By

John Wright

Inflation, serious inflation, is not something that we have to wait to experience. Simply look at current food and fuel prices. There is no maybe about the reality of high inflation now relative to only four years ago, except for the destroyed housing market. Those who consider the downstream consequences of the diluting of our dollar via QE2 and earlier and current creations of funny money know without even having to think about it that the prices for goods and services will increase in proportion to the dilution in value of the USA dollar. This truth isn’t even questionable.

The real issue for those of us who had good careers but are presently on the bottom of the income heap due to retirement is how to respond to yet more inflation if/when we cannot increase our current sources of income. Those who are working and who will be working in the future will have their incomes increased gradually to reflect inflation. Thus, as prices elevate so will incomes for those folks who are reasonably employed, which typically means those with higher education in areas important to businesses. Unless, of course, the jobs can be offshored! The rest of us have the choice of trying to enhance our incomes by working extra jobs that typically pay poorly, but that is the only available income increase choice for many folks, especially older folks.

Gone are the dreams of a comfortable retirement, for our fixed incomes like pensions are not being increased to reflect inflation. They have not been increased since the distant past (1995 for me) to accommodate inflation, so we are far behind where we have a right to expect to be current with costs as our former employers stay current with their price increases and revenue streams. Social Security has not been increased now for two years, with the bald lying by our federal government that inflation hasn’t happened … at least by the way they measure inflation. All of a sudden the implications of living on a fixed income have become all too real, including such things as ever higher out of pocket and premium related health and health insurance costs. Inflation we see now for food and fuel are the crowning touch as we know both will become significantly more severe in the next five to ten years.

The tax revenue disasters that have accompanied our national job losses due to offshoring have finally come home to roost at the state and local levels. Many states and localities are in deep trouble and they will add to the unemployment problem at the same time they will increase all forms of taxes to try to make up for tax revenue shortfalls. Rest assured your property tax will increase every year for the foreseeable future. Rest assured your state will add sales and income taxes, if they presently lack those revenue sources, and the ones that have those taxes already will increase the rates. These things are not even arguable. They are reality. The only reality.

Thus we folks close to the bottom of the heap of formerly well-employed people in retirement are in trouble. We have been fraudulently ruined financially by immoral financial practices of government, the Federal Reserve, the banks and the major corporations. And we are not alone. All USA citizens except the wealthy will suffer a lot as the next few years unfold. Even Senator Ron Paul has spoken multiple times on television to let us know how the Federal Reserve has completely undermined our future. And he is warning us that the USA federal government is going to execute military actions in Libya and elsewhere … and that such a foolish move will ultimately bankrupt our country.

To think about downsizing our standard of living under even present conditions is not even a question. It is happening and it will continue to happen at an increased rate. Thus we have to ask ourselves how we and ordinary younger people can best adapt to the inflation reality. That is what this article is about … fighting it instead of caving in like sheep.

In a capitalistic society there are certain assumptions made about consumer spending that, when true, support business profits, but not necessarily consumer standard of living. The key point for us to consider is how to disrupt the classic behavior of an out of control market economy, for to allow our devolution to continue is foolish if we have any means at all to control and possibly reverse that devolution.

The title of the article states that we actually vote with our money, and that form of voting is thousands of times more powerful in results than any asinine scheduled regular form of voting for people for political offices. Money talks, bullshit walks … I’m sure most of us have heard that old reality check more than once. It is true, and it doesn’t just include the power of the wealthy, for in combination the citizens have the cash flow and the means to control where it goes, excepting taxes. Consumer spending is two thirds of the GDP. It is time to use that club to bludgeon the criminals in government and banks and other corporations into submission.

So, how does one go about voting with their money? Campaign contributions? That is a total absurdity. You vote by punishing the worst of the offenders who have perpetrated and continued our financial demise. Stop playing their game. If they can deflate the value of your homes then why don’t you deflate their profits by curtailing all but critical expenditures until they capitulate? Haven’t we all been advised many times in the past by our leaders to become a nation of net savers? Let’s look at what will happen if we do just that.

