We are Living in a Golden Age. Thank God!

AmmoLand ^ | December 24, 2025 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

We live in a golden age that far surpasses all previous golden ages. Some call it the Industrial Revolution. Some say it is the digital revolution. This correspondent refers to it as the petroleum age.

The cost of firearms and ammunition, in terms of labor, is near an all-time low. .22 Long Rifle cartridges can be had for under six cents a round, with free shipping, on the Internet.  The all-time low, in constant dollars, would be about five cents per round, not including sales and seconds, from 1993 to 2006. Nominal prices are higher, but costs in labor are much lower.

A .22-caliber semi-automatic rifle can be purchased for $150 or less. A serviceable AR-15 type rifle can be had for under $300.  The cost of effective arms for the common man has never been so low. Multiple, effective centerfire pistols are available for less than $200, on sale.

Those who live in golden ages seldom consider themselves to be living in a golden age. To them, having been born in, and growing up in a golden age, it is simply normal, what is. Some, perhaps after the golden age is gone, may reflect on what was lost.

The petroleum age differs from all previous ages because it is where we learned to extract energy from the earth and make that energy available to the vast majority of people.  The precursor was the age of coal. Coal had replaced wood as the primary heating source in many cities by 1850. By 1900, 270 million short tons were being produced in the United States. That was 3.5 tons for every person in the United States. But coal was not nearly as accessible to most people

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TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: age; banglist; bethankful; christmas; golden

[marktwain]

More people are healthy and well fed than ever before in the history of the human race.

[caver]

I agree! Well said.

[bigbob]

Plus, we have the internet, Amazon, Elon Musk, and AI!

[Sacajaweau]

And 2026 will be spectacular!!

"Affordability", a name dropped to incite us into a frenzy...isn't working. We continue to buy what we need to buy....perhaps passing up a few of the excesses...but damn...if we want steak...we'll buy it and put off those new Nikes till spring.

P.S. Aldi had Prime Rib for $7.99/lb...and that's Christmas dinner...again this year.

The rise in everything came under Biden...continued briefly and is now retreating. We're doing fine.

[SaxxonWoods]

Well fed and well armed, and a sudden twenty year low in murders in America without any new “gun control”. AR15s still everywhere. How can it be??!

[PeterPrinciple]

More people are healthy and well fed than ever before in the history of the human race.

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and they complain with their mouthful...................

[Sacajaweau]

Thank goodness for the internet....as my children all live out of town. We email every day.....We all do NYT Wordle, Connections and Strands and send our results.

It's like a check in....I'm 82 and they're in their 60s.

[SaxxonWoods]

Next up, lower mortgage rates, which also means lower borrowing rates on construction materials and construction loans.

Housing is major contributor to the economy.

[Big Red Badger]

A Positive Message on a Beauty
Of A Day Dan!
Gas just dropped 10 cents Here
Things Are Going Positive!
.
The Golden Age..
Live It
Love It
.
Love Jesus!

[Chainmail]

Before anybody continues chirping about about "how great things are", look very slightly into the future:

- Millennial males have very few opportunities to have a good-paying, family-supporting career because they are discriminated against in nearly every workplace as they are pushed away in favor of "diversity".

- Now the second hammer is arriving in the form of constantly evolving and improving AI, which will be taking many or most of the jobs in the future.

- Marriage and therefore families are disappearing because of the ascendency of women in the workplace because a woman with a decent career is making more money than most of the eligible males - and having children is only peripheral (and painful) to women, so why not avoid that altogether?

- Anybody notice that the quality of many areas of entertainment, politics, law, even business competence are failing miserably? Stupid/biased decisions are wrecking nearly every sector because competence and talent aren't the hiring criteria now.

My view of the world ahead of us is a lot less Pollyanna than some of us. It's kind of nice that firearms and ammo are less expensive - but so what? we keep electing people who are quietly eviscerating the 2nd Amendment.

[Nateman]

Got my own Prime Rib on sale. Saving it until today!

[Owen]

Oil is everything.

It is transport of everything, including food to shelves. It is power for tractors to plant and harvest food.

In Saudi Arabia, it powers generators for electric power (they have no natgas and why use anything you don’t have plenty of).

How can it all fall apart. Magnet scarcity. China can create a downstep of civilization in any country they wish, for about 10-15 yrs.

No rare earth magnets, no electric motors. No rare earth magnets, no electric generators.

Did we get along just fine with old style magnets with 0.1X the power? Yes, because we needed 0.1X the electricity then.