WHEN A DOLLAR ISN'T A DOLLAR

"There is a misconception in America that wages have risen at the same rate as price inflation, when this is simply not the case. The median household income in the U.S. was $11,800 in 1975 and today is $49,777. If you go by the government's CPI, $11,800 in 1975 dollars equals $47,208 in today's dollars. If the government's CPI is to be believed, Americans are earning higher real incomes today than 35 years ago. However, the truth is, once you discount the effects of geometric weighting and hedonics, the median household income in 1975 of $11,800 actually equals $154,000 in today's dollars. This explains how in 1975, a father was able to support a family on just one income and college students were able to afford their own tuition with just a part-time summer job. Today, both parents need to work and families need to get deeply into debt just to survive."

To read this article in its entirety go to the National Inflation Association website.

This is the thing that most don't understand about life in America today. When I talk to older people they can't figure out why its so hard for my family to make ends meet when we make SO MUCH MONEY! Well sure, compared to what they were making and supporting their families on in the '70's and earlier it sounds like we're rich. But when you compare what it takes today to equal what they were earning in spending power back then, we're paupers.

And the younger generation has grown up in this world of devalued dollars and they just accept that this is the way its always been. They think that it's normal and natural to see this huge divide in wealth. They see nothing at all unusual that some of their friends drive new cars to school and go on vacations every year while others live on food stamps.

The neighborhood I grew up in was truly diverse. There were carpenters, doctors, bankers, plumbers, factory workers and just about every other member of the middle class you could think of. Some made more than others but not obscenely more. The doctor earned more than the plumber but they could both afford steak once a week and make the bills. Most had a weekend place or went on vacations. Our houses were nice and the yards were well kept. Parents just took it as a matter of faith that their kids would do better than them. I grew up in post war middle class America and damn it was NICE!

My kids never saw that. We worked every bit as hard as our parents but we could never get as far. I even had the same job my dad had with different companies, yet I was never able to achieve the same level of affluence as he did. Why? Because I never made as much in inflation adjusted dollars as he did for the same work. As a matter of fact, over time the wages for the same job actually fell, further compounding the problem.

So the old post war middle class was destroyed. Some moved into the new middle class mostly made up of doctors, lawyers, investment guys and other professionals (whatever that means) while the blue collar middle class slowly faded away. Now a guy in the blue collar world is lucky to make $40,000 a year while the guys in the new middle class make well over $100,000.

While prices have risen commensurate with the salaries of the new middle class a great huge chunk of America was left to wallow in debt and frustration. Some of us accepted this new reality while others pretended that nothing had ever changed. That's how we got banks lending money to people that couldn't afford it just trying to get a little of what their parents had before them. The banks took advantage of the collapse of the blue collar working class and actively conspired with our politicians to foist a lie on the people so that they could enslave them, seize their property and collapse the system into a new world order controlled by the bankers themselves.

We've been lied to; bought and sold. We were told that the American dream was still alive when in reality they started sucking the life out of it in the '70's, the last time Americans saw true wage increases. Since then we've been in a slow death spiral leading up to today.

Everything is ready for the emergence of a new world order where the powerful few control all of us and everything around us. We're in the early stages of the collapse now and I expect that it'll start accelerating at a much quicker pace in the next few months.

Prepare your selves for the new reality. Sure, buy some food and other essentials while you can still afford it; you'll need it. But more importantly, prepare mentally. We're entering a new way of life where it's going to be tougher than anything we ever thought we'd see here in America. Third world tough. We've absolutely got to get our minds wrapped around this. If we don't, it'll kill us.

And pray. Start to learn to talk to God so that you can start to learn to listen. It's the listening that's important. We'll not be left alone but we have to be open to the promptings of the Spirit.

Please get ready because our time is short. Those of us that have done at least some minimal preparation won't be able to support all those that haven't. We are all responsible for the decisions we make so choose wisely.