ducky
So now you have added taxation to the grand larceny. I dare say it would be futile to say that taxation is but payment for goods and services provided to its citizens by the State.
You have continued to give me a lot of clever theory whilst, at the same time, accusing those who argue against you of being empty vessels. As I said to NT earlier - The facts of life are against you. For all the figures and the theory I know one thing with absolute certainty. My tangible economic well-being, standard of living, "wealth" (call it what you will) is incomparably better than that enjoyed by my parents and has got better and better throughout my adult life. That is not theory or supposition - it is fact.
jon
Jon,
I thought duc made it clear in a previous post but I will now make an attempt:
We are dealing with 2 separate and independent issues:
1)That your standard of living is better than that of your parents
2)Fiat money Vs Sound money
Issue 1)
Productivity and Capitalism
Remove money entirely from the equation, look around you and then explain why your standard of living is better than that enjoyed by your parents. Eg/ Is it because you have Internet, computers, colour TV, Central heating, a house, a mobile phone? How many material things that you own which contribute to your standard of living came directly from Government? I would say few to none, they almost entirely came from entrepreneurs who took risks with their own capital to produce a product that they believed would make everyone’s life better. As duc pointed out, where the capital comes from is irrelevant (Whether it is gold, fiat, clothing or food) the important point is that the entrepreneur gets what s/he needs to produce the product that they want to provide to consumers at an affordable price.
Issue 2)
Fiat money Vs Sound money
Now this is the main issue:
How much cheaper would the products and services that improved your standard of living be if we were using sound money instead of fiat money?
How much extra leisure time would you be enjoying compared to your parents in order to have the same standard of living they had. In other words, because of all the productivity improvements in manufacturing and all the labour saving inventions we should all be working fewer and fewer hours. As observed with modern consumer electronics, everything should get cheaper with time as production and manufacturing techniques improve.
I don’t know when you were born Jon, but I find it impossible to believe that the following inventions only became affordable since 1971. Not only your parents but I would guess that your grandparents had access to the following inventions which I would say contributed to the greatest improvements in standards of living.
●The first electric powered washing machine was invented in
1907. This labour saving device gave people more leisure time because clothes didn’t need to be washed by hand
●In terms of the lives of average people, there is little doubt that the automobile is the most revolutionary invention in the history of transportation since the wheel. The first automobile to be produced in quantity was the
1901 Curved Dash Oldsmobile, which was built in the United States by Ransom E. Olds. Modern automobile mass production, and its use of the modern industrial assembly line, is credited to Henry Ford of Detroit, Michigan, who had built his first gasoline-powered car in
1896. Ford began producing his Model T in
1908
●The modern world is an electrified world. The light bulb, in particular, profoundly changed human existence by illuminating the night and making it hospitable to a wide range of human activity. The electric light, one of the everyday conveniences that most affects our lives, was invented in
1879 by Thomas Alva Edison
●
1919: Passenger service across the English Channel introduced. Britain and France introduce passenger service across the English Channel, flying initially between London and Paris. 1919 the first nonstop transatlantic flight, from Newfoundland to Ireland.
●Willis Carrier invented air conditioning in
1902
●
1927- Bell Telephone and the U.S. Department of Commerce conduct the first long distance use of television that took place between Washington D.C. and New York City on April 9th. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover commented, “Today we have, in a sense, the transmission of sight for the first time in the world’s history. Human genius has now destroyed the impediment of distance in a new respect, and in a manner hitherto unknown.”
●FM Radio Edwin Howard Armstrong invented frequency-modulated or FM radio in
1933. FM improved the audio signal of radio by controlling the noise static caused by electrical equipment and the earth's atmosphere. Until 1936, all American transatlantic telephone communication had to be routed through England. In that year, a direct radiotelephone circuit was opened to Paris. Telephone connection by radio and cable is now accessible with 187 foreign points.
From the Baltimore Sun in
1991:
Playing politics as our standard of living declines
The MEDIA have begun to focus on America's standard of living.
●Recession news aside, these stories emphasize
long-run income trends: the rising fraction of adult children who live with their parents, the yuppies' conversion to prudent spenders,
the slow growth in income that apparently will extend beyond recession's end
●The root economic problem -- the
collapse of productivity growth and the stagnation of wages -- began in 1973(Ring any bells Jon?) and has been known for some time.
●
In the 1960s productivity growth was strong. The problem was insufficient demand to purchase all that the economy could produce. The solution was the Kennedy-Johnson tax cuts in 1962 and 1964, a solution only Congress could implement.
Since the early '70s, demand has been sufficient, but productivity growth has been weak. (Ding, ding! Creating money, not stuff...money for who...ding ding!)
. 
