Have You Ever Wondered Just Exac

A Foreword From The Author

As you begin reading this essay, please resist the temptation to think you "know" where I am headed with this. These are my words and MY ideas, not some empty phrases plucked up from op-eds published in the newspaper. And Yes, I realize most people are not ready to take so huge a step as I propose here. My message here about money is written for generations yet to come when these truths will be self-evident, a time when the future American housewife needs a mark on her forehead to buy her bread and a wheelbarrow to haul her money to market in so she can bring home a dozen eggs for her starving children.

Before we start, we need to face some facts.
Fact #1: America is no longer rich;
Fact #2: America’s biggest claim to monetary fame today is that it now owes Communist China more money than any other nation on earth.. Last year alone, we came out owing Red China $232.5 billion more than we could pay back, or barter goods for.

People have been squabbling over the nature and cause of inflation since time began.

What does it?

You've probably been taught that inflation is something that "just happens" to the economy. I'm telling you that inflation is something our governments do to the economy. That has been true for the last fifty centuries and it will still be true tomorrow.

Adam Smith, author of the still much studied book The Wealth of Nations, says that historically "the avarice and injustice of princes and sovereign states, abusing the confidence of their subjects, have by degrees diminished the real quantity of metal, which had been originally contained in their coins."
He then mentions that the English coins (at that time) were only worth 1/3 what they had been, and that the French government had reduced theirs to 1/66 of its original value, all in order that the rulers could pay off their debts with money worth far less than it had been when they got it.

Compared to just fifty years ago, right now all the money you have is worthless.

Your Money is not backed up by gold.

It is not backed up by silver.

The only thing backing your money up is inflation.
Inflation has your dollar backed up to the wall.

I invite you to join me in the next frame

Back when money HAD
to be worth something
How much could
our money buy?

An estimate by James R. Rawl indicates that there were 650 whaling vessels grossing 193,000 tons and manned by 16,000 officers and men active in the sperm oil industry just before the American Revolutionary War.

To equip the 650 whalers for just one voyage required an aggregate of

100,000 barrels of flour at six dollars a barrel,
32,500 barrels of corn at 70 cents a barrel.
6,500 bushels of beans at one dollar and twenty five cents,
1,300,000 pounds of tobacco at eleven cents a pound,
65,000 bushels of potatoes at thirty five cents a bushel,
650,000 pounds of rice at three cents a bushel,
325,000 pounds of cheese at eight cents a pound,
325,000 pounds of butter at seventeen cents a pound,
3,900 barrels of vinegar, averaging three dollars a barrel,
404,000 pounds of sugar worth around eight cents a pound,
404,000 pounds of coffee at ten cents a pound.

Has the value of money gone down
in your neighborhood?

The Outstanding Public Debt as of 11 Jan 2005 at 09:38:45 PM GMT is:
$7,603,373,296,756.63
The estimated population of the United States is 295,297,295
so each citizen's share of this debt is:
$25,748.20.

But, it doesn't matter, because we owe all this money to ourselves.

I keep hearing this myth -- and Yes, I do maintain that wet-noodle excuse for not thinking is a myth. If we owed all that money to ourselves it would be painless if we just tell our Congressional Representatives, "Please put forth an initiative letting us forgive Ourselves Of This Debt. Just write it off the books and let's quit charging ourselves all this interest."

Wait, where are these screams coming from that we hear? Is it you screaming? No. Is it me? No. Well, somebody's in pain, and whoever it is will be the one all this money is really owed to. Why -- I believe that scream is coming from across the ocean. There must be somebody over there that thinks we owe this money to them. Don't worry about it, our politicians have said we owe all this money to ourselves and none of US are protesting the passage of this initiative, none of US are denouncing the idea, none of US are stricken with gloom.

The National Debt has continued to increase an average of:
$2.17 billion per day since September 30, 2004!

