We are all familiar with change. (Obama’s promised and actual ’changes’ are disgusting). Just think of the changes we have made. We went from stick to non-stick pots and pans in the kitchen. We went from heating an oven to placing something in the micro-wave and pushing a couple of buttons. From a dish pan to a dishwasher. From a garbage pail to a garbage disposer. From a wood or coal stove to natural gas. From rusting knives and forks to stainless steel implements. From ice boxes (I still use that term) to refrigerators which dispense ice and cold water. From spoiled foods to frozen foods, and the comparisons can go on endlessly in just the kitchens of the world.
From vacuum tubes to transistors. From dial telephones, to push buttons, to cell phones. From radio to black and white TV on small screens, to huge flat screens in glorious color. From cylinder rolls, to 78 RPM, to 45RPM, to LP records, to seven track, to cassettes, to CD’s. From Model T Fords with the gas on the steering column and brakes on a lever at the left side of the driver’s seat, assuming you had one equipped with a self starter anyway, to gearshift on the floor, on the steering column, automatic transmissions, power steering, power brakes, air conditioning, cruise control, etc. The older you are, the more you remember, and are amazed at the changes that have been made over the last hundred years in all fields.
When I was a kid, there was no foam rubber, power anything on a car except the engine, no double glazed windows, battery powered clocks that will run over a year on one AA battery and keep perfect time. No plastic anything, electronic anything, wireless anything, computers, televisions, and I learned to type on a typewriter. No calculators, ball point pens, stereo sound, or epoxy. All has changed, and usually for the good. Except economics.
“We owe our allegiance to the principle of the gold standard, and declare our confidence in the wisdom of the legislation of the fifty sixth Congress, by which the purity of all our money and the stability of our currency upon a gold basis, has been secured.” From the Republican Platform of 1900. That has changed! The dollar standard has changed from gold backed and silver coinage to endless streams of worthless scrip.
The value of our currency has changed a lot since 1900. As a matter of fact, the dollar will buy now, what one penny bought in 1900. It has lost 85% of its purchasing power since 1967, and daily loses value. In short, the dollar has become a colossal fraud. An old legal expression says that, “Fraud vitiates everything.” In other words, a fraud spoils, ruins, weakens, debases, and perverts, just about everything. We have to buy things we use to stay alive, with dollars. There is nothing we need, that is not purchased with debased dollars. The dollar is a gigantic fraud, it is vitiating our very lives, and especially if we have a surplus of them. The change we have to make, is to stop saving in dollars, which I admit is a practice taught and practiced since childhood. Life long habits are difficult to change, but change we absolutely must, if we are to preserve out wealth. This is no joke or myth.
Saving in dollars, used to be the smart way to preserve our surplus assets. There was no inflation in America for over 150 years, so everyone had a savings account. Children were taught to save their extra money in a bank savings account, where it would be safe. Today, a savings account is a safe place to place dollars, but it is utterly foolish, because the dollar is unsafe. Store your water in a leaky bucket? Go fishing in a boat that leaks? No one would do either of those, but they store their wealth in dollars. The dollar is the leaky boat or bucket, not the bank or savings account. The bank does what it is supposed to do, and that is safely store your dollars, but no bank can keep the dollar from losing value or purchasing power. Store your dollars under your mattress, and they will be safe, but magically, they will lose value.
There is only one way to save your assets, and that is to buy something tangible. Something that is bought with dollars, not the actual dollars themselves. Do you think the prices of school supplies, clothes, groceries, or auto parts will go down in dollar prices? You know they won’t! Why? Because there is no way to stop the debasement of the dollar, (prices going up), unless the federal budget is totally balanced. If the Congress would or could stop the presses and spend only what is taken in, the dollar would be a safe place to store surplus assets. When that happens, Chicken Little’s sky will fall, the sands in the desert will grow cold, and Humpty Dumpty can be put back together again. In the single month of July, the federal government spent $165 billion more than it took in! That’s a $2 trillion a year deficit, sand they won’t stop spending or printing. In other words, it is totally impossible to ever pay the debt or balance the budget. It’s gone too far. Too much has been promised, and too much committed. Do you know how much a $175 trillion debt is? That’s what is owed and committed for, and to ever pay it, or balance the budget, is an economic and physical impossibility.
A tangible thing to save in, might be large or small, heavy or light. Pretty or ugly. Anything tangible, which is bought and sold with dollars. Butter? Surely, except it requires a lot of refrigeration to keep it from spoiling. Motor oil? Surely, but it takes a lot of space. Antiques? OK, except selling them at a profit is a problem. Scrap metal? Takes a scrap yard. Real estate? Requires maintenance, insurance, and taxes to be paid, besides the bottom has yet to be reached. Old books or stamps? Same problems as with antiques. Antique cars? Fun, but few ever make a profit on them, even if they didn’t require maintenance, tags, and insurance. Whole life insurance? Never, as it is denominated in dollars. I rack my brains to try to find something tangible that is small, easily bought and sold, requires little space, won’t rust or decay, no refrigeration necessary, and is desirable, beautiful, and universally desired through the ages, and all I can come up with is gold and silver. Sorry! That’s what we do, and with no advertising. One of the biggest dealers has an “F” Better Business Bureau rating. Ours is A plus. If you think of anything, let me know.
P.S. I mention this, not to encourage you to do it, because it might not work, but I did it. Maybe I’m crazy. I have bought four million Iraqi Dinars, at a fraction of a cent each. I doubt that they could be printed for that. My four million new, colorful dinars, cost me a bit over $4,000. Why would I do that? Because supposedly, they are going to be revalued at $3 each, which would give me $12 million from a $4,000 investment. The dinars are supposed to be called in, and a new dinar issued after the Iraq government is in place and settled. If they got me even a dime apiece, it would be $400,000. At a penny each, it would be $40,000. I’d put it all in gold. The $4,000 might be totally wasted. If you want to risk a few bucks, go to dinartrade.com. It may well be a pig in a poke, I don’t know. It’s even become a standing joke around my house. I may well have lost $4,000, but I pass it on for what it is worth, and that may be nothing!
If you’ve ever thought of moving, getting out of a big city or high tax place, a few years ago, in a book titled, “The Hundred Best Small Towns In America,” my town, Montrose Colorado, was number 32.