History is Circular

 The title of this post is certainly confusing to anyone currently enrolled in a public school. Since they are learning neither history nor math, they don't understand the title. Let me explain.

I have a lifelong love affair with history. History was always my best subject in school. It is also the subject of most of the books that I have read and/or own. Yeah, I am a history geek!

What's the best thing about being a student of history or a history geek? The best thing about knowing what happened in the past is that it allows you to usually know what is going to happen in the future. Again, history is circular. For those of you who failed math, stop and Google "circular". 

I love old books and magazines. In my "Stuff For Sale" business, I sell old books and magazines. My favorite and leading seller is old issues of "Life" magazine. I have issues of Life ranging from 1937 to 1972. I usually have 200 to 250 issues with me at an event. I actually have more than 600 copies of Life in my inventory, but that's too many to tote to an antique sale. I also have for sale some old copies of Popular Mechanics, Saturday Evening Post, Look, Progressive Farmer, and Playboy. For those of you old guys whose pulse quickened when you saw Playboy on the list, Life is still the best seller, and it sells for a higher price. 

What do I like most about old magazines? The secret to the future is in knowing the past. In habitually chanting, "We have traveled this road before" on this blog, I am telling people that we have faced this situation before and here's what happened in that case.

I picked up some old Look magazines a couple of weeks ago. One was dated February 23, 1971.  In that magazine there was a three-page story about one of the leading, if not the leading cause of inflation in 1971. While the Biden Administration tries to avoid this by redefining their entire vocabulary, anyone who has been to a grocery store or gas station knows that we are experiencing near-record inflation. What's causing this inflation?

In this article from 1971, it blames the inflation rate on rising pay rates for workers. Before scoffing about this as some kind of conservative extremism, you should know that the article had been reprinted from the New York Times Sunday magazine. The writer blames the higher cost of labor as fueling the growth of inflation.

So, what's happened in America in the last couple of years? Liberals have campaigned on raising minimum wage to $15 an hour. That's more than a 100% increase for those of you who are mathematically challenged. The reality in the world of privately employed people is that someone who makes $10 an hour over minimum wage expects to make $10 an hour over minimum wage, no matter what minimum wage is. 

What does the increasing cost of labor mean to consumers? It means that your $5 lunch at Bojangles or Hardees or Arby or McDonalds is now $10 to $12. If you don't believe me, go eat lunch and see. Spoiler alert!! Take lots of cash or a high limit credit card. 

One of the qualities of inflation is that you have too many dollars chasing too few products. There are still lots of empty spaces on the grocery store shelves. Some store brand products are still impossible to find. 

The Biden Administration likes to lie to us about inflation. Go to the gas station. The gas that was $1.80 at the start of 2020 is now about $3.50 a gallon here in high gas tax North Carolina. Go to the Dollar Tree. The products that were $1 when Biden took office are now $1.25. That's a 25% increase in two years. Exactly what products are measured in the government's inflation index? Do they ever publish an item-by-item breakdown?

Liberals tell people that they are getting them raises. They just don't finish the story and tell them that everything is going to cost more. The people who were making $8 an hour two years ago can't buy any more with what they make today.

If only someone in the Biden administration had stopped at my Stuff For Sale space at the Liberty Antique Show and bought that Look magazine. What's my point in this lengthy rant? "The future is revealed in the history of the past."
WRITE IT DOWN!!