In the previous episodes of our Bygone Relics show we have talked about the economic destruction of money and a country’s currency. The question we answer in this episode is: How do you recover from such destruction?
“Someone said this area looked like a moonscape. But the moon looks more like a golf course compared to what’s up there.” President Jimmy CarterDarkside of the moon dark I am today. My soul must be in the Southern hemisphere on their shortest day of the year. We have just talked about the economic destruction of money and a country’s currency in the last couple weeks so today we have to start anew. How do you recover from such destruction? The examples we discussed went down the following roads- Germany- Adolf Hitler, China- Chairman Mao- Hungary- Communism, Remnants of Yugoslavia- War crimes and ethnic cleansing, and Zimbabwe- ethnic cleansing and cutting the life span roughly in half. These are not just hyperinflation stories, but some of the worst and most terrifying dictators and living conditions of the 20th century. This is why the study and avoidance of hyperinflation is so damn important. When people can feel their stomachs touching their backbone they will do and say and vote for immediate relief of their conditions. This impoverished state is prime for government usurpation of powers, rights, and freedoms. Serious stuff to say the least and it has nothing to do with economics.
Let’s take a break and learn a little about coming back from total destruction for a minute. It has been just over 43 years since Mt. St. Helens erupted in southern Washington state. On the morning of May 18, 1980 at 8:32 am the mountain erupted and the height of the mountain went from 9,677 feet to 8,363 feet in a matter of moments. The entire north side of the mountain exploded and then collapsed. The magma created the largest debris avalanche in history. 230 square miles were flattened and 1.5 million metric tons of sulfur dioxide were released into the atmosphere. A choking smoke of gray and ash filled the air.
The debris washed out bridges and clogged rivers, ash blew miles into the air, and covered the Pacific Northwest to its north and east in ash. Closer to the mountain the destruction was complete. Trees were flattened to the earth like matchsticks, animals died, grasses were destroyed. The devastation was as complete as the Hungarian Pengo, legendary. In the aftermath, the company Weyerhaeuser that owned thousands of acres of timber on the slopes of the mountain just down from the blast zone, was seeking financial answers. They removed as much downed wood as they could. Loggers and sawyers from all over the northwest came and worked to remove downed timber. Next, was the replanting of the forest. Left to their own devices, cones with seeds fall and take root and turn into the next forest. However, the toxic ash prohibited this natural occurrence. The company employed people to plant the young trees by hand, digging down deep into the soil where the roots could get the nutrients that they needed. Hand planting took lots of hard work, digging deep, refusing to give up. That’s what Weyerhaeuser did and that is what all countries, individuals, and forests have to do when they are met with total destruction. Gradually the rains came and washed away more ash and more ash, the trees began to grow, and now after barely 4 decades a full green and luscious forest hides some of the worst scars Mother Nature has ever bestowed. This process would have happened on its own accord, but an active participation in the process expedited the recovery.
When we look at how the countries responded to total currency destruction, I didn’t see any of them behaving as Weyerhaeuser did. They didn’t work hard, they didn’t dig deep, they just kind of gave up. They accepted whatever government blew in their direction. Nazism, Maoism, communism, or plain old dictatorships. This is what we are attempting to learn from history to avoid in the future. Are there similarities between our current overspending nations and some that befell inflation, stagflation, and even hyperinflation of course there are. Can we be active in the process to make sure that the can doesn’t get kicked so far down the road that societal melancholy gives way to evil dictators. Can we ensure that mass murdering maniacs no longer control our society. Yes, we can, but to do so we must be active thinkers and communicators with our fellow citizens. We have seen that many countries can change from bad to good and good to bad depending on the will of the people. The ideas that the founding fathers of the United States left which are based on individual liberties and limited government results in capital and economic growth resulting from the fair and open exchange of working men and women of free will. These are why they fought and risked everything, they refused to submit to the destructive taxes of King George. They knew of nothing but hard work, digging deep, and not giving up. It was how they survived in a land that had nothing but disease, danger, and hardship. These founding fathers were placed at the right place at the right time. I believe that we can have and be prepared for our moment in time if we are prepared.
“It was not the Great Depression that brought the Nazis to power in Germany but rather hyperinflation, which destroyed the middle class by making its savings worthless.” Fareed ZakariaWe must be Weyerhaeuser. It takes resources to be able to rebuild if something is broken and that is why we save, for that rainy day, but save smartly. Things, real material things, can’t be inflated away. Gold and silver can’t be inflated away, and skills that can be valuable can’t be inflated away. That is why we must hoard these things now. If our government chooses to revisit the fiscal errors of governments of yore and we as a populace are unable to stop them, then they too will be brushed away to the dustbins of history and we must be the alternative to the Nazis, the Maos, and the Soviets. We must not let our country face the fate that the others did. Being prepared and in a position to help is far more important than helping someone that doesn’t need it, but is simply too lazy to help themselves. Whining over spilt milk doesn’t exist in such an environment. The people that are prepared today are the people that will be called upon to lead tomorrow. Sacrifice, empathy, discipline, duty and honor are all traits that will be both called upon but necessary for the clean up of many a great calamity. These traits are rare today, but just like the forest they haven’t gone extinct, they just need to develop. My goal is to be able to help replant the forests with some of you someday. It will be hard, rewarding, and maybe just maybe it will be luscious and beautiful again before they bury me under one of those replanted trees because even destruction can be overcome if you are prepared and willing to work for it.
Sincerely Yours,
C Thomas Printer
On this date in history
109 years ago to be exact, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated leading to World War I.
This week’s thought experiment
Destruction. What would be your plan of reconstruction if you lost everything? What could and would you do? Do you have a useful skill? Could you provide for your family if you lost your job, your shelter, your spouse? Think of this now so you don’t have to later should something befall you.
Also born on this date
Bootlegger, stock car driver and six time NASCAR team championship owner, known forever as the Last American Hero, Junior Johnson.