Inflation affects more than your money!

Written by Kurt Larsson


My parents bought their first house on Long Island in 1955. A two story Cape Cod, its purchase price was $17,000.00. According to its latest valuation it is now worth north of $400,000.00. Very little has been done to it. What has happened inrepparttar 48 years since its construction is commonly referred to as inflation. But what does that really mean and more importantly what else is inflated?

According to Webster’s New World Dictionary®, Inflation means "an increase inrepparttar 112557 amount of money and credit in relation torepparttar 112558 supply of goods and services".

To complicate matters, did you know that according torepparttar 112559 Federal Reserve (ironically/comically charged with maintaining a stable dollar) and its own records, there is now twicerepparttar 112560 number of dollars in circulation as there were in 1995? I bring this up to askrepparttar 112561 question: arerepparttar 112562 things we purchase worth more as time goes by or isrepparttar 112563 money we buy them with worth less?

Good as Gold?

Ask people following gold or supporting a return to a gold backed currency (which byrepparttar 112564 way was written intorepparttar 112565 United States of America’s Constitution). The dollar is worth less and less each day. Yet, in a now famous speech delivered last year,repparttar 112566 newest Federal Reserve Governor stated thatrepparttar 112567 “Fed” had a printing press and was not afraid to use it. Whether this concerns you yet or not, is notrepparttar 112568 purpose of this article.

What should be of interest to us all is to dare look for signs of this inflationary phenomenon in other places in our lives.

Then and now It’s fairly obvious when comparing everyday items such as glass bottles, cans and cars built 50 years ago to those built today. Technologies have certainly helped streamlined waste in this process, butrepparttar 112569 important question here is can we buy more or less product now withrepparttar 112570 same amount of money? For example,repparttar 112571 deposit for recycling a bottle of cola is now more thatrepparttar 112572 price ofrepparttar 112573 whole drink with bottle not many years ago.

But let’s look deeper. For instance: • How many TV channels are available now? Do you getrepparttar 112574 same value from watching? • What isrepparttar 112575 cost of using foul language now compared to a number of years ago? • What isrepparttar 112576 price ofrepparttar 112577 hours you work compared torepparttar 112578 value of your salary, health, stress, etc? • What isrepparttar 112579 price of accessibility (with mobile phones, e-mail, etc.) compared to value of your (health, stress, free time)? Which is increasing / decreasing? • How much value do you receive from your taxes and all its paperwork? • What isrepparttar 112580 current level of trust you have for authority figures? • What about family values? (Some Swedish children were recently asked what home was and their answer was “a place that you always cleaned”.) • Finally how much time do you have nowadays to just reflect?

In each of these cases, which way isrepparttar 112581 cost trending compared to its value? Can we agree that whilerepparttar 112582 value of each either remainsrepparttar 112583 same or is being diluted,repparttar 112584 cost continues to increase?

The consmer society Let’s now return torepparttar 112585 subject of money and our seemingly endless need as a society to purchase more stuff. It is interesting to note that as our need for more stuff keeps increasing,repparttar 112586 values mentioned above (and many others) seem to be weakening. These values and other so called "human" and "societal" factors seem to be slowly breaking down, but in such a benign way thatrepparttar 112587 process does not seem to cause much concern. Just likerepparttar 112588 proverbial frog who will eventually boil to death in a slowly boiling pot of water, we seem to be numbed to inflation’s effect. Yet,repparttar 112589 more we lose these precious properties and qualities that make us human,repparttar 112590 more we seem to becoming machines "stressed" to perform better. How much of your life has become about performance and effectivness?

“The lights on, but nobody’s home” Some brilliant person recently coinedrepparttar 112591 term “human doings” to describe how many of us run around from task to task like chickens with their heads cut off. Have you ever dared to countrepparttar 112592 inflation in “have to-s”, “musts” and other obligations you have in your life? Think about about paperwork inflation, alone.

