[PRCo] Re: infographic from 1941!

Wed Feb 8 22:15:26 EST 2012

Fred

It is not proper to blame unions for inflation.  Absent anything else, all 
union-achieved wage increases do is to divide the whole pie a different way.

Inflation can come, and usually has in the USA, WITH an increase in 
productivity.

Inflation is primarily caused by the government allowing an increase in 
money over and above that required to service growth in the economy 
(assuming there is any REAL growth).  Gresham's Law applies.  No money from 
the era when money was backed by treasure exists in circulation today--it is 
all in the hands of collectors or hoarders.

Why do you think Ron Paul wants to restore the Gold Standard?  (William 
Jennings Bryan would not approve.  I do not know what William Jennings Bryan 
Gwinn would think of this mess!).

Dwight

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementix.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2012 9:24 PM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: infographic from 1941!

> Who are the bastards?   Remember the line in the Pogo cartoon?   "We have 
> met the enemy and he is us?"
>
> Inflation is simply nothing more than increased prices without any 
> increase in productivity.
>
> It would be very difficult to say who was the most guilty of causing 
> inflation.   Management would blame it on the unions.   Of course in the 
> most recent years, it's hard not to blame insurance and banking 
> speculators who think they are worth outlandish salaries.  I remember my 
> father-in-law talking about a man he very much revered who was the CEO of 
> a local bank.   That man spent a lifetime getting his salary up to the 
> point where he could live in a home that today might sell for $500,000. 
> He was very offended in the 1970s when the young kids wanted immediately 
> what he spent a lifetime earning.
>
> I know the man's son ... went to school with him.   Jim said his father 
> always worried about whether his decisions were properly protecting the 
> assets of his depositors.
>
> Amazing isn't it?   A banker who worried about his depositors!
>
> ______________________________________________________________________________________________________
>
> I used 1958, Dwight because I have seen a picture of a Pittsburgh PCC 
> passing a gas station with the advertising sign for regular at 29.9 a 
> gallon.   Well that would have been about $2.999 (or $3.00) in 2008 and go 
> up about 3% a year since then ...  would put it around $3.37 now.   It's a 
> little higher but the difference isn't, in this area, is not much more 
> than the chap who was off by a penny in 1958.
>
> Considering how the American public mortgages their groceries on VISA and 
> Master Card, and how that stupidity hurt them the last time gas went to 
> $4.00 a gallon because they had no cushions in their budgets .... Shall we 
> speculate on what happens if it goes to $10 a gallon in todays greenbacks? 
> Or $15?
>
> Can you imagine what would happen if we were to float up with the rest of 
> the world?  The most recent Nationmaster chart of all the world's 
> countries ... done in 1999 ... shows us with the 101st cheapest gas in the 
> world out of 141 countries.   We were paying around 77 cents a liter ... 
> the second worst was Great Britain at 1.92.  German was $1.49.
>
>     http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ene_gas_pri-energy-gasoline-prices
>
> Multiply the liter prices by 3.96 to get gallon prices ....  .77 x 3.96 is 
> $3.04 in the USA.   In England ... 1.92 x 3.96 = $7.60.
>
> Since then it went up drastically.   We went into a global recession and 
> the price of petroleum crashed.  It's a little higher today.
>
> But Europe always had higher taxes.
>
> You want something more current?
>
>     http://www.drive-alive.co.uk/fuel_prices_europe.html
>
> Multiply the numbers times 3.96 to get gallons and then times $1.35 to get 
> dollars back in December:
>
> England    1.58 x 3.96 x 1.35 = US$ 8.45 a gallon
>
> Germany  1.47 x 3.96 x 1.35 = US$ 7.86 a gallon
>
> Could you imagine our people squealing if they had to actually pay the 
> kind of road taxes they pay imbedded in the gasoline in Europe to drive? 
> In Germany, for example, it is about  $2.51 a gallon.   Helps to keep some 
> of the people on the street cars, trains, busses and eliminate the 
> suburban sprawl.
>
>
>
>
> On Feb 8, 2012, at 8:22 PM, Dwight Long wrote:
>
>>
>> Fred
>>
>> Use 1962.  That way you can apply your 50 year rule and just move the
>> decimal point without having to do burdensome interpolation.
>>
>> At any rate, the result is the same.  Shows what the bastards have done 
>> with
>> the value ???? of our money.
>>
>> Dwight
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
>> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementix.org>
>> Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2012 4:56 PM
>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: infographic from 1941!
>>
>>
>>> $4 in constant dollars, not in inflated dollars.   If you mean $4 in 
>>> 1941
>>> dollars, I would love to see that.   We are no where near that.  Right
>>> now, for example, gas is just a tad more expensive than 1958 at normal
>>> inflation.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Feb 8, 2012, at 4:21 PM, BobDietrich wrote:
>>>
>>>> Then again in 2012/2013 when gas prices hit $4.00 or so.
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementix.org
>>>> [mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementix.org] On Behalf Of 
>>>> Fred
>>>> Schneider
>>>> Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2012 2:06 PM
>>>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementix.org
>>>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: infographic from 1941!
>>>>
>>>> Wouldn't you love to see the same item in 1944 at the height of the war
>>>> with
>>>> gas rationing and then again in 2011?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Feb 8, 2012, at 12:01 PM, Derrick Brashear wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Pittsburgh Regional Planning Association noted how people got downtown
>>>>> in
>>>> 1941:
>>>>> http://nullspace2.blogspot.com/2012/02/traffic-then-traffic-now.html
>>>>>
>>>>> -- 
>>>>> Derrick
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
> 