Next month, the United States will pay $208 billion in interest alone on the National Debt. That is just the interest. Interest buys us nothing, stops nothing, does nothing. It doesn't buy levees. It doesn't build highways. It doesn't stop bullets. It won't even make bread rise. The only thing interest does is roll the debt over so the other side will be exposed.

Why do we owe so much money to ourselves?

In the latest home investment fiasco Hillary Clinton, a first term New York Senator, said the Federal Housing Administration should stand ready to buy, restructure and resell failed mortgages to strengthen the ailing economy.

"Just as it has in the past, this kind of temporary measure by the government could give our economy the boost it needs and families the help they need," Clinton said in a speech in Philadelphia.
First Term Senator Clinton gushes on to reassure us: "It would not require a single new government bureaucracy, and would be designed to be self-financing over time -- so it would cost taxpayers nothing in the long run," she explained.

With her eyes gleaming brightly in the limelight, the right Honorable Senator Clinton said she would propose legislation to provide mortgage companies with protection against the threat of lawsuits from investors who have bought the loans.

Why do you suppose she would want to add this stipulation? Why the fair lady tells us herself: "Many mortgage companies are reluctant to help families restructure their mortgages because they're afraid of being sued by the investment banks, the private equity firms and others who actually own the mortgage papers," she said.

Oh, so THAT'S who will profit from this measure! (Remember, You can always tell who is benefiting most from any law by listening to see who squawks the loudest when it becomes threatened)

Remember when a quarter was worth a gallon of gas? You could take a dollar down to the gas station and buy four gallons! Not only that, they washed the windshield, checked the oil, and inflated the tires properly without asking for more money. At that time our dollar was backed by real silver, even a little dab of gold when necessary. The green stuff that Congress fobs off on you now won't buy hardly anything.
Back when the common back earned $1.00 per hour by the sweat of its brow gas was selling for fifty cents a gallon. Now that most American backs are earning at least $6.00 per hour it is only natural that the price of gas should rise to $34.00 per gallon. Considering the quality of our newest fuels, the price has actually gone down quite a bit.
While none of us likes the newest price of fuel, let's remember that none of us were happy with fifty cents a gallon either.
In short, the only reason that people are living better today is the effect of the great technological advances that business and science (not the government) have made -- more efficient cars, better roads, better fuel, the super sergers and of course -- that great miracle of electronics, et al.
.
However, the only reason we are not 10 times as far ahead is that we've been letting the lawyers heading up our government corrupt the value of our money through inflation. Indeed, if we had not let the government monkey with our money, if the value of each denomination of our currency had remained fixed, we would be far better off because hopefully, we would quite sensibly have resisted such outright robbery of our resources.

There wasn't enough taxes to fiddle with at 10 cents an hour at the turn of the 20th century. Even as late as 1942 sales taxes were still only 1/10th of a cent. Today the average wage earner is paying 31.2% in taxes on every dollar earned, according to the Wall Street Journal. From 1800 until 1942 the value of money remained relatively stable. From 1942 until 2000 your one dollar bill literally became worth ten cents. How much is it worth today with ANOTHER 691,000 American jobs going overseas this year?

Every time wages go up, taxes increase faster than a speeding 1040 EZ. As recently as 1950, all the individual income taxes collected by the Feds only came to $17 billion.
With a population of 150 million, that means that every man, woman and child in the U.S. would have been paying an equal share of $113 per person. Just 38 years later the Feds collected about $400 billion in individual income taxes from a population of 250 million. That means that our equal share came to 14.159292 times as much, or $1,600 each.

I ask you this question: Why then aren't workers earning 14.159292 times as much as they did in 1950?

Remember too, during this same period states sales taxes have gone up an average of 70X -- from 1/10 of a cent on the dollar to 7 cents on the dollar. Yes, I know many more than one state has 14% going for them, but that is just letting us know what the future will taste like, let's continue.

