Value of Money

 Sixty-three years ago, or so, I was introduced to money.

 

I was a young lad who made regular trips to the corner grocery store, picked up strangers’ trash on our sidewalk, and feebly attempted minor housework, for pay.  My pay was meager, at best, and usually amounted to pennies, but rarely anything silver.

 

Keeping the change from bread runs – bread was 5¢ a loaf, and I was given a dime for the purchase – helped me earn money.

 

Money back then was, well, different.  We bought popsicles for 4¢, comic books for a dime, baseball or football card packs for a nickel, and newspapers were a whopping 3¢.

 

Of course, salaries were much more modest then, too.  The federal minimum wage was a mere $1 per hour.  In perspective, society was doing pretty well.

 

But back then, people bought what they could afford, rarely overextending themselves for anything except a house, all else was bought COD – cash on delivery.

 

My early earned money all in the form of coins, and fortunately I was a fairly clumsy kid usually returning home with minor wounds from playground falls, bicycle scrapes, along with briar patch punctures. 

 

One of my early bank vaults

All those maladies were quickly cured with a Band-Aid and a kiss from my Mother. Eventually the Band-Aid box was empty, at which time I received the coveted Band-Aid box trophy.  Those boxes back then were made from metal and had a hinged lid, and I loved them.

 

This ersatz safe/bank vault served me well until that magical day when my pennies, nickels, dimes, and a quarter added up to one dollar.  That was my first earned dollar which I remember to this day.  And I couldn’t spend it fast enough.

 

My Grandmother made a quarterly pilgrimage to a downtown store named Woolworth.  Woolworth was what was known as a “variety” or “five and dime” store.  It was a precursor to Target.  This next trip was special because I went with my Grandmother on the bus to Woolworth’s.

 

Once there I quickly spent my dollar on a package of small plastic toy boats that cost about $1.  Those boats sailed in both the kitchen and bathroom sinks for months, creating fond memories until this day. 

 

But my big lesson was money is hard to make and easy to spend.

 

Working on my second dollar was an excellent autodidactic exercise in finance.

 

Throughout life I’ve met people who have no idea how much a dollar really is worth.  Back then, when minimum wage was $1, one needed to work ten hours to earn ten dollars. I’m not going to get into the weeds on taxes and other deductions, now.

 

One million dollars is one thousand dollars a thousand times.  A billion dollars is a thousand million.  A trillion dollars is a thousand billion.  And that’s a lot.

 

Unless you’re Plugs Biden, President of the United States, that is. Biden is not only a liar he is out of touch, incompetent, and generally hapless.

 

This man has no clue how much a dollar is worth, and he proved that once again.

 

He spent $1,900,000,000,000 in a COVID-relief package earlier this year and is now spending another $7,000,000,000 to alter the weather through some inane climate change legislature.

 

The good news is that Biden promised that any tax increases would not affect families making less than $400,000 pre year.

 

The bad news is that Biden lied again.  Inside this catastrophic bill is a budget for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to hire 87,000 new personnel for the purpose of “taxing the rich.”  Who are the rich?  Apparently, anyone with a pulse.

 

Wearing that normal stupid grin, Biden proudly announced this unbelievably irresponsible next step to bankrupting America.  With promises of this fiscal nightmare actually benefitting our future, one financial expert after another has declared this Democrat Inflation Reduction Act punitive for all Americans.

 

Clearly entering a recession in August 2022, the Biden Administration has denied our financial position by redefining the word “recession.”  Changing the name of a “turd” doesn’t make it smell less.

 

In any case, those voters who couldn’t wait for President Trump to vacate the Oval Office are now ruing the new occupant after roughly twenty-months.

 

To solve this money issue is pretty simple, actually.  Just stop spending money.  Period.

 

And to actually reduce inflation, Biden and his Congressional thieves need only fill 2,600,000,000,000 Band Aid boxes before stealing another penny from U.S. citizens.