ObjectiveFunction

China Urges Citizens to Buy Gold and Silver

Not to be too condescending -- I am a great admirer of the Chinese people and civilisation, though not of their governments, present or past -- but in many ways Chinese society is still quite medieval in its core instincts, for all their passion for technology and education. And given the last 400 years, can you blame them?

By "medieval" I mean, a very weak social contract in which "wealth" was only what you could touch: i.e. (a) farmland, (b) livestock, or if you could get hold of it, (c) specie, preferably compact enough to carry or hide.

It is only a very strong social contract, with enforceable contracts, that allows "wealth" to be vested in pieces of paper.