The Death of the Dollar

THE AMERICAN THINKER ^ | August 06, 2010 | Vasko Kohlmayer

[TruthFactor]

Your major financial transactions in life are: 1. House 2. Salary 3. Stocks

You forgot taxes.

[Southack]

51% of people pay no income taxes.

[A.Hun]

Yep, the deflation/inflation argument is about over.

We are in for very hard times.

Remember....God, guns, grub, and gold.

[Southack]

As an aside, what's up with your tag line of “The Death of Nations: Pornography, Homosexuality, Abortion”?

Somehow, I can't see Imperial Spain having died from “Pornography, Homosexuality, Abortion.”

Carthage?

Troy?

Soviet Union?

Somalia?

Confederacy?

Rhodesia?

Words mean things.

[TruthFactor]

Income taxes?

What about all the other taxes? Social Security, Medicare, Unemployment insurance, Sales taxes, Utility taxes, Property taxes, Licensing fees...

Thay all add up to a huge amount of money.

[TruthFactor]

Somehow, I can't see Imperial Spain having died from “Pornography, Homosexuality, Abortion.”

I See your point. But, they sure are doing a job on western civilization.

[Southack]

The better point would be that homosexuality, pornography, and abortion are great at harming religion.

[Chickensoup]

Buy another property in New Zealand...

I think I have to pay the 2/3 before I can buy the property in New Zealand.

[Myrddin]

If bread is a metaphor for food, I agree. Being gluten
intolerant, I don’t eat bread. It doesn’t figure into
my food bill at all.

[HiTech RedNeck]

well shoot. looking back at the whole wrangle with southack, which he eventually seemed to give up. i said inflation, he said deflation.

It does seem that prices are more calm, if not lower, than during their jumpiness during the oil run-ups of the Bush years (and Bush was not to blame for them). Back then all were saying that energy was the lion’s share of these higher prices.

Now we have a huge borrow, a huge unleashing of heaven knows how many of the borrowed dollars, some busted bubbles. And a stock market that went frantic to go back up not long after Obama took the oath.

God knows. It’s like a ball of yarn that two cats are pulling at the opposite ends of. Prices may be equivocating just because nobody can guess what the Bummer will do next week.

[DeaconBenjamin]

In 1913 five dollars could get you the following:

15 pounds of potatoes, 10 pounds of flour, 5 pounds of sugar, 5 pounds of chuck roast, 3 pounds of round steak, 3 pounds of rice, 2 pounds each of cheese and bacon, and a pound each of butter and coffee... two loaves of bread, 4 quarts of milk and a dozen eggs.

Then 5 dollars was nearly a quarter ounce of gold. Today, a quarter ounce of gold is near $300.00. Could you buy this for $300?

[Myrddin]

My Jack Russell/Rat Terrier puppy has a different
way to deal with a skein of yarn. I call it “whole
house knitting’. He runs around the furniture in
the livingroom and dining room with the skein in
his mouth. To undo it, you have to trace the
original path while winding it back up. My wife
has to keep her yarn in a locked box to prevent
his creative behavior.

[GOPJ]

It is very difficult for politicians to run large deficits if the currency is anchored in something intrinsically real and valuable -- let's say gold. This is because when they post large budget shortfalls under a gold standard, people naturally ask them, "Where in the world are you going to get all the gold to pay for all this spending?" And since politicians do not know how to make gold, they are forced to admit: "We are going to get it from you, the people, of course. Where else could it come from?"

As you can imagine, such answers do not usually go well with the voting public.

Great post ...

[snowsislander]

15 pounds of potatoes, 10 pounds of flour, 5 pounds of sugar, 5 pounds of chuck roast, 3 pounds of round steak, 3 pounds of rice, 2 pounds each of cheese and bacon, and a pound each of butter and coffee... two loaves of bread, 4 quarts of milk and a dozen eggs.

Then 5 dollars was nearly a quarter ounce of gold. Today, a quarter ounce of gold is near $300.00. Could you buy this for $300?

Well, using the handy price checker feature at Albertsons.com (here), here's what I come up with:

Item	Price per item	Cost
15 lbs potatoes	$3.99 / 5 lbs	$11.97
10 lbs flour	$2.49 / 5 lbs	$4.98
5 lbs sugar	$3.59 / 5 lbs	$3.59
5 lbs chuck roast	$5.49 / 1 lb boneless chuck	$27.45
3 lbs round steak	$5.99 / 1 lb chuck steak (no round listed)	$17.97
3 lbs rice	$1.89 / 1 lb long grain rice	$5.67
2 lbs cheese	$5.49 / 1 lb cheddar cheese	$10.98
2 lbs bacon	$4.49 / 1 lb bacon	$8.98
1 lb butter	$3.49 / 1 lb butter	$3.49
1 lb coffee	$8.59 / 1 lb coffee	$8.59
2 loaves bread	$2.89 / 1 loaf	$5.78
4 quarts milk	$3.99 / gallon	$3.99
1 dozen eggs	$2.69 / dozen	$2.69
TOTAL		$116.13

[LucyT]

Sorry to be off topic, but are you aware of what’s been going on over on Polarik’s thread?

Thanks for the heads up. I've read a few of the comments...

[DeaconBenjamin]

Thank you. So, if you had a 1913 $5 gold piece, and sold it for scrap gold value today, you could buy nearly three times as much in groceries as you could in 1913. Very interesting.

Indian Half Eagle 1908-1929 $290.96

Gold Coin Value Guide

[snowsislander]

Thank you. So, if you had a 1913 $5 gold piece, and sold it for scrap gold value today, you could buy nearly three times as much in groceries as you could in 1913. Very interesting.

You are welcome.

As to the factor of three increase in buying power from 1913, the answer is yes, it does seem to exist. I would attribute much of that increase to our far greater efficiency in production for commodity items.

For what it is worth, I used typical prices from a standard grocer. I have no doubt that virtually of those items could be bought for less by shopping discounters and member clubs such as Costco, further increasing that factor.

[shaggy eel]

I have an offer to sell my property and am forced by the feds to buy another or have 2/3 of the value elimated by taxes. What to do?

Buy another property in New Zealand...

,,, how about registering a charity, based in the Marshall Islands, which you just happen to control? Gift the property to the charity. That sort of Ford Foundation thinking is probably why Ford is the only US car manufacturer not needing a bailout. The system uses you; you have to know how to use it.