Inflation
April 13, 2023 — Second Edit, May 17, 2024
In my brief tour of college at SUNY College at Buffalo, I took an intro course on Economics. I still have the book. I still barely understand the basics. Beyond the existence of two dynamics: micro- and macro-, everything becomes very fuzzy… Not warm and cozy fuzzy, but confusing and overly complex fuzzy…
When I was a kid, candy bars cost a nickel apiece.
Now candy bars can cost over two dollars.
What causes inflation?
One screwed up system called “Capitalism.”
I must be sure the reader understands that I am not talking about any political system — even though they can be screwy, too.
How can one little treat in one lifetime cost 40 times more than when I started? That’s like it kept on doubling every year of my candy bar existence!
The minimum wage in 1950 was 75 cents/hour. So, to have the same dandy bar buying power, a person has to make at least $30.00/hour.
The average price of an average house in 1950 cost between $7,000 and $8,000. Today, “the median price for an existing home — one that’s already standing, not new construction — was $387,600 as of November 2023. (Jan 3, 2024)” — bankrate.com/real-estate/median-home-price
That makes for a monthly mortgage payment between $1,000 and $2,000 per month. Just to make the thousand dollar a month payment would require a paycheck take home of $500 — just to keep a roof over your family’s head.
Okay? I hope I made my point: Capitalism sucks — especially since it has become operative by the famous “Trickle Down” economic model.
Instead, I believe it should be a Percolate Up model.
So, now to the Bible which has two very different perspectives on Economics — one which I think is both way more preferable and way more practical than the other.
- “You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. — James 5:3–5, New International Version.
- The Year of Jubilee, which came every 50th year, was a year full of releasing people from their debts, releasing all slaves, and returning property to those who {had previously} owned it (Leviticus 25:1–13).This year was also dedicated to rest. (see Leviticus 25)
This would have been great for indentured servants — the poor and oppressed that came from Europe — usually Britain or Germany. They would be freed no matter what debt remained on their servitude. It certainly would have demanded a change of the hearts and minds of the Christians of the Antebellum South, too…
Wouldn’t that also be great for us ordinary people today?
Those Jewish laws really developed a beneficial economic system that promoted people over profit — with mercy and justice and generosity and equity… as God had instructed.
By the way, there were economic benefits every seven years, too. It all was written down in the Old Testament — Deuteronomy 15:1–18 and Leviticus 25.
Now, what about us?
Life is hard enough without people oppressing people, the rich lording it over the rest of us.
Read the Bible and seek God’s presence in your life. You just might be pleasantly surprised… His plan always manifests the percolate up model in all areas of our lives. “He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” — Micah 6:8, Berean Standard Bible.
P.S. — I still don’t get Economics 101, but I know right from wrong and that “trickle-down economics” is still evil, that is to say, it is harmful and hurtful to most — except for the few illustrated by #1, above.
