There weren't malls or 'life-style-centers' when you were elected, or credit cards--but commerce still flourished when you were President. Why? Well for the same reason commerce thrives in this century...Though supported mostly with 'plastic' and more recently an algorithm [currency] maintained by vast amounts of electricity ...
EASY CREDIT: Once upon a time there was the Gold Standard that limited governments to the amount of money, they could circulate based on their total gold reserves on hand.
This meant [oh gosh] governments had to not only present a budget- they also had to follow that budget. [Those were the days.]
However, our federal-slight-of-hand money magicians claimed that due to the hording of gold by the populace during the depression and following war years--the Gold Standard limited the government's ability to support more economic growth... O-k-a-y
Since then--gauging the skill of those in positions of elected office mange fiscal policy--you already know how well this has worked. Cause spoiler alert it's now 2022. Deficit-spending [by definition is an oxymoron] that creates debt--for you and me. What follows - more often than not also causes an increase in taxes to pay for the government's deficit-spending spree...
But how to keep the masses distracted and happy and 'believing' they're moving forward?
Prior to 1970 credit cards were not stacked in the wallets of every working adult like a multiple-choice filing system. Buy now-pay-later for the average consumer was limited to revolving credit with several neighborhood merchants or specific department stores. Dinners Club and American Express was typically limited to high income executives and business travelers. Beginning in 1958 a very enterprising Bank of America think-tank leader in California, by the name of Joseph P. Williams saw how creating a single credit system would be more convenient for the average consumer and less of a risk for local merchants than so many revolving lines of credit.
From Joseph's flash of inspiration there and then--VISA was born, and the consumer has been making monthly payments on everything imaginable ever since...We got sucked fast into accounting quicksand with no concept of what that piece of plastic truly meant.
At first all retail, restaurant and service businesses like salons and barbers were thrilled because initially people stopped worrying about prices. This was a fun new toy. We could leave our cash in the bank. The common shopping battle cry was "charge-it"! We were spending drunks until the statement arrived in the mail and at.18 people like me [with less sense than an earthworm] almost went blind with shock. My dad very calmly explained to me that when I charged $100 - then spent that same $100 from my savings account for other expense then I was short $100. In other words, in debt. Fortunately, I learned that credit-card lesson well when I was young and still living at home.
Decades later when my husband and I had three offspring in college at the same time--our mailbox averaged 11 credit card "invitations" a week for these same three people who had yet to graduate and still wouldn't have gainful employment for several more years!
So, for decades and decades our GDP has been built largely on a pyramid of plastic. Retail sales would not be as robust as they have been without the credit card.
VIRTUAL RETAIL SHOPPING: But with modern technology--retail and investment and 'shopping' is even more exciting though somewhat riskier especially if the electricity goes out or a few satellites fail...
The world of cryptocurrency that arrived first called Bitcoin caught on as an investment by a slick promotional marketing campaign designed to pick the pockets of people with more money than good sense. By convincing backers, they could store profits [any amount of ill-gotten gains] from the scrutiny of arbitrary government control [thus jail or taxes] and earn a higher return--what was basically a pyramid scheme caught bullet-speed attention.
[coin] asset by which actual borrowed or hard-earned money was deposited somewhere in cyberspace...
Since January 2018 the S&P 500 shot up 78%. Just the sheer volume of millions of actual dollars--that became billions in four short years forced the attention of New York as well as global stock markets to list Bitcoin and the other 150+ cryptocurrency sellers. Transaction fees and steady deposits made this market class valued at over 919 Billion as of July, 2022--down from just over 1+ Trillion in May.
But tossing money into cyberspace gets even more fun -or more absurd - depending on one's perspective. Now let's pretend. We can go shopping for digital real estate in an imaginary location or buy digital art and/or fashion -with- some of that simulated computer-generated currency.
Amazingly enough "Le Musee Imaginaire" isn't new to this century. In a 1972 French documentary producer Maurice Bejart projected moving images on various surfaces. for his concept of an imaginary museum. Okay-what am I missing? I understand the desire to escape reality once in a while-but have an entire generation of people been teleported to a mental Twilight Zone? And just how will a digital fur coat keep anyone warm outdoors in Calgary, Alberta in January? Or how does a digital meal provide nourishment? Can hardly wait to hear those explanations...
ADDITIVES, PRESERVATIVES & DYES: Did the downhill slide of our society begin with Froot Loops?
With easy credit, simplicity of online shopping and convenient delivery to your door the distinction between 'want' and 'need' hasn't blurred it's evaporated. And about the only event that forces most consumers to evaluate their consumption is either a personal loss of income or general inflation--like what's happening now...
From the snack aisle of our favorite grocery store we head down the cereal aisle where to be more accurate the cardboard box in which most of those products are contained has more nutritional value with less salt, sugar, gluten and unpronounceable chemicals to maintain a freshness. If we were still sending people into the afterlife in pyramids, then Fruit Loops and Lucky Charms and Count Cholula and all of the others along with crackers, cookies and candy would still be safe for archeologists to eat 100 years from now. Yikes...!
Question: is all of those preservatives, dyes and stabilizers preserving and stabilizing us or are they causing allergies, sensitivities or latent health issues as we age? Just curious...
Sherrie Todd-Beshore is an award-winning mystery suspense novelist and former journalist
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