The Down Sizing of America
 

Have you noticed over the past couple of years that all packaging of products you buy are smaller in quantity or size yet the cost is the same or more than before...

The BK Whopper is not as big as they used to be...

The MD Big Mac is not so big...

Beverages are packaged to contain less...

Can you provide some more examples?

HAH!! A bag of potato chips is now at least half filled with air. :rolleyes:

The past couple of years....!? It's been that way for as long as I can remember! Mostly it's been my DOLLAR that's been getting smaller...I remember when I was in first grade (very long ago). My Mom would give me a dime to buy something on the way home from school( I walked home from school). I would stop at the little grocery store and I could get a candy bar and a coke for 7 cents...or I could spend the whole dime on a toy, like a cap gun, or a yo-yo. That was the toughest decisions I had to make back then. Oh, the good old days...:yesnod:Nowadays you can't even call anybody for a dime!

Yeah, you hear a lot of people complaining that things are getting more expensive. That isn't the case at all. It's just that our money has become WORTH much less, that's all.

Once the Federal Reserve was granted the power to print up money on demand, that pretty much gave the green light to inflation. So here we have a situation of an entity (the US government) that can spend much more money then it makes (via taxes), and can then print up as much money as it wants in order to pay the interest on that deficit spending, or else make uncomfortable political concessions to countries that will loan it funds. Doesn't anyone wonder how China got control of the Panama Canal from the USA?

That has to be what they're doing now with all this "bailout money". Maybe Charlie Crist needs to order a few billion dollars for Florida! It would make it MUCH easier to balence the budget.....:eek:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKc4XFK0iVY

This explains it as well as anything I've heard....too bad he didn't get elected, I think he understands it better than most in Washington...

Yeah, but the drawback to printing up money is that any money you have SAVED becomes worth less. Printing up money really only helps the people who print it up. Once it gets into circulation, then the value drops like a rock. That's why US currency was originally based on a gold standard. The paper money was a representation of something of TRUE value. Now, it's just paper that we all agree on what it is worth. Today I would sell you a gun for 1000 of those dollars. Next month, I may want 2,000 of them because it would take that many of them to buy what I want to buy with them.

When I was a kid in the late 50s, I could take my $1.00 weekly allowance and run to the local grocery store and buy a half gallon of ice cream and a six pack carton of Pepsi and have change left over. Yes, I DID that once... :) How much is that $1 bill worth now in those commodities?

Have I ever showed you that postage stamp I have in my collection from Germany dating 1922 or so that cost the German people 200 MILLION marks to buy? That was for a common POSTAGE STAMP! What do you think a single Mark was worth?

That's why a Corvette in 1973 had an MSRP of $7000.00, and the one built now cost $70,000.00! And I believe if it were not for sales tax, we could do away completely with change (pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters).

Toilet paper (less sheets per roll) :yesnod:,
paper towels (less sheets per roll) :yesnod:,
ground coffee (from a one pound bag to 10 oz in some cases) :yesnod:,
and the list goes on.
And by the way...... what's up with buying a candy bar (fewer oz in the new ones) and finding out that there are 2 servings inside that wrapper :shrug01:????? When I buy ONE friggin' candy bar, I aim to eat the whole damn thing :thumbsup:! Don't give me any of this 2 servings BS :NoNo:! Am I right on this or what ? Can I get an AMEN on that Brothers?
Andy (UNITS) :wavey:
Up North In The Snow for those that must know

Yeah man.... I've heard talk of doing away with the penny. I would resist this. Why? Because once the penny goes away, then sales tax would no longer increase by a penny or a fraction of a penny, it would increase by a nickel!!