Gas Prices are not going up - its our fake money

[ed.shrock]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3191649973894033542

Well done video.  Basically, it makes the case that a 1947 quarter could purchase a gallon of gas back then and the same exact silver quarter can buy a gallon of gas today if you sold it.

Our fake money has inflated away in value... 

Blame the politicians who sold out to the bankers so they could spend without limit and blame the bankers who rob us by charging interest on money they create out of nothing.

If you want to learn more, see:
http://www.rzyoutube.com/musicvideo.php?vid=f8fec4638
(total of 5 parts)

[eddie.roman]

Without having watched the video, the premise is essentially correct.  Basic.  The first thing you learn in business school is about money supply growth.  Essentially you print more money to gorw the econmy and manage the inflationary effects of supply growth.  But it is inescapable to grow the economy without devaluing the dollor you hold in your pocket.  A dollar today is worth 4 cents in 1950. 

However,  all that tells you is money's value is relative over time and the absolute value of currency today will be less tomorrow.  The more important issue is that under our system the concentration of money is set up to be geared increasingly to the top.  Therefore if you dont invest your dollar today it will be worth ten cents in thirty years.  In 1950 the top 1% had 20% of the wealth.  They now have 40% of the wealth.  Now, it can be argued that there is a much larger pie so even though you have a smaller piece, you ahve more than you had before.  But this doesnt stand up to scrutiny.

[ken.simmermon]

this is a little over my head, but are you saying it's better to be in the game (investments?) than not to be in at all? unless you own mineral rights or certain realestate.

[eddie.roman]

It is set up that if you dont invest money over time the value of the money you have is going to depreciate.  For example, let say you had a dollar in 1950.  You held that dollar in your pocket all this time, now the relative value is four cents.  The rate at which your money loses value is the inflation rate, which is nonlinear. 

[tim.maxwell]

This is an ugly topic backed mainly by conspiracy theorists.

Case in point, look at the rest of the videos the guy has posted on Youtube.  He talks about beating traffic tickets and the War on Drugs.  This can give you a good idea of where his head is at, in the clouds.  I'd like to ask him who are these people giving you $4.45 cents for scratched up, circulated 1947 quarters.   I don't have current coin price guide near me as I stopped collecting coins years ago, but nobody is going to give you $4.45 cents for a post WW2 quarter containing 25% silver.

This genius doesn't even realize the work involved to extract that .25 oz of silver from the quarter, you'd have to smelt it down, separate/extract and purify the silver.  Unless you have a bunch of these quarters, the time, knowledge and equipment to do it, his entire argument, as weak as it is, becomes moot.

These types of people generally do not have any grasp of global economics and how things really work in this world.  Of course, there are always two polarities to any political issue like this and based on the reading I have done, I side with the Peak Oil Phenomena & the Law of Supply and Demand and there is no point in me debating this with anybody.  You're best off to study such things on your own and form your own conclusions.

And yes I've seen the Money Masters videos, all the pathetic Alex Jones rants against the Federal Reserve being illegal and am actually currently reading John Perkins Book "Confessions of an Economic Hitman", which if true, is even more frightening than anything I've studied to date.

But as I understand money, money is worth what people "perceive" it to be worth.  These things constantly cycle back and forth and these conspiracy goofs have been saying the sky is falling for decades now and the world is still going strong.  Best to stay positive and be ahead or a part of the technological curve which as electric car enthusiasts we are doing just that.

[roger.harmon]

I'm not a coin expert but had some minimal dealings with a guy that was. At least in the 80's worn silver coins were called junk silver and a silver dollar was regarded as being an ounce of silver. It was worth about $6. An ounce of silver recently was going for about $17.50. I just don't know if a quarter coin as junk silver is considered a quarter ounce or not.

An african krugerand (spelling?) contains an ounce of gold 31.1 grams and some additional copper to make it durable. It is a darn ugly coin but valued as an ounce of gold. Back in the 1980's a whole lot of nickles were melted down and permanently gone because the metal content (silver) was worth more than a nickle.

The long and short is that the world is full of greedy people who are smarter than us and know how to take some of our money. Moving money forward or back in time (loans vs. investments) always cost you something.

[eddie.roman]

Tim,

Nothing in Perkins' book should surprise anyone who understands US imperialism and the history of US colonization of Latin America.  If you understand imperialism you then can understand why we are in Iraq and in the Middle East in general.  Otherwise it is impossible to understand the nature of US foreign policy.  After reading that book I suggest studying what is going on today with Colombia and the present-day Pinochet, Mr Uribe.