Effects of the Federal Reserve

Squeezing the Middle Class


TITLE: Our World In Conflict by Martin Larson - Spotlight August 24, 1992

SUBJECT MATTER: Economic effects of the Federal Reserve

SYNOPSIS: Specific economic effects are related to future scenarios involving homeownership so that the average person can understand.

OUR WORLD IN CONFLICT by Martin A. Larson (Spotlight August 24, 1992 - "Middle Class Squeezed")

As I have previously noted in this column, the financiers who actually control our government do not want a strong, numerous and well organized middle class to exist. Otherwise, it might demand and possibly attain the republic envisioned by our Founding Fathers - one that would operate for the benefit of the people, establish reasonable taxes, encourage strong family units and enable tens of millions of people to create estates capable of guaranteeing their political and financial independence.

Let us examine the record of the Federal Reserve after it was created in 1913 on the assurance there would be no more panics, depressions, inflation, or deflation. It is permitted a period of prosperity through 1919 during which great numbers of farmers borrowed to improve their homesteads. In 1920, however, the financiers caused a severe depression; and when the farmers could not make payments, their properties were confiscated. Hundreds of thousands lost everything.

Something similar had happened in Virginia in 1816; and in 1875 in Sweden when my grandfather lost the farm and home which had been in his family for generations. It is an old, old story.

After several good years following 1922, the middle class of entrepreneurs increased greatly in numbers and resources; but this was not to continue, for in 1929-30 the financiers decreed the greatest depression in American history. The numerous class of small business people was virtually eliminated; money practically disappeared from the American scene. Millions of small entrepreneurs went bankrupt, and the financiers took possession for a mere pittance.

DEVASTATING WAR

Then in 1941, the bankers found another way to enrich themselves at the expense of the people. They plunged the nation into a devastating war, which in four years increased the national debt from $50 billion to $260 billion. On most of this, they collected interest from the American taxpayers.

In 1933 the Roosevelt administration took the country off the gold standard and required all citizens to turn in their gold coins, worth $35 per ounce, for $20 per ounce in Federal Reserve Notes. Such currency was redeemable for silver coins until the 1960's, when the promise was broken and the stage was set for unlimited inflation.

In the last decade or two, the financiers found a new way to keep hardworking producers struggling to make ends meet. They have increased prices, especially on real estate, to a point where these increase at a faster rate than do the incomes of wage and salaried workers, which like Social Security annuities, are heavily taxed by the government.

The result is that a young couple finds it extremely difficult to ever own a decent and unencumbered residence.

GLORY DAYS

In the old days, America's glory days, you did not have to kill yourself to try to own a home. But today things are very different indeed.

Let us say that when reaching the age of 30, a couple has saved $30,000 to be used as a down payment on a house costing $150,000, with a 30 year mortgage at 10% interest. The monthly payments will be about $1,200 and will total $432,000.

The couple would need a gross income of about $70,000 a year in order to support a family of four or five in a decent standard of living. And even so, they would be 60 years old before achieving freedom from this debt.

Fortunate indeed are those who inherit a debt-free home from their parents or who have some other source of help. Years ago, the young were expected to help their aging parents financially, but now it is the other way around.

Society cannot go on like this. America is in desperate straits. And don't forget, when this couple is old and facing retirement, there may not be any Social Security to help them survive. How will this couple then help out the younger generation? They will not be in a position to do so.

Consider, also, the difficulties a young family today may encounter during the 30 year period when they are trying to pay for a home. Sickness may strike; family earners can lose their jobs, which employers may export to some foreign country, in accordance with the Establishment's policy.

Life is for sure a perilous journey; and lucky indeed are those who can live well on the husband's sole income, leaving the wife free to care for the home and the children.

Our problems are almost entirely due to the greed of the moneychangers whose craving for profit and domination is without limit or mercy.

Let's start putting America first.

Can't we send some statesmen to Washington who will do something about all this? Consider this question carefully, and, when opportunity offers, consider entering the struggle yourself.

[END]


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