We've heard a lot about inflation all our lives, and how it's so evil that our money isn't backed by silver.

It is with interest, therefore, I read Thomas Jefferson's Memoir. In 1782, he wrote, they were trying to deal with various currencies in circulation. Robert Morris did some work, trying to come up with a unit that would be a common divisor of the penny in use in each state, and found that a unit that was 1/1440 of a dollar would work nicely.

He said this unit was also evenly divisible into british money, with 1600 units being worth a crown. A crown was worth a quarter of a british pound, and the british pound was equal in value to a pound of sterling silver.

What's A Grecian Earn?

At that rate, what's a pound worth? $4.44. That's about what a pound was worth back in the 1950s, as well. If the dollar is worth about the same today, in 1950, and in 1782, that suggests that inflation is not the big problem that we've always been told, and it says that Ron Paul's assertion that so-called "fiat money" is less desirable than money backed by precious metal.

Incidently, Jefferson said that a loaf of bread was worth 1/20 of a dollar, a pound of butter 1/5 of a dollar, a horse or bull was worth $80.

The national debt at that point was $80 million. The population back then was 2,780,000, so the national debt ran about $28.78 per person. This, however, was at a time when average income was about $160 per person - about 18% of the GDP.

Per Capita National Debt

Today's per-capita national debt is $46,197.22 - 98% of the annual income. However, debts need to be balanced with assets. If someone has a mortgage of $10 million on property worth $100 million, he's not impoverished, he's wealthy. Our national assets far outweigh our national debt.

We could sell, for instance, the interstate highway system? It's over 65,000 miles of first class highway, highly suitable for conversion into toll roads. It costs $39 million to build a mile of freeway. That's 2.5 trillion dollars to build the interstate system. The whole national debt is only 14 trillion.

Or consider land. Uncle Sam owns 21% of the land in the contiguous 48 states, and 60% of the land in Alaska. Wouldn't you like a nice plot for a retirement home? About 60% of the land in the US is used for agricultural purposes, and it's worth an average $1692 per acre. If you only sold the farmland owned by Uncle Sam, you could get another trillion dollars, and you could get a premium price for properties with a high recreational value, such as the Grand Canyon, or Yellowstone, or the Grand Tetons.

Playing Hardball

And if the Democrats in Congress want to play hardball with the GOP, they need to meet the gut-Medicare proposal with a proposal of their own.

Gutting the US Navy is actually a quite reasonable proposal. There are no seafaring nations that present a threat to us, only some ragtag pirates near Somalia that threaten other countries more than they threaten us. It's expensive to maintain it, and it takes so long to get a warship into position that it's nearly useless in today's wars.

So Sell The Navy

So propose eliminating the US Navy except for the Marines, selling off the fleet, propose selling the Interstate Highway System to a toll road operator, propose selling the National Park System to Disney and other amusement park operators, propose selling off all the federal lands.

In exchange, of course, for ending the tax subsidy to the ultra-wealthy, those who aren't just millionaires, those who have a million in net worth, but those who are earning a million or more every year.

Other Bloggers On Related Topics:
Disney - Grand Canyon - Interstate Highways - national debt - Pound Sterling - Robert Morris - Ron Paul - Thomas Jefferson - US Navy - Yellowstone