I recently sat in my favorite easy chair, and looked around, thinking of the origins of all the things I know so well. The furniture, wall paper, carpet, kitchen, windows, furnace, laundry equipment, plumbing, garage doors, concrete, central air conditioning, cars, trucks, art, refrigerator, 80” TV, DVD’s, telephones, computers, food, beds, dishes, sterling silver flatware, gold, silver, jewelry, wiring, lumber, nails, screws, roof, landscaping, pots, pans, oven, and literally hundreds of items, right here in my home in Montrose Colorado.
Who invented, manufactured, delivered, and even fixes them if they break? Is it, or was it, the federal government, or the private sector? Did government make any of the above listed items, or in any way is it, or was it, responsible for the above, in any way? Clients of ours are building a large two storey garage, next to their home. Does government have any part of it, other than causing increasing delays, costs for permits, inspections and licenses for electrical, roofing, plumbing, masonry, etc?
NO!
Let’s go further, while we’re on the subject of things government had nothing to do with, and switch to a bigger realm. Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, D.C. current, motion pictures, phonograph, and many others, with no government help or aid. Ben Franklin invented bi-focals, the lightening rod, and of course the Franklin Stove. Franklin tied a key to a kite string, and discovered electricity! Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, George Westinghouse invented the air brake, and along with Nicola Tesla, invented Alternating current. Henry Ford invented the production line, and the Wright Brothers invented the airplane. Andrew Carnegie invented steel made from iron ore, and donated Carnegie Hall to New York, plus 2500 libraries and 6,000 pipe organs to churches and America. Most, if not all, gave liberally to charity in their wills. No government help was wanted by any of them, plus probably hundreds more. Every part in any airplane, locomotive, car, truck, or tractor, has thousands of parts invented by people with no government help. They wouldn’t have even known how to ask for it. They used their minds, not subsidies or handouts.
What has the federal government given us? Public housing, inflation, bureaucracy, virtually worthless paper money, wars, crime, riots, illegals, and that list, is also almost endless.
Who is responsible for providing the above? Obviously it is the private sector, individuals, corporations or businesses, who invented the above, risked their capital for their manufacture, and provided the jobs required to make, sell, and distribute them. Our entire life, property, food, housing, clothing, and possessions, have nothing to do with government. Yet, we pay probably 90% of our income to governments, in the form of hundreds of direct, indirect, and hidden taxes.
Exaggeration? Could the taxes on a loaf of bread, be used as an example? There are property taxes on the bakery, grocery store, fuel station for the delivery truck and tractor, which cares for the wheat field, seed and fertilizer manufacturer for the farm which grows the wheat, railroad that delivers the wheat, grain elevator which stores the wheat, garage to store the delivery truck & tractor and its implements. Property taxes are on the makers of every product of everything which concerns bread making, plus taxes on all workers of all the above. Taxes are added to the raw materials in the factory which made all of the above. Taxes are levied on the property and employees of the electricity, gasoline and diesel manufacturers. There are taxes on every employee in the exhaustive chain of making a loaf of bread. There are additional taxes on the profits of all in the chain. The farmers’ homes, fields, and possessions, are taxed also. Railroads pay property taxes on every mile and acre of their property, which most people don’t realize. Government, even taxes the roads on which we and the suppliers and deliverers use, and on each gallon of diesel, and gasoline, and even the tires, motor oil, parts, and property taxes on buildings used to make everything, plus their employees. The end can never be reached, if truth be told, on just on a loaf of bread.
If all the taxes on a loaf of bread were removed, what would a loaf of bread cost? I’d estimate maybe 35 cents. When I was a kid in 1934, a loaf of bread cost 7 cents, a quarter bought five pounds of flour, 22 copper pennies, bought a gallon of milk, and a dollar bought five gallons of gasoline. The size of government in 1934, was a fraction what it is now, and as a kid, I’d never seen a hundred dollar bill. Now, they’re common and necessary, just to live. The dollar currency looks about like it did in 1934. The dollar had George Washington’s picture on it, as well as Franklin’s and other past presidents on them. They still do. The coinage is no longer made of 90% silver nor the penny with copper, and pennies are no longer even made! The items we purchase, are all priced in dollars and cents, which is why most save their surplus in them. After all, if we use them, why shouldn’t we save in them? Because while we use them, and prices go up in them, they’re backed by thin air, and History 101, shows they are not to be trusted, other than for current purchases.
