Any person who lived in the forties as I did, remembers the feel of a quarter and the price of a candy bar. Now a quarter feels like what we used to call a “slug” and today wouldn’t begin to buy a candy bar. This deterioration of the quality and value of American money is not the result of a natural phenomena nor it is something that is inevitable. It is the result of government spending habits and an effort by the government to cover up the fact that more is being spent than is available. To put this in perspective lets look at a person with a $30,000.00 per year income. Suppose this person decides he can not live on $30,000.00 so he spends $ 40,000.00. How does he cover this difference in the amount he receives and the amount he spends?
One option he has is to borrow the money. This means he must make payments of principal and interest on the loan ,which means the next year he will have added this spending to his budget while still spending $40,000 and receiving $30,000. And if he keeps this up, each year will put him deeper and deeper in debt. This is how on a national level our debt has reached the astronomical proportions it is today. Another option he has is to receive more money. If his boss thinks his productivity warrants a raise he can reduce his deficit between revenues and expenses by the percentage of raise he receives. When Congress raises taxes this is one way they seek to lower the deficit. But raising taxes doesn’t come from a promise of productivity that can be translated into profit , but a promise of more services usually leading to redistribution of wealth schemes. Government services for police protection and military defense are legitimate government services. Paying farmers to not plant crops is not ( along with thousands of other giveaways, subsidies and regulatory expansion for business ). Taxes can only be raised so long before those raising the taxes are recognized for the scam they are perpetuating and voted out of( or never in) office. This leaves the last option which is why inflation is and will continue to be on the march until the fraud is recognized and rejected.
To get more money when you can’t borrow or tax ,you only have one more way and that is to print an/or coin more money. Now this is a scheme that will not work if you print too much money because the value of each piece of money becomes less as more money is put in circulation. Its the law of supply and demand applied to currency. If money is dear it is worth more and if it is plentiful it is worth less. If you have a big apple crop and everyone has apples for sale you cannot get as high a price for your apples as you could if other’s apple crop was poor and you had an abundance. The demand for apples would drive up the price. So too if the money supply is held in check with goods and services to back them ( or a store of value such as gold ) the money value does not deteriorate. But if you print or coin money excessively and you reduce physically the value of the coinage by substituting cheaper metals, the value of the money becomes worth less and less. Confederate money became totally worthless because there was no value or even a promise to pay that could be kept. It became that way because the printing presses of the South were only turning out pieces of paper. The Weimar Republic of Germany fell to the same fate. The United Sates has reached the last stage where inflation is being milked at a low level insinuating that a little inflation is okay. This is a total lie.
We know that markets correct over time. There is no boom without a bust. Increasing prosperity is a real possibility but mixing inflation into the bowl insures that over time the money value will continue to deteriorate. When it reaches the point where monetary confidence is completely eroded, and billions of dollars won’t buy a cup of coffee, history will repeat itself as it did in the Weimar Republic and the Confederacy. No one can imagine that happening very soon so the concern is put off as an unrealistic threat. But consider the recent past when Margaret Thatcher recognized and reversed the welfare state in Britain. Or consider the Carter years and the level of inflation we experienced. The trend is obvious. The breaking point is not.
Easing into a welfare state , which we are rapidly doing, requires more government spending than we can afford to pay in taxes and more government debt expense. but as these means of covering up the deficit in spending over revenues become more and more unacceptable only creeping high and higher inflation will continue to mask the charade. It is imperative to bring this to the attention of those trying to perpetuate “low” inflation and inform them that the jig is up, we know what they are trying to accomplish and it is not in their interest or ours as the bankruptcy of the country is the final end game. If they try to divert the issue saying increased productivity will save us, remind them that the increased domestic regulation of business , the competition from abroad, and the difficulty in capital accumulation are forces that negate that notion. Why do yo think the quarter from the forties is worth more than the quarter of today? Ask yourself what organization controls the value of money, the issuance of currency and coinage, and controls interest rates? Who profits when the value of the money deteriorates? You have motive, opportunity and eye witnesses. The investigation is over and it is time to bring justice to the organization whose creed is “Justice for all”. The “all” in this case includes those whose fraud has debased and continues to debase our currency.
Tags: Inflation
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