Has the price of license plates gone up?
        Are you now contributing more to that social security fund that's always "going broke" -- until they need to borrow money from it.
          Have property taxes risen slightly?
                  Are you paying more than fifty cents a gallon for gas?

If you ran out of gas on a trip when I was a kid you could leave your spare tire and get enough gas to get home on. Today you can't even leave your car behind for enough gas to get home on!

The Minimum Wage Myth

The easiest way to pry more of our money from our pockets was to persuade us that we had more money for them to steal, therefore Presidents and Congress keep shouting about the necessity of raising the minimum wage -- as if that were going to help us poor people get over what they are doing to us.

Here's the real trap of raising the minimum wage to artificially compensate for inflation. Any time our wages go up we naturally pay more taxes.

Raising the minimum wage is the same thing the French Royalty did when they removed the tax on salt because rebellion was imminent, and then added double taxes on sugar -- or something else – so they still had just as much money coming in. Are we going to go home and wait for a Napoleon dictator to take over our county -- like the French did?

When the minimum wage is raised we get a check with bigger numbers on it for the work we do. Within just a few months the only difference a poor man can see is bigger frustration because the price of everything else has risen to keep pace with his artificially inflated pay check. Then we pay more taxes because we have slid over into a higher tax bracket. This lets the government spend more. What we end up with is we have less than ever, and have to work harder to catch up again.

On top of that, every time wages go up now,
politicians insist that the millage at which all
of our taxes are collected must go up as well
because THEY just can't cope with less.

If that is true, then why do they expect US to cope with less?

Stop the Sham!

We don't need higher wages. If the government REALLY wanted to help us cope financially there is only one thing that really works:

They can REALLY Lower our taxes instead of playing games with our money.

It now takes TWO wage earners per family where one working used to earn enough to keep body and soul together. Even worse, instead of solid money, we are being paid off with money subject to constant theft by the inflation caused by these very politicians that promised us the moon if we would just elect them to office.

Not only are we being taxed --- that dollar earned today will only buy 92 cents worth of goodies tomorrow, and 80 cents by year's end. Before the decade is gone, it won't be worth a plugged nickel -- leaving us to scramble for our own old age security because the government is now buying itself enough votes to remain in office by giving our money to illegal aliens.

There is no denying the progress we have made lately: The mail runs almost as fast today as it did in 1900: And, we only have twice as many people going hungry now as then, too. People with a genuine ostrich mentality will insist on pointing out there are televisions today, computers, and paved roads from one end of the country to the other, not to mention hundreds of other wonders, like the Internet.

Well, my thought is: If the lawyers and politicians had left our money alone, all these improvements and increased productivity would have created so much wealth in the United States that the whole world could not hold it!

I maintain that ALL the progress we have ever made over the past two centuries can be traced to giving the common man more opportunity to gain wealth, not because he was being sorely taxed. Let's ask..

Brother Eli, did you invent the sewing machine because you were taxed? "Why bless my soul!Whatever gave you such a silly idea?"

Let's ask again. Uncle Bill, did you invent any version of Windows because you were being taxed? "Uh, let me think here. No, I'm quite sure the answer is no. Well now, maybe it was because I was being taxed so much that I was struggling hard just to keep my head above water. I absolutely HAD to do something or I was going under."

Okay, let's ask again. Mr. Industrialist, is your company so solvent now because the government has taxed you so much? "Are you kidding? I have to hire eight full time accountants and twelve lawyers just to take a stab at complying with governmental taxation and stupid laws! Do you know what has the highest number infractions for OSHA compliance? I'll tell you what's number one, TOP OF THE LIST -- I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scream out my anguish. The number one infraction is -- not hanging their sign up. And number two is not hanging their sign in the right place."

Well there you have it from three different perspectives, and you still get the same answer.. Overtaxing the people is NOT improving the value of our money!

Opportunities to create wealth is the only thing man needs for progress to be made. Millionaire entrepreneurs are not essential.

