money-wide >>> marcel deveraux

I am Pissed Off.
Alan Greenspan, Dan Aykroyd and the cost of Doritos™

I went to the super walmart to pick up a few groceries. Do you know that a box of cereal costs $3.50? a bag of Doritos $2.50? I didn't. Guess my wife has been doing most of our shopping, but since college, when I used to buy my own stuff, the cost of your average item has soared over 250%.

A decent car went from $10k to 20k in about 8 years… and the costs keep soaring. I remember hearing about rampant inflation in the 70's. I've seen Dan aykroyd (yah, the reruns) satirizing Jimmy Carter saying how great it was: we all make 6 figure salaries and walk around in $1000 suits! Well guess what? The parody is reality… and does it get any attention? nope. So, I'm pissed.

The Carter to Clinton stampede to social democracy once again uses the 'tool' of inflation to keep the masses in check. What am I talking about? with inflation, you can give everyone a big fat raise… as long as your salary is climbing you don't realize that you're making less than you did 5 years ago, (after adjusting for inflation and the "cost of living"). so as long as we're all getting close to the 6 figure salary, we figure we're the "have's". now this is all fine and dandy, but why doesn't anyone talk about it?!!

That's where my frustration sets in. I don't mean to harp on the Democrats or encourage Republicans, but as I get older I start to see the way things work… what happens behind the smoke and mirrors. No one cares about gays in the military; what was Clinton really doing during the first 3 months of his presidency? We don't need to try very hard to figure that one out.

To me our society is radically divided. Duh, you say after the election of 2000, but that's not what I mean. It's divided between taxpayers and tax-consumers.

The democratic power base seems to come from the consumers; people who use (or profit from) government services. So how does the Democratic Party keep it's power base happy? Government spending, yes, but inflation seems to be the tool of choice, with historic precedent …Just don't talk about it in the media! The big "I" word must be on the FCC "banned" list…if only Howard stern would focus on the economy instead of keeping abreast of the latest advancements in cosmetic surgery… then maybe we could challenge that word as well. But,… I digress.

To summarize, and remember I am an amateur economist, inflation is here and I predict it's driving our economy into recession. Granted, the dot.com gold rush and crash doesn't help, but there are larger forces at work. We hear all day long how Alan Greenspan is the economic guru of our time… but hey, what was he doing during the Carter years?

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