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More sad reminders of what we lost - - - FCHP - We can't find the page you're looking for... (Broken link)
1930 example
In 1930, $66 bought a mom in Kansas a 10-day hospital stay and delivery of her new baby.
($4/day for the room)
Hours to work (min. wage) to buy SS tool
1950 : 169.50 / 0.75 = 226 hours
1980 : 799.99 / 3.10 = 258 hours
2010 : 2999.99 / 7.25 = 413 hours
2017 : 3559.00 / 7.25 = 491 hours*
(* To add insult to injury, modern production technology reduces the amount of labor, and yet it costs MORE to buy! )
That's the way I have always seen currency. It represents Life Hours.
I don't really care what the currency is (assuming it has the "faith" of it's users and assuming that I don't think it's just plain stupid), I care about the hours of my life I have sold to whomever in order to get whatever. If I have to sell more hours of my life now to acquire XXX than I did thirty years ago to acquire XXX, then I am less better off now than I was then, regardless of the currency exchanged and its "worth."
Nothing else is of any importance in this regard to me and that doesn't change whether I have a mountain of money or not, or what my "function" is in society--a ditch digger or a doctor. My currency is "Number of Hours of My Life Sold" for XXX. Simple. Once those hours are sold, they are no longer part of my life. They are gone forever. Someone else bought them--whether that be an employer or a department store owner. I would prefer to keep those sold hours to a minimum. But those equivalent sold hours just keep going up, don't they? What better way to enslave a nation? A high-tech coder is no better off financially today than was his counterpart bookkeeper a hundred fifty years ago. He's worse off: his spending power has decreased--i.e. the sold number of hours of his life has increased in order to acquire a given commodity. I've done plenty of similar numerical comparisons as you did above, and the results are always very similar. FDR knew what he was doing, no? And it's not what most people think.
Free people have free markets. Only in that case is their true worth to themselves and to society accurate.
As for your post including the medical numbers, I may end up in the hospital just reading them. I know I should never read such numbers, but I always do. It's CRIMINAL and the responsibility rests squarely upon the shoulders of the federal government. Yet who does everyone turn to for a fix to the problem??? The government. Sure, that makes sense. Get the damn government's hands OFF my body. Take me back to a reasonable rate paid to the service provider for services rendered. Get the government and all middlemen OUT of the equation. Again... free market. It's all about free market.
And for those of you who don't think that can still work, look up doctors who run their practice cash-only. Compare their rates to the typical rates. If "big medical" were not in the picture, rates would be a fraction of even those reduced rates.
I agree, Jetgraphics needs to take an economics course, but I don't know if they teach the right stuff in schools any more (after seeing several CPA's go broke).
When I took econoimcs (more years ago than most of you would guess), they told us that most of the money in our economy was NOT in Greenbacks. And I would suppose that is truer today than ever.
I get paid, but the money goes into my checking account. No Greenbacks (frankly, it is crypto-currency). I buy something and pay with my credit card. No greenbacks (but crypto-currency, again) and then I pay my credit card with a check, and again, no Greenbacks.
A few years ago, the US GDP was about $15 Trillion (that is what it was when the federal debt was also about $15T.) The world's known GDP at the time was said to be about $40T, but I think they could be off by a factor of two, or even three, on that.
Hours to work (min. wage) to buy SS tool
1950 : 169.50 / 0.75 = 226 hours
1980 : 799.99 / 3.10 = 258 hours
2010 : 2999.99 / 7.25 = 413 hours
2017 : 3559.00 / 7.25 = 491 hours*
(* To add insult to injury, modern production technology reduces the amount of labor, and yet it costs MORE to buy! )
...
...
Look at pictures of a Shopsmith from 1950 and one from 2010.
Not the same tool.
Annual minimum wage inflation 1950 to 1980 = about 4%
Annual minimum wage inflation 1980 to 2010 = about 2%
While you may argue that it is not right to have inflation at all,
that is hardly "hyperinflation"
More boring slop: something is money because people accept it as money. Find an adult education center and take an economics course.
Thank you for the kind words of support. Lacking facts in rebuttal is capitulation.
Read the USCON, Art 1, Sec 8 and Sec 10.
Only gold and silver coin "pay debt."
And if you examine legislative histories, you will find that EXCISE TAXES are levied on PRIVILEGES.
What PRIVILEGE are you exercising that would impose a retail sales tax on your transactions ?
Could it be NOT PAYING YOUR DEBTS WITH LAWFUL MONEY?
Could it be a taxable privilege to DISCHARGE DEBT WITH WORTHLESS NOTES?
ANECDOTE FLAG ON
Back in 1965, after they abandoned fractional silver coin, I recall that vending machines in Pennsylvania suddenly had SALES TAXES added in. Up till that year, NO SALES TAXES were collected, since the machines only dealt with lawful money (silver coin).
I agree, Jetgraphics needs to take an economics course, but I don't know if they teach the right stuff in schools any more (after seeing several CPA's go broke).
When I took econoimcs (more years ago than most of you would guess), they told us that most of the money in our economy was NOT in Greenbacks. And I would suppose that is truer today than ever.
I get paid, but the money goes into my checking account. No Greenbacks (frankly, it is crypto-currency). I buy something and pay with my credit card. No greenbacks (but crypto-currency, again) and then I pay my credit card with a check, and again, no Greenbacks.
