Austerity Jones weighs in on inflation and we get a poem from C Thomas
Inflation Illumination
Curious about this plague called inflation
Look no further than the bank of your nation
With government consent they take money
And out of thin air, it’s a creation
That money flows from station to station
Now that there is more money, it begins its degradation
It steals your ability to purchase, quietly
It limits the size of your vacation
Food gets more expensive, it’s not your imagination
The packages get smaller, a trick called shrinkflation
Every company’s trick to fool you
That their prices aren’t gaining elevation
People become upset and their ire needs a destination
They pay more at the pump, oil greed is their revelation
While they don’t understand history
And repeating it is their determination
It isn’t corporate greed, the source of their lives’ stagnation
It’s the government, their elected representation
That created money covered their foolish spending
Leading to this inflation abomination.
So the next time a government congregation
Decides what’s best for their delegation
And it is involves money and spending acceleration
I hope part of your brain gets a vibration
And remembers the words in this declaration
Some thing for nothing is simply a temptation
An object for politicians to gain admiration
But winning elections is their only fixation
What most countries’ need is an emancipation
From this fixation on reckless spending fascination
What’s needed is a monetary revelation
An appreciation of the worth of accumulation
Realizing that an accumulation of our compensation
Isn’t a novel or quaint innovation
Yet merely the starting point and grounds
For the foundation of our civilization
Sound money allows for the countries’ transformation
From agrarian economy, each a farmer in occupation
Creating enough food for their families
To avoid a long winter’s starvation
We now benefit from abilities of specialization
Great cities and factories with abundant automation
Has resulted from the trade of sound money
One mans earned labor for another’s consideration.
So we must learn to question the government motivation
Their spending and regulation combination
Has not helped the people they represent
It certainly has led to wealth discrimination
I offer you nothing today but information
And hope that your application of that education
Leads to the next government program
Demanding a broad coalition explanation
And use your powers of observation
Realizing that there is only one determination
When the govt offers free money to deny it
Inflation will only relent when we go on a fiscal diet.
To the government we will be heard and not be quiet
Your campaign promises, just words, we won’t buy it
When government says “We’re here to help you”
We need to vote them out in an election day riot
Thank you C Thomas for that lovely poem. I’m Austerity Jones and today I want to point out that inflation is a result of government spending and the inability of governments’ to live within their means. They are like a family if they had the ability to produce more credit cards on demand. Can you imagine the pile of shoes in every closet? There would be Amazon packages covering every doorway and patio. You could just shop and shop.
C Thomas: It gives me great pleasure to remind you to stay on point Austerity.
Austerity: My apologies, C Thomas I digress. This is what has happened with government spending. It has simply gotten out of control. The wonderful part of representative governments is the ability to educate and inform yourself and make better decisions.
Inflation is happening in the United States, Europe and around the world. Inflation was getting started and now that we have all of these newly printed Covid dollars and euros in circulation we are getting supply shocks and then the Ukraine situation exploded. Now we have shortages of goods and way too much fiat currency floating through the system.
Before we categorize this as a disaster, we need to realize that just like a flood washes away old debris, we can use our perspective to identify this as an opportunity. The reason that C Thomas is so adamant about learning kindness and sacrifice is that he keeps telling me that these are the building blocks that will be needed to mentally make it through this next business cycle. We need to start training those muscles now so that we are prepared for when it happens. Like a marathon needs training before running, the next decade will not be nearly as downhill or as easy as this previous one. So we begin training now.
Frugality- careful management of material resources and especially money
So we must start with frugality. That means saving and buying just a few less items that we don’t really need. This savings is what will provide us with the ability to purchase things in the future should we need it. It has been generations since most people in the developed world have gone without. The last time this happened on a grand scale was the Great Depression that occurred in the 1930s. Then as now, governments and consumers got a little too far over their skis, got too confident that good times would never end, and crashed spectacularly. Those folks that went through that difficult time are mostly dead and gone and they seem to have taken those lessons with them. We here at the C Thomas Printer Cooperative remember our history and if we want to help our readers and listeners be frugal and save for a rainy day. That might be the most helpful thing we can do in the entire world should we return to the dark economic times of the past.
Once we start being a little more frugal and then develop some savings what should we do with our savings? As we know the Great Depression was a deflationary event and the last time there was this much US inflation was in the 1970s. Inflation eats away our savings, so we need to be prepared to handle that possibility. What can we learn from these two historical events to help guide us forward? That, will be the focus of my next post in two weeks. G Spot will be back next week so until then I’m Austerity Jones signing off and determined to be just a bit more frugal this week.
Austerity Jones
Also born on this date:
Casimir Pulaski (one of the most important people in American history),
Michelangelo,
Valentina Tereshkova,
Philip Sheridan
What am I listening to this week? Jennifer Thomas, the American pianist and composer. This week’s poem was titled Inflation Illumination with her song “Illumination” in mind, and her piece “The Red Aspens” is my favorite. I hope her music inspires you as much as it does me.