Trust in a "digital economy"

Written by Kurt Larsson


Gaining trust is one thing, retaining it is even harder. History teaches us that once trust is lost, fortunes usually disappear shortly thereafter. We may be at such a crossroads now withrepparttar most popular man-made currency ever. As Margaret Thatcher was once purported to have remarked, “When you have to remind someone that you are a lady, you’re not”, which brings us torepparttar 112556 fate ofrepparttar 112557 U.S. Dollar…

Trust a winner who believes in a higher power. The world was very different in 1944 than it is now. The United States of America was “The Arsenal of Democracy”. “God fearing” Americans were leadingrepparttar 112558 free world inrepparttar 112559 triumph overrepparttar 112560 evils of Fascism demonstrating a noble, yet friendly sense of humility and service. It probably seemed easy to trust a country made up of such down to earth “citizen soldiers” as David Ambrose once called us. Onrepparttar 112561 front of every Silver Certificate and sliver coin in circulation atrepparttar 112562 time wererepparttar 112563 words “In God We Trust”. Being “the land ofrepparttar 112564 free” it certainly didn’t seem to matter which god in particular you trusted while spending those dollars. It was more of a reminder, even to those of us that had not been in combat, that there was more to our multifaceted and colourful lives than that which passed in front of our noses.

Up to then Americans had been used to a strong vision usually backed by strong, believable leadership. Slogans like “Manifest destiny” had been replaced by “makingrepparttar 112565 world safe for Democracy” yet we still acted liked we believed them deep in our souls. We had always been a spiritual country with “God on our side” and now we had proof; we won The War!

With this as a backdrop,repparttar 112566 famous “Bretton Woods agreement” was signed in 1944 effectively substitutingrepparttar 112567 U.S. Dollar for gold asrepparttar 112568 de facto reserve currency ofrepparttar 112569 world. The United States didn’t need much marketing and spin to sellrepparttar 112570 Dollar at Bretton Woods as everyone clamoured to be on our team. Byrepparttar 112571 way, can you remember or more importantly, do you care whorepparttar 112572 chairman ofrepparttar 112573 Federal Reserve Bank was during this glorious time?

With all these factors supporting it,repparttar 112574 world was now invited to buy U.S. Dollars. Since they were trusted to be “as good as gold”,repparttar 112575 rest ofrepparttar 112576 world began buying them, with vigor.

The Digital Age. Not long afterrepparttar 112577 Bretton Woods agreement;repparttar 112578 first Sperry Univac computer was invented. Withrepparttar 112579 invention ofrepparttar 112580 Univac Computer,repparttar 112581 digital age was born. It wasn’t too long before someone figured out that you could “make” money with computers. It wasn’t too long after that thatrepparttar 112582 financial community realized that you could “create” electronic money with computers too!

What Inflation and Deterioration have in common: There seems to be, or at least feel like there is a strong correlation betweenrepparttar 112583 explosive creation of electronic money andrepparttar 112584 deterioration of our unified trust in our leaders’ vision and spirit. Indeed, inflation seems to affect more than our money! Many old-timers will tell you that duringrepparttar 112585 depths ofrepparttar 112586 depression inrepparttar 112587 1930’s it was very rare that anyone locked their doors, asrepparttar 112588 thought of getting robbed was probably as foreign to them as an average house costing $250,000.00!

Everyone was “in it” together. There was a “golden” sense of family and community thatrepparttar 112589 United States of America radiated out torepparttar 112590 rest ofrepparttar 112591 world and everyone else desperately wanted to be part of that club. From Bretton Woods onward,repparttar 112592 price of membership was now in Dollars.

Pretty soon digital currencies were born and of course,repparttar 112593 daddy of them all wasrepparttar 112594 “Almighty Dollar”. If you are reading this article you have no doubt an understanding of whatrepparttar 112595 monetary inflation curve has looked like since “Bretton” Woods and its parabolic rise sincerepparttar 112596 subsequent invention ofrepparttar 112597 PC andrepparttar 112598 Internet. But have we lost something less measurable yet, possibly more valuable onrepparttar 112599 way?

How we measure a loss of spirit or a loss of Trust The answer is that you don’t, but it is fairly easy to sense or read about inrepparttar 112600 papers. One just has to look around to observe thatrepparttar 112601 USA of 2004 is notrepparttar 112602 USA of 1944. For example, according to one study atrepparttar 112603 time, biggest problem facing public high school inrepparttar 112604 1940’s wasrepparttar 112605 chewing of gum during class. The vision of “Makingrepparttar 112606 world safe for Democracy”, for those who still care, seems to have been replaced with either “The Worlds Police Force” or closer to home, “Shop till you drop”. Does “Shop till you drop” touch your soul like “Manifest Destiny”? Have you hadrepparttar 112607 “pleasure” of going through an airport in “The land ofrepparttar 112608 Free” recently?

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