A few years ago, the US GDP was about $15 Trillion (that is what it was when the federal debt was also about $15T.) The world's known GDP at the time was said to be about $40T, but I think they could be off by a factor of two, or even three, on that.
eCONomics is a dismal "non" science.
Economics "nonsense" uses a variable as a unit of measure (paper currency) and apologizes for usury, which is mathematically unsustainable in a finite money token system. (Don't believe me - do the math on the exponential equation for calculating compound interest)
HERE is a thought experiment to show what happens when a whole nation invests 10% of their funds, at 6% per annum. (Or half the nation invests 20% with the other half)
Future Worth (FV), based on Present Value (PV)
FV = PV x (1+ interest)^time
Let N = total sum of money tokens
Let PV = 0.1N = 10% of N, the amount invested at 6% per annum, compounded daily
How long does it take for the investment to match whole sum of money tokens?
(N/0.1N) = (1 + .06/365)^ time units
Solving for time units
time units = log (N/0.1N) / log (1 + .06/365)
time units = log (1/0.1)/ log (1 + .06/365)
14008.54 days
38.37 years
After this point, the outstanding obligation will exceed the whole set of money tokens, making repayment IMPOSSIBLE.
In other words, if all the people invested 10% of their money, they’d go bust in 38.37 years, owing (or being owed) all the money that exists. Any further investment past that period cannot be repaid. That is the scam of usury.
In the short term, a portion of debtors will default simply because enough money never existed for them to repay. They will lose their pledged collateral, blaming themselves or their bad luck not realizing that usury was the reason.
This may explain why usury has been condemned for "only" 3500 years.
But "modern man" is too sophisticated... [/sarcasm]
BTW - I studied Engineering Economic Analysis, and wrote plenty of software for RORI, SYD, Annuities, and other time-value computations, etc.
Only in my late 30's did I discover that USURY was a gigantic scam.
The Emperor's New Clothes is appropriate.
And Adam Smith was a shill for the bankers.
What do you call...
...
1. A discipline whose unit of measure is not a constant, but varies over time?
2. A discipline whose unit of measure is finite and scarce?
3. An academic field of study that approves of impossible contracts?
4. A vocation that apologizes for abominations, and encourages deceit and discord?
5. A mathematically based profession that embraces mathematical insanity?
6. And an ally of predators?
...
Answer : Economics, the non-science.
...
1. A “dollar bill” is not a constant. Its buying power decreases from inflation.
2. Based on Title 12 USC sec. 411, the total number of “dollar bills” can not exceed the public debt (currently 20 T). Any evaluation of property or worth that exceeds that sum cannot be resolved.
3,4,5. Since usury requires an infinite money supply to operate over the long term, any support for investment at usury is evidence of insanity.
6. The predatory usurers rely on the professionals of Economics to maintain the illusion that they’re benign and harmless.
As one wise man said, the fastest way to have an argument is to put two economists in the same room.
http://www.monetary.org/a-brief-hist...terest/2010/12
Adam Smith’s 1776 WEALTH OF NATIONS, capitalism’s “bible,” put aside these earlier rationales, and justified usury in economic terms:
“- - - The interest or the use of money…is the compensation which the borrower pays to the lender, for the profit which he has an opportunity of making by the use of the money. Part of that profit naturally belongs to the borrower who runs the risk and takes the trouble of employing it; and part to the lender, who affords him the opportunity of making this profit.”
This is how interest is popularly viewed today. But Smith overlooked that the lender gets his profit even when the enterprise loses [by confiscating collateral]; he ignored the successful business structures used by Venice for centuries, where the lender’s return was based on actual profits. Smith’s endorsement did not remove the stigma against usury; and the debate continued.
Jeremy Bentham’s IN DEFENCE OF USURY (1787) created the present mis-definition of usury as: “The taking of a greater interest than the law allows… (or) the taking of greater interest than is usual.”
He dismissed the harmful effects of usury on the common man: “Simple people will be robbed more in buying goods than in borrowing money.”
...
These two influences among many were instrumental in eradicating public resistance to the abomination of usury.
I agree, Jetgraphics needs to take an economics course, but I don't know if they teach the right stuff in schools any more (after seeing several CPA's go broke).
A CPA is not an economist.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TRex2
When I took econoimcs (more years ago than most of you would guess), they told us that most of the money in our economy was NOT in Greenbacks. And I would suppose that is truer today than ever.
The same is true with a gold standard and has been for centuries. Banks make commerce possible. How would you like to haul cash all over the country to pay your bills?
Quote:
Originally Posted by TRex2
I get paid, but the money goes into my checking account. No Greenbacks (frankly, it is crypto-currency). I buy something and pay with my credit card. No greenbacks (but crypto-currency, again) and then I pay my credit card with a check, and again, no Greenbacks.
The U.S. dollar is a known and stable currency. Bitcoin is not. It's what we call a favored barter item; it's not likely to be that for long.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TRex2
A few years ago, the US GDP was about $15 Trillion (that is what it was when the federal debt was also about $15T.) The world's known GDP at the time was said to be about $40T, but I think they could be off by a factor of two, or even three, on that.
Compare that to corporate or personal balance sheets. It doesn't look so bad. The answer here, however, is to shrink government. A well-managed government is not necessarily a proper government. Ours certainly isn't.
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Sure, that makes sense. Get the damn government's hands OFF my body. Take me back to a reasonable rate paid to the service provider for services rendered. Get the government and all middlemen OUT of the equation. Again... free market. It's all about free market. 
