By Nathan Barton

This picture appeared today in Laissez Faire , labeled as a “Silicon Valley Fixer-Upper” with an asking price of a mere $800,000 (or, to put it another way, 598 ounces of gold (ozAu), which at the old $20/ounce rate (1787-1935) is a “mere” $12,000.

This is, of course, nuts.

I mean, seriously, folks!

The economy is “better and better,” we are told, based on the “fact” (if we can believe any of it) that oil prices (and therefore the prices of diesel and gasoline and kerosene (jet fuel) continue to climb and supplies are plentiful – indeed the Fifty States are producing MORE oil today than ever in history.  This is because demand is keeping slightly ahead of supply.  There are more trucks and autos on the road, more planes in the air.

But other indicators show that this “boom” is at best a mild one. Millions are still out of work or “underemployed.” Pressure caused by government and the stupid minimum wage laws are driving more and more automation and export of jobs to calling centers and sweatshops in the Third World – and the tariff threats are creating serious problems to boot.  Insane monetary policies and human greed are whipping up inflation, even though the various government and non-government agencies hide the fact constantly. (Go down and buy a bottle of your favorite soda if you don’t believe me – or look at the price of a basic one-pound loaf of plain-jane bread.)

And people stupidly keep on paying more and more for more and more things: vacations must be to exotic locations – local national and state parks, or local forests and resorts are no longer good enough.  Regular, perked coffee is no longer satisfying. Plain, simple clothing which might last for years is out-of-fashion.  More and more meals must be eaten out of the house, to be adequate, much less satisfying.

But the single biggest problem driving up our cost of living, and trying very hard to REDUCE our standard of living, is government involvement and interference.

Government not only spends more money than anyone else (and possibly, more than anyone else combined!), it also sticks its nose into everything, all for the “good of the people” and the next reelection campaign, of course.

Most important, the response of government, from the elected officials right down to the lowest-level bean-counters, to economic news is “what can we do to increase our power and our security.”  Even monetary concerns are a distant third: for them, the money is always there.  There are always more sheep to shear, always more money to print, more to borrow.  So their decisions, which effect the economy more and more, are not based on reality.  No wonder the rest of the population has no idea what is going on.

So the potential for catastrophic failure of the system, for catastrophic collapse of the economy and society, gets larger and larger. If we don’t prepare for this near-inevitability, it just shows that we really are crazy.  Like failing to brake and brace ourselves as our car slides down a icy, glass-like hill to a pile of already-crashed vehicles at the bottom.

Are you prepared?  I know that I am not. Not really.  And you and I may be far more prepared than 95% of our neighbors and fellow denizens of one of the Fifty States.

Mama’s Note: It’s a vicious cycle, the blind leading the blind. Yes indeed, the non-voluntary government has no understanding of a healthy economy, and no interest in one as long as there are people to be controlled and robbed.

Unfortunately, the government indoctrination centers called “schools” for the last 100 years or so have convinced a great many people that they are also entitled to live at other people’s expense, and to control other people through their “votes” – as well as with their constant social blackmail and, ultimately, government force.

The non-voluntary government can’t help but get worse and worse. The very nature of non-voluntary government is to obtain and maintain, grow if possible, the total control – power- over every person and everything else. Government has no other role, goal or purpose in reality. And that won’t change as long as the people they control continue to believe they should control others as well, thinking that the government they believe they control has any legitimate authority. A truly vicious cycle.