From: William Gerhard
Scipio
Inflation and value.
I saw another report on inflation and Social Security today. I had to ask myself, is it truly a concern? It is more concerning to those who have a lower income, rather than the value of items we purchase and the value of the labor to produce that product.
After raising a large family, we prepared for our retirement, so I very comfortable life. I look back at a budget I prepared as I planned to buy some property and build a home. Roughly most everything in that budget is now several times more expensive today than it was then. My income and personal wealth increased proportionally so I feel little effect.
The more you have of something the less value it has it is an interesting paradox. Take the value on money. We all need it; we put forth great efforts to have large amounts of it. Yet the more we accumulate the less value it has and the greater the effort and harder we must work to have enough to do with as we please. Our greed gains us nothing and soon the value is not worth the effort to gather it.
As a youth, a $100 paycheck was well above average for a week’s wages. Today, it will barely fill your gas tank. You could buy a new car for $4000 or $5000, but today, you pay 10 times that. We dig up gold, and it turns to sand. A hundred years ago gold $20+ an ounce today it is $2000. We all like a little luxury, but at what point does it become less valuable? When does silk change to cotton, and fine China change to plastic?
I ask myself is inflation good or evil? I watch Sports on TV, and I see 70 to 80 thousand people pay large sums to be there. The same may be said of musical concerts or video games. It would seem the public has sufficient disposable income for the pleasures of life after their living expenses. Inflation is a hardship with lower income families and we all should be mindful of how we may assist those people that may be suffering.
Inflation only aids those deep in debt the Government and industry where they can pay off debt with money worth less than when it was borrowed.
Think about your blessings and give thanks.
