The Conservative View: Wheelbarrows and Money

This week's Conservative View, by Adair County Commissioner Russell Turner.

The Conservative View
by Russell Turner

Wheelbarrows and Money

For any country to be a world power they first must have a strong economy. Most people would think a strong military is the only requirement, I feel that the economy and the value of any currency has a direct impact upon the stature of a country. For generations the American dollar has been the currency that was welcomed anywhere in the world. Even our enemies admired our strong currency. I believe the dollar was strong because of the conservative values our forefathers lived by.

It is amazing to me how the American people hardly raise an eyebrow when the American dollar loses value to other currencies around the globe. It is especially sad for the people who have retired and are relying upon their savings to take care of themselves in their later years. To put it into perspective, if you buy a radio today from Japan for 10 dollars then in a month the dollar loses half of its value the same radio would cost you 20 dollars. If you have a total collapse of the value of a currency, all of your life’s work would be for nothing. The more fortunate people would be the ones that are still able to work, in such a scenario their wages would be adjusting at a continual rate. There have been countries where the workers would get paid on a daily basis so that they could spend their money quickly while it still had some value. In Germany after WWI, the hyper inflation was so bad that it would have taken a wheelbarrow full of money just to buy a loaf of bread.

One of the main causes of hyper inflation is a country living beyond its means. Whenever a country goes into debt and keeps borrowing money or printing money just to operate is one of the major causes. In our personal lives, if a friend wants to borrow money from you then you find out that he has borrowed from all of his other friends, you are going to be reluctant to loan him anything. More than likely if you do loan him some money you are going to require a higher interest rate to offset the extra risk. Many Americans have fallen in love with all of the government spending; if we keep spending maybe it would be a good idea to save enough to buy everyone a wheelbarrow so that we can haul our cheap money around.

If you wish to contact Russell Turner, or want to subscribe to his email loop, email him at rdrepublican@windstream.net.