A scene you could see in any American home today.

Wife: Billy needs another pair of sneakers. The ones I bought him last month are already worn out.

Husband: How much is that going to cost us?

Wife: You can probably find cheap ones on sale for $25.00.

Husband: Hell, can’t you do better than that? I have to take my car to the workshop this week.

Wife: That’s the best I can do. He needs shoes. Buying cheap shoes doesn’t fix anything anyway, they’ll wear out quickly and we’ll have to buy more in a month or so.

Husband: How much do good shoes cost, shoes that will last?

Wife: $100-$125, easy.

Husband: HOLY $%^&!!! That’s crazy!

Wife: You have to give me some money today anyway, the baby is out of diapers and formula.

Husband: What, you think I’m an ATM? I already have two jobs! Because you’re not here

buying things on sale at the supermarket instead of name brands all the time.

Wife: I hate those cheap brands, they are horrible. Name brands are better. Cheap brands are useless and you end up spending more money on things that wear out quickly or don’t work, like shoes.

Husband: Then you will have to do better to reduce household expenses, I can’t afford more than I am. I don’t have it. We don’t have to eat steak twice a week, you know?

Wife: Why do I always have to find ways to stretch the dollar? You always blame me. Why don’t you get a better paying job? I’m tired of living like this.

Husband: I’m doing the best I can. The gas continues to rise. Taxes, tolls and everything else keep increasing. We have to do something or we will be on the street. Don’t use the air conditioning all day for example, you are increasing the bill.

Wife: It’s too hot for the baby. He cries a lot when he is uncomfortable and extreme temperatures are dangerous for him.

Husband: I guess you’re right, but I don’t know what else to do. There isn’t enough money anymore. Does something have to give somewhere?

Who in this economy isn’t tired of being broke? This scene is too common. How many families are struggling just to make ends meet and losing all their savings in the process. That’s not even the worst. Unemployment is at 8%, foreclosures are at an all-time high, and while the government may say inflation is only 2%, it sure seems a lot higher when you’re at the gas pump or buying a bar. of bread. How many people do you know who don’t have a job or are struggling to find it? How many foreclosures do you see driving down the street?

Let’s face it, the economy has been in trouble since the housing bubble burst in 2008, but in reality, the US economy has been in trouble for quite some time. The American dream has become the daily nightmare of too many people. In this article, part 1 of a 2 part series, we will examine the reasons why the US dollar, and most other world currencies, appear to be shrinking. Instead of seeing and hearing fortune stories these days, look around you and all you see and hear are fortune stories. Statements like the following are very common:

“If only I had a few more dollars left over after paying the bills.”

“I can’t seem to get the dollar to stretch enough to make ends meet.”

“The dollar doesn’t seem to go as far as it used to.”

Unfortunately, this is all too true. How did we get this way? What happened to the great American industrial economy that used to lead the world in production, which has now led the world into a seemingly endless recession? Did we get lazy? Are we becoming obsolete in a global economy?

Not quite.

Maybe it’s not us, the American people, who are broke. Perhaps it is the almighty US dollar that is broken, destroyed by an ongoing fiscal policy that has robbed the present to pay past debts over many decades at the expense of the future, and that future has caught up with us.

The American economy was originally based on the exchange of hard commodities for goods and services. Furs, cattle, vegetables, and dairy products were exchanged for weapons and tools. Hard commodities like gold and silver, as has been the case around the world over the centuries, were exchanged as currency for the services and goods of doctors. In the case of the United States, specifically thanks to the gold boom in California in the 1840s and 1850s, gold became the main commercial asset used by citizens and the public. The gold standard became the norm. Gold in the United States was money. Banks exchanged IOUs for gold, allowing people to safely park their gold at banks. The value of one dollar of gold (one ounce) was equal to a $1 promissory note. Bank customers could earn interest by depositing their gold in the banks and could redeem these notes for their gold at any time. This exchange was the basis for the cash we use today. The promissory note, or “cash,” was a contract, a bond that entitled the holder to redeem the merchandise from him at any time.

America hummed for many years, growing steadily at a healthy rate. The trade was good. The production was fantastic. But then this fragmented nation, made up of independent states united as one union, came to a crossroads. The federal government wanted, or felt it needed, more power to unionize the states so that everyone in the country would keep the same rights and laws. Slavery became an issue between the North and the South. States’ rights became the mandate in the South and federal power the will in the North, causing great friction in Congress and at home. This dispute grew until the Civil War finally began in 1861. In Part 2 of this 2-part series, we’ll examine how Lincoln and the Civil War started the economy on its downward spiral, and how many administrations since then have furthered that spiral. .