Provide enough opportunity and God will provide enough opportunists.

If we just multiply the number of people who can make improvements we will subsequently multiply the number of improvements being made.

The more hope there is to get ahead,
the more wealth any nation will create.

However, when the little guy on the street believes there is no use to go on with his honest hustling then progress comes to a halt and the crack dealers proliferate.

Nothing generates enthusiasm like seeing genuine hope instead of tricky promises. With more money out there to grab, more people will be hustling to get a bigger share. Even those whose ventures fail will be throwing money back into the system at the grass roots where it is needed. Those whose ventures succeed will be creating more wealth at the ground level by working more efficiently than ever before, which is the very foundation of our national wealth.

Henry Ford perfected the process of deliberately putting more money into the hands of common laborers. Suddenly, the best people anywhere wanted to work for Ford.

This galvanized his entire operation.
By paying more real money, Henry Ford got better help.
By getting better help he reduced prices.
By reducing prices he made more sales.
That meant that more people could be hired and there was more money to spend on improvements.
It also meant that other manufacturers had to pay their good workers more, because if they didn't they would lose their best ones to Henry Ford.

More importantly, it gave common people money to spend right where it did the economy the most good. Unfortunately, when the government saw that workers were earning more, politicians began wanting more than their share.

There are three basic ways for the government to get more money from us:
take it away by raising taxes,
borrow it and let US pay the interest,
print more paper without backing it up.

Our government did all three, then did it again, and again, and again.
Each time there was a plausible excuse for the "necessity".
Each time, US workers ended up with less left in our pockets.

This isn't anything new. It has been going on since long before William the Conqueror was a little baby.

If our money had at least been founded on something of solid, substantial value, it would have taken much longer for our pockets to come up plumb empty while Congress is voting themselves yet another pay raise and inexplicably experiencing a dramatic increase in the fortunes of their family and friends at the same time. To stop this travesty of justice, our monetary system must be founded on a commodity whose value never changes; and we must cast our tax structure in concrete so that it never rises.

If there were just some way we could make sure the value of our money is always the same, then the price of everything else will always reflect the precise value of that product or service to our society at that time. Consequently, the true value of the gross national product our country is able to produce would only rise and fall in the absolute terms of genuine wealth, never in false hopes or glittering promises.
Gold won't work.
Nor will silver.
When gold was our standard, Fort Knox was flooded with
the stuff and it wasn't even earning interest.
(All the gold we do have left there now is in hock.)
Keeping our gold bricks in a dungeon
didn't keep the dragon on a leash.
Our gold was just sitting there useless when it could have been working to make us more wealth.
Where is the sense of that?

If there were just some way we could make sure the value of our money is always the same, then the price of everything else will always reflect the precise value of that product or service to our society at that time. Centuries ago, in the still widely studied book The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith makes these shrewd observations: "The real price of everything, what everything really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it."
He added: "By (measuring) the quantities of labor we can, with the greatest accuracy estimate it both from century to century and year to year."
In other words.. If we had to work an hour to buy a pound of sugar in one century and now we have to work two hours to buy a pound of sugar in the next century then we have lost half our buying power and we are working twice as hard as we used to be – no matter how much bigger the figures are on our paychecks.
As Adam Smith so ably points out, this precise kind of measurement cannot be done with any other substance on earth! The cost of everything we have can be measured by how many hours we had to labor in order to purchase it – not just the sticker price ($0.99) but the sticker price PLUS the taxes. ($1.13) Now, with modern technology assisting us, the work can get easier, but within an earthly frame of reference, time never changes. An hour has sixty minutes in it. A minute has sixty seconds.

Therefore, if we anchor
the value of our dollars
to units of time spent in labor
then our economy is locked into reality.
To begin anchoring our money to time all we have to do is make the value of one dollar equal one hour of time at work.

