Whatever we are raised with, sticks with us, usually for our entire lives. There are hundreds of examples, 99% of which cannot be disproved.
Examples? I was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness until age 27, when I read a book a lovely lady gave me. (“The Age of Reason,” By Tom Paine, written 200 years ago). I was certain Armageddon was just around the corner in fulfillment of Matthew 24:14: ‘There will be wars and rumors of wars, etc., and the end will come.’ How about WW I, WW2, Korea, and Vietnam? I must have knocked on a thousand doors, given public lectures, and was a dyed in the wool JW, as I was raised to be. I read a book, which made me THINK, and overcome my life’s wasted years! I think I was ripe for it anyway.
Ever know a Catholic who became a Protestant? Ever know a Mormon, 7th Day Adventist, Jew, Muslim, Pentecostal, Baptist, or what have you, who changed, if they had been raised in that faith? Not having done a survey, I think that chances are low! Especially, as the older anyone gets. It took me 27 years!
I’m a life-long conservative-Republican-libertarian, but I’m damned sick of Donald Trump’s lies and exaggerations, and saying that Xi is his buddy. China is our enemy! I hear that 35% of Republicans are still with him, and have no complaints. Aren’t they sick of $4.68 gas and inflation on everything? Hitler’s advisors begged him not to go into Russia, like Trump’s advisors begged him not to go into Iran, and they did anyway. It cost Hitler WW II, and a million soldiers, most of them froze to death, as they only had summer outfits. What will happen in Iran?
“Atlas Shrugged” changed my life at age 38, and if you have never read it, you certainly must.
I raised my kids to have good table manners, speak correctly, be honest, punctual, polite, think, be logical, and all that goes with raising children. My kids turned out beautifully!
The older one gets, living with the same habits they were raised with, the more cemented in their minds those thoughts, logic, and habits are, and few would ever change. They well KNOW that their religion is the correct one, and any logical argument to the contrary, is a waste of time.
While working in my yard a couple of days ago, an elderly woman came by the fence and asked if I knew who owned this house. I am sure I looked like a handyman or gardener, and I said “I own it.” She said that she had always walked by it and marveled at it. (It’s an 1887, brick, Queen Anne Victorian). I asked her if she would like to see the inside, and she beamed. I took her on a tour, and asked her where she lived, etc. She is a widow. Her late husband was an engineer, built schools and hospitals, and left her well off. She has a daughter, and I doubt that she would ever become a client of mine. She’s 88, and I am sure she has her money in a bank or some paper item, and will leave her wealth to her daughter, who will have to pay a hefty inheritance tax on it. Besides that, I am sure she is satisfied with a few points of interest her financial advisor arranges for her, and she pays taxes on that. That 88 year old, is well off, her life is very satisfying, and I am sure her opinion of the U.S. dollar is rock solid. Why should she change?
The answer is quite simple. The buck is backed by not much, and I am certain she remembers nickel Hershey bars, popsicles, phone booths, dime streetcar fares, and even streetcars! Try to tell her that all paper currencies eventually go to zero, and the dollar has already lost 95% of its value; and history proves it. She would not understand dollar devaluation, only that prices are going up. I am certain she has solid faith in her religion, currency, fine life, and situation in general. She sees no need for a change in anything, and I wouldn’t even try. If I told her that she could leave her wealth to her daughter in silver or gold with no taxes, she would only understand dollars as an inheritance.
We’re now living in an age where standard shift, carburetors, distributer points, and inner tubes are so old, that few could even understand or remember them. If I had told her that all halves, quarters and dimes, were silver before 1964, I am sure she would remember it, but it is doubtful that she could understand why they changed to base metals. I doubt that she would understand that a silver dime is now worth almost $5.00!
To change ANYTING, which is ingrained in the brain from childhood, could be a losing proposition. A wonderful couple in our church, are very well off, have their own business, and are passing it on to their son. Wonderful people! I gave him a silver ‘buffalo’ a few weeks ago, and told him it was worth $65. As I write this on May 13th, it is worth over $90. I doubt that he will act, which is basically what economics is, in all fields besides money. The late Ludwig von Misses coined the definition of ‘economics’, as “People Act,” but it applies to everything in life which has, does, or needs a change.
I acted at age 27, when I read a book which made so much sense, that I changed my entire life. When I sold a hotel in Silverton Colorado, bought an old ramshackle brick house in downtown Phoenix, and was turning it into America’s first non-smoking restaurant, I never gave silver or gold a second thought, other than they were beautiful and expensive, but I never connected them with economics and currency failure, till I got involved with it. I began this business in 1975, and gold was $250 and silver $1.25. I never thought it would go to $400, now $4600, and how can it not go to $10,000? They’re the exact same things 48 years later. Only their purchase price has changed. When I was in my 30’s and gas had gone from a quarter a gallon to 35 cents, the word ‘inflation’ was an unknown phrase.
I write this screed, in hopes that it may cause some people to change. I doubt that they will be 88 and well off, but I hope they have an IQ above the temperature!
-Don Stott