Inflation and my Toilet Paper!

No matter how you look at it, inflation is a bugger. It constantly eats away at our budgets, making our daily lives an ongoing battle of diminishing resources versus rising costs. Think of it this way, as the Federal Government prints more cash in order to meets its ongoing obligations; it dilutes the value of the money currently in circulation.

Such activities by our governments have been going on since the first government was formed. It allowed for politicians to deflate the costs of what they promised by destroying the value of the future money, but what really gets to me is while we see rising taxes and lower values of our precious dollars, we also see shrinking package sizes with higher costs. Take a look at the picture below. Nearly 9 months ago, we bought a 24-pack of toilet paper at a cost of $3.99, then another package about 6 months ago at $4.99 and finally the last package a week ago at $5.99. Do you see what I see?

Aggravating is it not? I am getting 15% less toilet paper at a price increase of 50%. In just the last 9 months, I am looking at a 65% inflation rate in my toilet paper. Roll this out to a one-year rate, and then the annual inflation rate of toilet paper is 86.5%. If this continues by the time next year is here and gone, I will be paying $ 13.88 for a 24 pack of toilet paper the same size as the width of a credit card. Credit cards don’t charge 33% interest just because they can, but it is what their money really costs. We can see that reflected in the cost of our toilet paper through higher costs and smaller roles.

If this is happening to toilet paper, it has to be happening to other things that we consume in our daily lives. That’s why toys break so easily, tires never last, and clothes fall apart after only a month of hard work.

Don’t you just love it?

Enjoy!

Frustrations with the New America.

I was listening the the Boortz show today and I heard a audio clip that really disturbed me. In the clip, a woman was complaining that she was just too stressed out with her job and that paying bills and working for a living was just too much to ask of her. She went on to say that she had taken a month off from work and found that without the demands from the people who pay her to work, she had a rather agreeable life that consisted of days doing the things she enjoyed. Furthermore, she indicated that society demanding that she pay back the money she borrowed for schooling, spent on food, housing and the basic needs of life in general was simply unjust. Land should be free, was it not so in the past? Food should be free, were we not able to gather it as we became hungry? And so it went on......

It's not the first time I had heard such garbage from the moochers of this nation, but it struck me that this woman now represents the majority of who we are as Americans today. We expect that if we are hungry food will be given to us at no cost. When we need shelter, it shall be provided, again at no cost and so on. How did this happen?

Do people not realize that if you get food for nothing, it was taken from someone else? Food does not just appear, it must be grown, gathered, transported, and stored! This does not come at no cost. Yes, I have also come across those who think that meat only comes in packages and so we have no need to kill animals or that canned carrots are created that way, so don't give them the type that touched the dirt as it is dirty! Despite that I still held out hope that we as a nation still had that urge to go it alone and create something new and better so that we could enjoy the wealth we created.

Now it seems that the only type of person that we now have (under 35 years old) are those who feel that they have been slighted in some way and they only reason they don't have a mansion, Rolls Royce and plenty of cash is that some evil @#%$@ has kept them from their true potential by stealing from them through low wages and unreasonable demands such as showing up to work each and every day on time.

That brings up another rant of mine. What is the deal with a work ethic? It is one thing to show up in pants around your knees with on hand on your pants and the other on your cell phone, but at least you showed up. Too many people now won't even make the effort to be at work on time and if they do, you need to pay them extra. My wife works at a big box store and they are constantly loosing people who chronicly complain that management demands too much for too little pay. Yet these are the very same people who call in at least 3 times each month, hurt themselves twice a year and are just a royal pain in the b#$# to work with.

Some how America has lost touch with the idea that we must work for what we eat, sweat for our shelter and save for our future and no one is responsible for ourselves but ourselves. It may simply be a case of my being old and addled, but then again if it is not, what future do we have as a people?

Enjoy!

It's All Over, But The Crying!

A recent report gave the debt ratio of the top debtor nations in the world today. I have transcribed the list and added comments of how these nations are currently doing in today's world.

1) Japan -- 213% of GDP----its economy has been DOA since the 1990s.
2) Greece--157%----riots are now common as people realize that they aren't getting theirs
3) Italy--129%---was just bailed out by the Euro Zone---we are now waiting for the shoe to drop
4) Iceland--121%---its dollar became worthless a few years ago
5) Ireland---120% ---was just bailed out by the Euro Zone---we are now waiting for the shoe to drop
6) Portugal---111%---a few riots and strikes, but was bailed out and now all is calm
7) United States--101%---you tell me what's in store for the US----

If the first 6 nations on the list have already had major problems, what do you think is in store for this nation over the next decade?

Enjoy!

The Cost of Debt!

There has been much ado about the level of the United States debt and how it affects the average citizen. For those who have not been following the ongoing debt crisis, and it is ongoing as we have not stopped racking up debt, we are looking at a debt to earnings ratio of 100%, (more and not less), as of the time of this blog. What that means for every dollar in goods and services that this nation creates this year, we owe that dollar to some one else. Furthermore, we are increasing that debt load by about 1 per cent per month or 12% annually.

You may ask why this is so important as the government can just raise taxes and print more money. In short, yes the government can increase the tax rate and print as much money as it wishes. That works for today, tomorrow and even this year, but what about next year? The year after? What happens is that inflation begins to raise its ugly head. Each dollar earned begins to purchase less and less. Employers who are forced to raise prices, cut costs and begin to build their inventories of dollars, (think hoarding cash and cutting jobs), This in turn causes the economy to slow down, resulting in more hoarding and job losses. Does this sound familiar? It is estimated that several of the top fortune 500 companies have more cash on hand than does the US Government and I mean that each of these companies have more cash on hand and not as a collective whole. We are also looking at the longest period of sustained high unemployment since the 1930s. In fact, if the US Government still measured unemployment as it did in 1980, we would have an official unemployment rate of over 17%.

How have such things been solved in the past? War! Conquest! Exploitation of Natural Resources! We are already in 3 different wars, (Libya is another undeclared war), any nation we may desire to conquer is in far worse shape than we are, and we have all but shut down our efforts to find and develop our natural resources.

With traditional options already used and proving ineffective we are left with the only option that all nations dread and fear. Collapse. For those who are doomers, the collapse is already at hand, but in truth, we are looking at 10-20 additional years of walking the same path before the wheels come off the cart. At that point in time, those who are on the back end of the boomer generation will be on government programs and the slacker generation that is now in the pipeline will be the main driving force in the nation's economy. Just think, that 20+ year old who is still living in his childhood bed, working 2-3 days a week at minimum wage will be the main source of all of the nation's economic activity. Thus, it is my belief that collapse will happen, and this nation will evolve into a more traditional nation with its Dictators, Ruling Councils, and Kings. Despite this inevitable collapse, we need not fear as is in most collapses, they tend to be quick and bloody. So if you can survive the first 180 days of change, you most likely will be fine.

Are you prepared for the change?

Red gage picture of the day----dragonfly

Enjoy!