One of our hours of time would equal one dollar. If every dollar you earn today is worth one hour of time then every dollar will still be worth one whole dollar even one hundred (or one thousand) years from now. In fact, if technology continues to improve, a dollar will actually increase in value. But, it will still be worth one hour of time.

Each one of us has 24 hours of time allotted to us each day. No one has any more than that. None of us receives any less. We are all equal in this respect. Through diligence, leverage, practice, training, education, efficiency, planning, or strength each of us has the opportunity to make the results of our time invested in work be of more value than the results of time at work invested by those around us do.
That is immaterial to the equation.
Time has not been stretched, or altered.
We still only have the same 24 hours others receive.
So, let one hour of time at work equal one dollar.
Let one dollar be worth one hour of time at work.
Obviously, if one dollar is to be worth one hour of time then
someone must be willing to provide one hour of work for that dollar.

There are those who (forgetting the all too recent past) will claim that one dollar an hour is too little to work for. That idea comes from looking at one of the paper dollars in our midst today, which won't even buy half a loaf of good bread.
However, just as a pair of pants was only $1.00 when wages were 10 cents an hour, if one dollar is worth one whole hour of work, then it necessarily follows that one (time) dollar will be worth enough to purchase just as much pants that one hour of work will now produce.
After the conversion happens all of our numerical prices will rearrange themselves to fit the new value of our currency.
Better yet, as the results of our labor improve, the purchasing power of our money will increase.

The question comes up to many a mind, why not make one hour of time worth $10 so that it looks like we're earning more now than we are.
That would be great, psychologically.
Unfortunately it would also put a devastating strain on the value of the coins we have to manufacture. If our wages are one dollar an hour then a penny made of copper would cost far less than a penny to make. At $10 an hour a penny made of copper would cost us far more than a penny to make.

We must save our pennies,
to keep Benjamin Franklin happy.
This will accomplish two important goals.
#1, it will insure that the elderly and the poor
can always get work done for them inexpensively.
#2, it will guarantee that prices for wages, goods and services
are always quickly stabilized in spite of swings caused by fluctuating supplies and demands.

General, common wages cannot go up excessively because people can have their money redeemed at one hour per dollar at any time. Our wages cannot fall below $1.00 per hour because the dollar is redeemed with labor. With our wages stabilized along with expenses, vendors will be compelled to maintain lower prices in order to remain competitive.
Consequently the bargains you see will be real bargains.
With this done, our money now has a solid redemption value which we can depend upon throughout our lives. A dollar earned in our youth cannot lose its value before our retirement. And if by our diligence, intelligence, wisdom, leverage, planning or training we have gathered more than those around us, then we shall reap more abundantly than they in our golden years. Inflation shall not rob us because inflation has been stopped dead in its tracks.
Naturally, each generic dollar is only worth one hour of general labor. It cannot therefore be redeemed for an hour of time from any specific person. Nor can it even be redeemed for the labor of a specific skill category. Since the dollar you own is generic, the laborer performing the redemption must be selected by chance.
This is in the redemptive sense only. The redemption of our currency is only desirable when its value is perceived as greater than available through normal spending habits. You can SPEND your money with anyone, or anywhere; it can only be REDEEMED from a labor pool selected by chance.
This precaution insures that there can never be an over abundance of currency put into circulation on us. And that in times of expansion the economy can be supplied with enough currency to fulfill the measure of its purpose. It therefore follows that to obtain that pool of labor a continuous supply of laborers must be generated.

This is a navigational menu tool. Click anywhere to find a new and exciting exit to something we have that is wild and wonderful.

This is done by a citizen conscription.

