MASSIVE INFLATIONSomething we all already know but an interesting read.
https://mwhodges.home.att.net/inflation.htm
88% EROSION OF PURCHASING POWER - AND CONTINUING
- a dollar in 1950 will buy only 12 cents worth of goods today, 88% less than before -
Inflation in my adult years increased average prices 1,000% or more -
example 1: a postage stamp in the 1950s cost 3 cents; today's cost is 39 cents - 1,200% inflation;
example 2: a gallon of full-service gasoline cost 18 cents before; today it is $2.85 for self-service - 1,483 % inflation;
example 3: a new house in 1959 averaged $14,900; today it's $282,300 - 1,795% inflation (+1,510% if quality-adjusted);
example 4: a dental crown used to cost $40; today it's $740 - 1,750% inflation;
example 5: an ice cream cone in 1950 cost 5 cents; today its $2.50 - 4,900% inflation;
example 6: monthly government Medicare insurance premiums paid by seniors was $5.30 in 1970; its now $88.50 - 1,570% inflation;
example: several generations ago a person worked 1.4 months per year to pay for government; he now works 5 months.
And in the past, one wage-earner families lived well and built savings with minimal debt, many paying off their home and college-educating children without loans. How about today?
Few citizens know that a few years ago government changed how they measure and report inflation, as if that would stop it - - but families know better when they pay their bills for food, medical costs, energy, property taxes, insurance and try to buy a house.
Is inflation a threat to society, beside the prices we pay and the fact fewer children have a full-time mother at home? Consider this famous quote:
"There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose." Lord John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946), renowned British economist.
DEFINITION OF INFLATION:
Inflation is the loss of a constant purchasing value of the dollar,
caused by an increase out of 'thin air' of the supply of money and debt creation by the financial system
10 graphic pictures help tell the story
(a picture is worth a thousand words)
This Inflation Report is a chapter of the Grandfather Economic Report series, showing serious economic and education trends facing today's families and youth, compared to prior generations.
Quick Links to sections this report
CPI Since 1800, Value of Dollar since 1950, For the Grandchildren, Annual CPI, Revising CPI, What is the CPI?, Foreign Comparison, Money Supply, House Inflation, Mortgage Interest Rates, Commodity Index, Bottom-line
QUESTIONS:
For 150 years America experienced relatively stable consumer prices, but in the last 50+ years prices have soared. What happened?
Why do we pass on to young families and youth a currency which has lost 88% of its value?
Should we not provide annual rates of inflation of less than 1% as was achieved in the past, when family incomes consistently zoomed upward with one wage-earner per family - - and more mothers had a real choice to stay home and raise the kids?
Should we accept statements that inflation is "under control" when nothing basic has changed to restrain the banking system from creating money and debt out of thin air, meaning the dollar's internal value may drop another 58% before our infants are out of college - and decrease by 88% before they reach retirement age?
Why do we have a government mandating inflation protection via cost of living adjustments for the incomes and medical insurance of government employees (federal & state/local), seniors and welfare recipients - - while many, many families pay extra taxes to provide that protection for others with no such guaranteed protection for themselves?
Should we be proud today's families pay a higher share of their incomes on all taxes than before - another form of inflation?
Should we be proud that inflation in housing prices has caused the highest percentage debt load on families in history?
Should families be proud to take the 'buying power hit' caused by the fact today each working person must now support 3 times more state & local government employees than before, in addition to supporting more seniors per capita?
Should we feel good about future prospects when the nations money supply has been driven up at rates 2-3 times faster than economic growth and much faster than that of our major trading partners, meaning more and more debt creation and more trade deficits are needed to support a dollar of growth?
Should we 'feel safe' accepting official cost of living index reports when we know measurement criteria were dramatically revised during the 1990s to minimize same, plus recognizing that the CPI does not include cost impacts of government and taxes
- - the largest spending component in the entire economy - - and does not reflect manipulated asset bubbles in stocks and real estate, or home prices?
U.S. oil production peaked in 1970 and world production is expected to peak in the next 5-15 years. We now import over 60% our needs. Energy inflation appears as a 'ticking time-bomb.'
In 2004 only 15% of San Diego households could afford a median priced-home due to huge property inflation.
U.S. inflation rates are higher than competitor nations, as U.S. trade deficits have soared to new records each year indicating declining international competitiveness, causing us to become the world's greatest debtor.