasn’t it? Put gold next to a rock. Gold IS a sort of rock, right? Why are the rich paying so much for one ounce of rock? (Don’t answer that.)

Still, when you have something that’s worth a lot, then you’ve got other problems. What if the horse EATS the tulip bulb you are trading him for? What if waiter uncorks your $400 bottle of champagne and pours it into his coffee mug and replaces it with some cheap stuff behind the bar?

What if you buy gold and one day you go to cash it in and the bank says, “We don’t know what happened to it, some guy named Corzine took it.” ?

Gold is now the rich man’s desire. But if you are not rich…then wine is your better bet, because you could buy at least 20 cases of cheap wine for $1,000 dollars, and you are not going to care one bit that you can’t become Warren Buffet after you drink it.

And I could go on and on about this subject so let’s end it with a quote from another nobody who says his name was Anonymous:

“Most people are too busy earning a living to make any money.”

And the rich people know that, which is why they keep us all making low wages so they can own more of the things THEY desire.

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December 10, 2011 Posted by Joyanna Adams | capitalism | Economy, gold, History, Humor, investments, Tulips, wine | 6 Comments