Anyone wishing to obtain citizenship shall, besides the requirements already made for naturalized citizens, be required to provide One Hundred Hours of their time to the labor pool. Only by freely providing these hours can anyone become a citizen.
As each call for a redemption comes in, the next person on the list goes out, even if the grease trap needs cleaning or a yard raked. No more than 8 hours a day would be required of anyone at a time. When not on call, people in the pool could work anywhere else. However, their citizenship cannot become operative until all one hundred hours have been submitted.
Only those who value citizenship will put forth the effort to become citizens, thus ensuring a better class of voter. As their desire to become citizens is the power which provides the value of our currency, hard working new citizens will be welcomed. To make citizenship even more meaningful, only full citizens can own real estate, vote, hold public office, or possess firearms.
Once their price for citizenship has been paid, any citizen may return to the labor pool at the head of the line for as long as necessary to sustain themselves until able to earn a living elsewhere, only now they KEEP every dollar they earn, and the Treasury does not get a cent.
In other words, when the job market shrinks those people who are already citizens will have the privilege of securing what work is available at the lowest rung of the labor ladder, IF they need to. This is the safety net which insures there need be no homeless or financially helpless.
As long as there is money wanting to be redeemed then citizens will have the opportunity to work. When prosperity is growing, jobs will be plentiful and new citizens welcomed to keep enough money in circulation and inflation down -- Supply, and demand.
Once you obtain talents, skills, or resources which enable you to command better pay than $1.00 per hour then you are encouraged to do so.
And those people good enough to start and maintain their own business shall have that privilege jealously guarded. In the great spectrum of labor, each band shall be regulated according to the skill values set from within their own ranks. Like the guilds of old, each band of the spectrum shall establish their own standards of performance, anyone meeting those standards cannot be denied membership.
While anyone can change guilds as the monetary rewards fluctuate, no one can be a member of two or more guilds simultaneously without forfeiting the financial remuneration guaranteed by the guilds. To wit, each guild shall collect enough from its working members to pay all of those at the same rate who are not working.
By dropping the price of wages the guild will put more people to work. When there aren't enough people in the guild wages will go up to entice others into it. The minimum pay allotted to each rank they establish will be set by supply and demand for that particular talent, on a regional basis.
No employer can pay less than that amount to anyone working in the capacity of that rank, except for a private contractor. And, any of those working for any government branch or office shall not be paid more than the minimum for that rank.
When too much work is available, minimum wages will be raised across the board in order to induce more workers into that field. When the supply of workers exceeds the demand that rank will be compelled to reduce their acceptable minimum wage across the board.
This eliminates the need for unions --
while guaranteeing good wages for all qualified workers at the same time.
Government, being responsible for our fiscal policy, shall be held accountable for the redemption of our currency when more calls are made for redemption than the labor pool of prospective citizens can redeem.
When calls for redemption cannot be met because our fragile economy is getting fragged by politicians, then ALL those people working for the government shall immediately go on line. Their names shall be put on the the top of the list of available labor to redeem our currency.

When grass needs cutting,
THEY cut it.
When floors need scrubbing,
THEY scrub them.
In 8 hour sequences, chosen by lot
from the highest executive
to the lowest plebe,
they shall work without pay
to redeem the calls on our currency
until our currency IS sound again.

In conclusion -- Giving ourselves a dollar founded on honest value will
create all the genuine hope any nation on earth could ever wish for.
We don't need more money.
We need our money to buy more.

Only when our dollars are worth more
will we have more real money to spend.
When we put a ceiling on what Government can waste
we will halt the spiral of inflation.
It is time the government stopped playing games with our money.
It is time to make our money worth every minute we put into it.

the end

Have You Ever Wondered Just Exactly How Much Your
Money Is Really Worth?

A Foreword From The Author

Back when money HAD
to be worth something
How much could
our money buy?

The Minimum Wage Myth

Full Amortization Schedule with Prepayment

Have You Ever Wondered Just Exactly How Much YourMoney Is Really Worth?

A Foreword From The Author

Back when money HAD to be worth something How much could our money buy?

The Minimum Wage Myth

Full Amortization Schedule with Prepayment

Have You Ever Wondered Just Exactly How Much Your
Money Is Really Worth?

Back when money HAD
to be worth something
How much could
our money buy?