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To: Raja who wrote (52942)	5/18/2000 12:04:00 PM
From: Ahda	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116791

It is called perception of value. To the exterior world we look like a pot of gold which we finance with debt. Yet that draws the outer world here where poverty is not so colorfully displayed. I don't want to go into a History debate, but yes I agree Indians lived much better before foreign invaders started partitioning and plundering the country for its riches and their own political ends. You can't plunder unless you are invited in.

To: Raja who wrote (52942)	5/18/2000 12:09:00 PM
From: LLCF	Respond to of 116791

<I apologize to anyone who feels this is OFF TOPIC. > Not off topic at all, and no need to apologize, and thank you for your wise words. Only positive can come from becoming more enlightened. DAK

To: Raja who wrote (52942)	5/18/2000 12:17:00 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116791

Raja, I kinda figured I would be taken to task for that statement.. and probably deservedly so. To explain further, the point I was trying to make was that India possessed such an unstable economy and such apparent corruption that most people feel that gold is their only true storehouse of value. And relative to India's Fiat currency, they are probably quite right. But on the other hand, had they bought US dollars instead of gold over the past several years, they would found it to be a BETTER storehouse of value. So I certainly agree that a billion people holding the same perception creates a sense of value for gold relative to specific other assets. This past weekend, my wife invited a friend of hers over to visit. He is a Sikh who used to live in Punjab. Some of the stories he tells about his childhood and the moral decisions that his environment forced him into merely to survive probably weighed very heavily upon why I posted what I did. One last point... you mentioned the US as a debt ridden nation and I must take umbrage with that. Much of US debt is being invested by US corporations into creating something of greater value. The US economy is growing faster than the Indian economy, despite the fact that they have 1 billion potential consumers providing a tremendous marketplace for goods and services. Debt is nothing more than borrowing something with the full expectation that one's wealth will continue to grow and provide the ability to pay off that debt. One final point... India has had every opportunity that Korea and Japan possessed for it to develop the necessary financial stability and incentives that would make them an economic powerhouse. But government officials just made the wrong decisions (as well as their probably being some cultural obstacles with regard to the cast system). I certainly hold no derogatory opinion or bias against any particular Indian, nor with their religion (with the exception of the caste system). But I do feel that I'm somewhat justified in criticizing the political and economic choices that have created an environment where corruption continues to prosper unabated. And it is a major reason why the Western investment community has avoided India. Regards, Ron