The Fed raised interest Wednesday, September 14th, in a futile effort to curb inflation. Futile, because Fed’s inter-bank interest rate, has little to do with causing inflation. Inflation is caused by, “An increase in the money supply,” according to all dictionaries. The latest increase in the Fed’s interest rate has caused mortgage interest rates, to go to 7%, which will drill another nail into the real estate business, but that will have a microscopic factor in inflation, by keeping people from buying properties, which would add a small fraction to the money supply. The massive increase in the money supply, (inflation), mostly comes from absurd, wasteful federal government expenditures, which invoices must be paid, and paying those bills with Fed supplied, un-backed paper money, computer entries, and bond sales, ‘inflates’ the money supply. Not to be ignored, are the federal government’s monthly increases in inflation, by paying hundreds of billions of dollars in welfare of a hundred different types. The inflating of the numbers of dollars, and their constant weakening, as indicated by increasing dollar prices on everything, may be jilted forward, if Trump’s $5,000 per voter happens. The Treasury just OK’ed the $5,000, or a trillion dollar addition to the money supply, or more inflation, if it happens.
I did a search of federal government agencies, departments, etc., which begin with the letter “A.” There are 37 listed. Local, county, municipal, and other non-federal governments, have nothing to do with causing inflation, as these governmental entities, cannot increase the dollar supply.
Here are a few of the outfits whose titles begin with the letter “A.”
Just numbers one through four are: “Ability on Commission,” “Access Board,” “Administration For Children and Families,” and “Administration For Community Living.” A few others are “Ahurra TV,” “AmeriCorps Seniors,” and there are others, which are not counted in the 37, which begin with “A” for ‘aid,’ and that total is unavailable.
The federal office ”Ahurra TV,” “Has been downsized to only a couple dozen employees and has a budget of $69 million,” they say, when asked.
Is there any inflation, typical government waste, or stupidity, in “Ahurra TV?”
Aren’t we grateful the federal government doesn’t make our refrigerators? If they did, to quote from my book “I Hold These Truths,” They would be “Expensive, wouldn’t last long, wouldn’t get very cold, would use a lot of current, would be virtually impossible to fix, and difficult to sell.”
Even though the federal government has nothing to do with the first paragraph, its rules, inflation, and 190,000 pages of regulations, have forced manufacturing and jobs overseas.
“INSURANCE.” From my New Webster’s College Dictionary: “An insuring or being insured against loss.” plus “The business of insuring against loss.” What ‘loss’ does Colorado Gold, insure against? The loss in value of the dollar; which we use to live. Has it lost value? The dollar has lost 95% or more of its value of 75 years ago. Will it continue to lose value? Any sense of logic, economics, and history, will answer, “yes.” This indicates that its continued decline is without doubt; so mustn’t we get out of them, like we would get out of a building which has already collapsed 99% from termite damage? Is it logical to depend on your car’s battery to start your car, when it is old, weak, and virtually worthless? Store your surplus wealth in the dollar which has 95% plummeted down the drain? The dollar is necessary to live with, but stupid to save with, because it is backed by “The Full Faith and Credit of the United States Government.” That says it in a sentence.
Current financial magazines, wealth management outfits, and yes, even the Wall Street Journal, in spite of history, logic and facts, refuse to admit to the dollar’s already becoming 95% worthless. Why? Because that’s the way they make their living! The truth would cause a major upheaval in America’s economics, publishing, banking, and every other part of our system. At 1% with no monthly payments, physical, beautiful, possession, anonymous purchasing, selling and bequeathing, and which goes up in face value automatically, as the dollar goes down the sliding board to zero, we’re here.
Don Stott don@coloradogold.com