We all have to spend certain amounts of money just to eat, purchase prescription medicines, drive our cars some minimum amount for employment and food purchases, pay our electric bills and heat our homes. Now the question becomes what amount of money are you spending beyond your barest necessities? You can figure that out rather quickly. Now suppose you start allocating the remainder as punishment savings, in which you purchase that very gold that, only temporarily seems to be so highly priced. All of a sudden demand for goods and services for non-essentials plummets. This hits large corporations and banks and non-essential services where it hurts the most. You take the cream off the top.

So, you can cut your gasoline consumption in half easily. You can ignore all expensive foods and clothing. Forget about movies, vacations, toys of any sort, club memberships, restaurants and anything but the barest necessity medical expenses.

This will knock the waste out of the economy and so reduce federal tax revenues that the federal government will be forced to stop and reverse military opportunism and all forms of idiotic expenses and expenditures at the federal level for resulting significant reduction of tax income. Medicare and Medicaid will have to be curtailed for lack of income, and that will finally drive the cost of medical goods and services down where they belong. So will Social Security. So it should due to government abuse of moneys essentially stolen from us. More important, so will the major corporations who have raped us have to cut prices. You can drive federal government behavior by controlling their purse strings through cutting the GDP. Lowered number and amount of purchases equals lower taxes collected, which at this time is extremely effective given the massive levels of federal debt that have been caused by federal policies that are destroying your life. Let Wall St. hang out to dry.

I call it a silent revolution and a vote of non-confidence that cannot be fought by government and banks and large corporations against the common citizens. Do you send the National Guard in to force the citizens to fill their gas tanks? The fear tactics that will be employed regarding job losses can be addressed by sharing what we do have with each other for subsistence living for as long as it takes to undermine the criminals in government, banks and other large corporations. We stop playing their game, period. We strongly reduce imports from China by refusing to buy any product that is other than critical.

As might be expected, there will be massive deflation as demand plummets, and that will work on your behalf, for you have the gold or even cash you have saved and you can apply that power as you see fit. There will be reduction of available essentials as well, and you will have to start providing for part of your food requirements by growing food. So what? The Federal Reserve has publicly warned against deflation as if that would be a national economic failure. For whom is it a failure? Think about it.

As to your mortgages, have an amortization schedule created that reflects an interest rate of no more than 3% per annum, and pay only that amount each month. Foreclosures will cease, for at a certain elevated point in sheer volume they are nonsensical, and the destructive gas will be knocked out of banking by the force of the citizenry refusing to pay high interest rates, for anything. As to home values, does it matter? Are you winning now? Do the same thing with your credit card balances. Pay back what you owe at no interest rate higher than 3% per annum. Don’t ever use the cards again.

What do you think will happen to the GDP? It is obvious it can be reduced easily by 20% or more. There must be a lot of pain for us as individuals to take these actions, but you have to realize that the pain is only temporary. What you are doing is destroying three massive types of criminal enterprises simultaneously and peacefully, for what could take as little as one year or as long as five years. They simply cannot fight back as any attempts to force the citizenry to bend will result in real revolution everywhere in the USA.

The part that most of us don’t realize is that participation doesn’t even have to exceed a third of the people to be completely effective, for our government(s) are in massive debt now and they have no backup resources. Take the cream off the top and all the large corporations, banks and governments will have no choice but to stop their destructive activities that demean us and ruin our lives.

Vote with your money? You bet. Make them change soon before they totally wreck you. Force your government to stop military adventurism and dilution of our currency. Force your banks and large corporations to shift the wealth distribution back where it belongs. The citizens own the USA, not the government and not the banks and not the other large corporations, and it is time to take it back and use it for our needs and to the benefit of our lives now and into the future. Or perhaps you are content with leaving a slave legacy for your descendants? Are you?

Vote with your money.