To the editor,
To date, no one has presented thisview point on the proposed school bond issue. It is more important than any issue already presented. Please consider this discourse.
Everything man encounters has a cyclical nature, with economics being one of the most pronounced. Recent observers, having no interest in jading their reports, detect no meaningful economic recovery. An important to note: officialdom makes favorable reports while having a documented history of lying. As the saying goes: Figures don’t lie, but liars figure. Many figure that our economy won’t collapse to the level seen when I was young.
“I remember reports of livestock sent to Chicago, one of few markets available then, and the seller received payment less than the trucking bill. Corn was six cents a bushel.”
Two things helped bring recovery, WorldWar II and economic pump priming. The latter is not available today. Recent Federal Reserve and government manipulative additions to the money supply have been massive multiples of any earlier pump priming infusions. The result has barely kept the economy afloat.
The 1930-40 recovery era was based ona long term manufacturing economy in growth mode, the United States was a formidable creditor nation, and currency had not yet morphed to a fiat status (by President Nixon’s action. By edict, we, the people, accept this as the viable medium for trade and value even though it is not backed by gold or anything of tangible value.Thus, it is nothing but a piece of printed paper, though it is pretended to be backed by equally worthless bonds).
What hope is there now when each of these strong economic factors has turned negative? Recent junk iron price was $65/ton while the cycle high exceeded $300/ton. Historically junk iron price has been a good indicator of economic health. Decreased farm commodity prices have usually preceded a drop in the broad economy. Corn and soybean prices have dropped dramatically.
The United States and world are being destabilized politically, economically, morally, and religiously. Destabilization is obvious from daily news reports.reported examples of an ineffective “Washington Cartel” is the Democratically controlled Senate couldn’t construct a lawfully mandated national budget for at least six years and the federal government doesn’t use commonly accepted accounting practices.
The nation faces tremendous unresolved problems with extreme consequences that have not been resolved or even addressed. The nation and whole world are drowning in debt which rational calculations indicate cannot be repaid. Yet the solution offered by those who contracted those debts is to add more debt. Does this solution sound insane? (The definition of insanity: “To do the same thing over and over again and expect different results.” – Albert Einstein.)
Government locally, nationally, and world-wide is now the responsibility of a generation that has not known severe economic depression and has been nurtured in an atmosphere of expecting instantaneous gratification, mostly because of the advent of the computer age. Why put our local economy in the same jeopardy as the national economy? And recall Mr. Berg’s calculation of a 62 year return on investment for this bond issue (GreeneCountyNewsOnline, 8/30/2015). The current voting populace will be dead in 62 years. My suggestion is vote NO for this bond issue.
Robert Holz and Kristi Holz Berg, Rippey
