Yeah, right. As usual, better to some people and worse to the others. We've been through that a couple of times already. Thanks, but no.
That's not true. If you set an example that works - others will follow. That's what the Internet is for.
You got me, I didn't. But, you know, we pay so much taxes here and there and everywhere for all kind of reasons, than I think another tax doesn't really matter in the big picture. You can think about it another way: the annual inflation in Russia is just below 10%, the VAT is 18%, so in two years it would already pay off and perhaps survive the sharp market changes and prospect devaluations. Also, I'm pretty sure there are some kind of mutual funds in Russia who purchase gold (or any other natural resources for that matter), so for those you probably won't pay the VAT. If you think Russian mutual funds are run by thieves, do it somewhere internationally (e.g. in Sweden, where there's allegedly no corruption and everything is fair and square). There are options.
What would you do if you want to live in an apartment, but you don't have enough money to buy it? Rob the bank and end the tyranny of those who have the apartment right now?
Yes and no. Obviously, with 1 J of energy you could do much much less some 250,000 years ago than you can today. Also, in the observable past (say in the past 40 years), with 1 J of energy you could produce much less comfort (=the value) than you can today. On the other hand, it was much more difficult to produce those Joules in the past than it is today. The value of a Joule significantly fluctuates over time. As to the oil and the gold, the truth is that the price of each and every resource goes down with time. Due to the famous bet Simon–Ehrlich wager - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that fact is almost indisputable today. So, by investing into gold you're actually going to lose money in the long run. Typically, the investment portfolios might include gold to balance (=to save) the investment from fluctuating too much, but in order to increase your investment and/or save it from the inflation, you'd have to have something else.