Prices keep getting better

Today, my mother sent me an interesting email.  It was a chain email, one of many that my mother has the bad habit of sending to me but this one reminded me that occasionally you find a diamond in the rough. This email (read the email here) describes some details about how the world has changed since 1909, citing examples such as the average life expectancy of 47 years in those days, the small number of people who went to college, the presence of legalized narcotics and other interesting facts.  Although the observations were interesting, what caught my eye was the changes in prices. 

• Sugar was $.04 a pound
• Eggs were $.14 a dozen

 Clearly the author's intent was to point out how cheap those items were in 1909 but I saw the opposite.  From a real cost, those items were very expensive.  To the casual observer it might look like I'm off my rocker to make this claim but the math is there to support the claim. 

The cost of a product or service can be seen as a way of telling us how many hours we have to work, at our current rate of earnings, to afford an item.  When I say that an item is too expensive for me to buy, what that means is that it would take me too long to earn the extra money to buy the item or that I have the money for the item but, if I brought it, I wouldn't have money left to buy the other things I need so I would have to work even more.  So, in this sense, time does equal money.

For example, the average worker, the author states, made 22 cents per hour back in 1909 but a dozen of eggs cost him 14 cents.  This means that the average American had to work .61 hours to afford a dozen eggs.  (.14 / .22 = .63).  Compare that to today.  Today, the average American earns $20.67 per hour (based on the national wage average index from the Social Security Administration 2008 figures divided by a 2000 work year)  The average cost of a dozen of eggs is now $3.36 per dozen which means that the average American worker now has to work only .16 hours to get a dozen eggs (3.36 / 20.67 = .16) so eggs are cheaper; their prices having declined by 300%.  Using the same method, the price of gas went from .56 hours of work to .12 hours of work or a decrease in actual price of about 80%.  The illusion of products become more expensive is the result of inflation and the rapid increase in earnings resulting from the tremendous growth in productivity in America since 1909.

So prices are actually getting lower.

To highlight the point inflationdata.com has this chart that illustrates the real cost of gasoline over the past 90 years when the price is adjusted for inflation.  After adjusting, you can see that though the price of gasoline was about $.25 per gallon in 1918, in today's inflated dollars, that's the same as spending $3.57 per gallon in today's money.  Long story short....gas really hasn't gotten more expensive overall.

Democracy is little more than Mob Rule

There is a good reason why the United States was not founded as a democracy; because democracy is little more than Mob Rule.

One of my favorite blogs, the Rule of Reason has put up a great post on the topic of Republics vs Democracy

Fears of Flying

Yesterday, some nut tried to blow up a plane in Detroit.  After this article appeared I saw many friends commenting on Facebook that incidents like these are the reason some of them don't fly.  I'd like to point out that such thinking is evidence of a total lack of understanding of any facts.  Most of these people get in and out of their cars every day and think nothing of it, without questioning that fact that riding in a car is the single most dangerous thing most of them will do in their lifetimes.  I'd like to point out some facts.

Considering the fact that every day 115 people die in car accidents in the US alone and no one has died on an airliner in quite a while, flying on an airliner is still safer than driving to work.  Cars are so dangerous that they are the leading killer of older teens (38%), meaning, your teenager is safer in the army in Kabul than in a car in Idaho.  In fact, care are SO dangerous that for each of us, our lifetime risk of dying in our car is 1:84 exceeded only by stroke, cancer, and heart disease.  However, we have to remember that cancer, stroke, and heart disease are NATURALLY occurring which means that they occur despite anything that we do so they are not comparable to car/airplane travel and so must be taken out of the comparison.  In fact, natural causes must be taken out in their entirety because we don't control them, we can only influence them to a limited degree.

So here are the things most likely to kill you in the US, by death rate (according to the US Census):

1.  Automobile accidents 15.1
2. Drug OD 12.8
   
3. Suicide 11.1 
4. Guns 10.3
   
5. Accidental poisoning 9.2

Airline accidents are so small in number that the Census doesn't even bother accounting for them individually.  NOTHING is more dangerous an activity than cars.  

What Is a "Right" and is healthcare a "right"?

This writeup does a great job of explaining in clear logical terms why health care is not and cannot be a "right" and why the republicans are just as wrong, from a moral and logical point of view, as the democrats. A great read for real liberals who understand what liberalism really means.

The only thing I would change out of this article is that the author says "A right is a gift from God that extends from our humanity." whereas, as an athiest, I think that our rights arise, not from god but from the nature of humans as organisms. Since man must produce his livelihood with his own effort, he has to have certain rights (right to action, right to choose, etc) to produce his livelihood.

What Is a Right?

Cap & Trade Already Infiltrated by Organized Crime

Typical of all victimless crimes (drugs, alcohol, prostitution, gambling), the carbon Cap & Trade system in Europe has already been infiltrated by fraud and organized crime which, according to Interpol.  That's no surprise, though, when you consider that victimless crimes and any politically manufactured market will always be infiltrated by organized crime.  For example, the prohibition of alcohol in the US created an unprecedented rise in criminal activity which slowed when it was repealed.  The situation again appeared when the Federal Government put its clamps on narcotics creating a rise in violent crime on a global scale unprecedented in human history.

In fact, the environmental "market" has already been infiltrated by organized fraud in the US.

Cap and Trade Fraud

And before any of the lefties out there say "how can you believe anything from FOX news who are those right wing fanatics who make 'fake' news"....blah blah blah.  Shut up unless you can disprove the facts.  If you have no evidence of false news, please stop making unfounded accusations.  Lets not forget, ALL news sources are biased.  Your argument that FOX is tainted so you shouldn't believe anything from FOX is based on what is known as the "Ad Hominem" fallacy and is one of the fundamental logical thinking traps that causes failure in reasoning skills. 

Here are other articles about the same thing
Article
Article

So why are we opting for more legislation that will create more laws and restrictions on people's rights in order to get everyone to "obey"?  Especially in light of the fact that we still haven't established anthropogenic global warming as a fact and there is still tremendous scientific and political disagreement on the proposed theory.

Green Cult Gets Aggressive when confornted with facts

Here's a common example of what those of us who question the Global Warming Theory encounter when raising questions: blind hatred and tactics to silence opposition.  Scientists fired from jobs, challenging questions ignored, skeptics assaulted by fanatics.

Climate Cultists Assault Global Warming Skeptic During Live Interview 

During a live interview...a skeptic is assaulted by a global warming follower.  Yes, I say "follower" because the behavior is very much like a religion because : 

A) Despite scientific evidence to the contrary, people still want to believe it

B) People can't prove the point of global warming any more than they can prove their religion so, in what should be rational discussion, they try to resolve the argument by silencing dissenting opinion through intimidation, anger or violence.

Gore Refuses ClimateGate Questions, UN Official Disconnects Mic

 Interviewer tries to question Gore about ANOTHER lie he got caught in but Gore refuses to answer.  UN official illegally disconnects the microphone.  (They don't have the legal right to do that)

The End of "White" America by 2050

The US Census predicts that the America will no longer consist of a "White" majority by about 2050.

White Majority Article

One area where I realize this will have an impact, is in the diversity initiatives of many companies.  As a manager in a large organization, I wonder what Diversity implementations will look like in the workplace of the future.  I imagine that we will start seeing managers who were previously "minorities" being trained on cultural sensitivity toward whites; Latinos being trained in the workplace on dealing with WASPs in the workplace, etc. This change won't eliminate the need for diversity initiatives but certainly will change the focus of it.  In fact, it will probably increase the need for Diversity initiatives as the relationship between the "white" majority and other ethnic/racial groups is forever altered.