The Conservative View: Paychecks and Payment Books

This week's Conservative View, by Adair County Commissioner and conservative activist Russell Turner (R-Stilwell).

The Conservative View
by Russell Turner

Paychecks and Payment Books

We Americans have become a people that, for the most part doesn’t ask what something costs but rather how much our payments will be. Whenever we want to purchase something we want to know if our paycheck is large enough to cover the additional payments that will be required for the new purchase. When I was growing up most of my neighbors, like my parents, tried to avoid going into debt for anything. Many of them lived through the great depression and knew firsthand the pitfalls of being in debt. They understood that anything that you owe for can potentially belong to someone else if you fail to make the monthly payment. I can remember one of my grandfathers telling the story about the time during the depression that he almost lost his home because he owed a small amount of money on it and the payment was due and he had no job or cash to make his payment; fortunately he had a friend that was able to loan him the funds to save his home. Making payments based upon what your paycheck is can be a risky form of economics. Even in the best of times there can be downturns that can cause any of us to be without an income for a period of time.

Borrowing money is always a risk but it can be necessary for economies and business to grow. I was raised to save a nest egg and to have a substantial down payment then borrow the rest. The point that I am trying to make is, while debt can be necessary, we need to be cautious when borrowing. I believe that our government should exercise the same cautions that any good businessman would use in his business.

How would you feel if your grandparents, when they were young, could purchase items on credit and delay the payments for their grandchildren to pay? Any logical person would not think that would be a good idea, especially if he or she was the grandchild that had the inherited responsibility to pay for their grandparents spending spree. If we would only take the time to look at what is going on with our national spending, we are doing the exact thing to future generations of Americans.

It was Thomas Jefferson that said, “It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes”. We Americans will be voting on November 2nd for the people to run our government, I urge you to choose the ones who understand the proper use of paychecks and payment books.     

If you wish to contact Russell Turner, or want to subscribe to his email loop, email him at rdrepublican@windstream.net.  

The Conservative View: Déjà Vu

This week's Conservative View, by Adair County Commissioner Russell Turner (R-Stilwell).

The Conservative View
by Russell Turner

Déjà Vu

Déjà vu is the feeling that we have been somewhere before. One of our greatest abilities is to learn from our mistakes. If we are smart, we will learn from the mistakes of other people that have had the same problem. Sadly we know this, but far too often we choose to ignore common sense and go down the path that will ultimately lead to problems that could have been avoided. Over the past few days there have been financial troubles that are causing ripples across the world.

Those problems have originated in the nation of Greece. No longer are investors just losing boatloads of money, people are starting to lose their lives! I have found that we humans love our material possessions, and whenever anything or anyone threatens those possessions chaos isn’t very far behind. Everyone from air traffic controllers to teachers left their posts. Tens of thousands of protestors hit the streets, hurling rocks and Molotov cocktails. There were several deaths reported due to the unrest in Athens alone. The European Union and the International Monetary Fund have pledged 143 billion dollars to bailout Greece but they are demanding concessions such as slashing public sector wages, freezing pensions and boosting taxes.

The Greeks don't want to see their wages, salaries, and standard of living collapse. And they're stark raving mad; especially because the measures are being crammed down their throats at a time when unemployment is already running at a six-year high of 11.3 percent. The problems in Greece stem from a simple fact: The country lived way beyond its means for far too long! Politicians borrowed and spent like mad, assuming the day of reckoning would never come. The major cause of the problem in Greece was caused by interest rates taking huge jumps.

Our government has manipulated interests for a long time in this country to keep them low; with all of the deficits in our national budget we could be facing similar problems in this country. If Greece had tried to get its house in order before interest rates surged, it probably would have avoided the disaster unfolding before our eyes.

The path that the Greeks took sounds a whole lot like the path that our leaders have taken. I hope that we can avoid the feeling of Déjà vu and the problems the Greeks are experiencing. We Americans are not that much different than the people of Greece. I do not want to see riots in our cities because of a government failing to put common sense ahead of deficit spending.

If you wish to contact Russell Turner, or want to subscribe to his email loop, email him at rdrepublican@windstream.net.

The Conservative View: Wheelbarrows and Money

This week's Conservative View, by Adair County Commissioner Russell Turner.

The Conservative View
by Russell Turner

Wheelbarrows and Money

For any country to be a world power they first must have a strong economy. Most people would think a strong military is the only requirement, I feel that the economy and the value of any currency has a direct impact upon the stature of a country. For generations the American dollar has been the currency that was welcomed anywhere in the world. Even our enemies admired our strong currency. I believe the dollar was strong because of the conservative values our forefathers lived by.

It is amazing to me how the American people hardly raise an eyebrow when the American dollar loses value to other currencies around the globe. It is especially sad for the people who have retired and are relying upon their savings to take care of themselves in their later years. To put it into perspective, if you buy a radio today from Japan for 10 dollars then in a month the dollar loses half of its value the same radio would cost you 20 dollars. If you have a total collapse of the value of a currency, all of your life’s work would be for nothing. The more fortunate people would be the ones that are still able to work, in such a scenario their wages would be adjusting at a continual rate. There have been countries where the workers would get paid on a daily basis so that they could spend their money quickly while it still had some value. In Germany after WWI, the hyper inflation was so bad that it would have taken a wheelbarrow full of money just to buy a loaf of bread.

One of the main causes of hyper inflation is a country living beyond its means. Whenever a country goes into debt and keeps borrowing money or printing money just to operate is one of the major causes. In our personal lives, if a friend wants to borrow money from you then you find out that he has borrowed from all of his other friends, you are going to be reluctant to loan him anything. More than likely if you do loan him some money you are going to require a higher interest rate to offset the extra risk. Many Americans have fallen in love with all of the government spending; if we keep spending maybe it would be a good idea to save enough to buy everyone a wheelbarrow so that we can haul our cheap money around.

If you wish to contact Russell Turner, or want to subscribe to his email loop, email him at rdrepublican@windstream.net.

Use Your Neighborhood Currency

Check this out:

Neighborhoods Propose Printing Their Own Currency To Encourage Local Shopping

Two neighborhoods in Milwaukee are considering printing their own currency, which could be bought with U.S. dollars, but would be only accepted at local businesses, in order to encourage people to shop at home instead of Walmart.

It's not a new concept — the Chicago Tribune says that lots of towns and neighborhoods relied on their own local currency during the Great Depression. It's also perfectly legal.

So what's the advantage for shoppers? Well, the currency could offer incentives — trading $100 US for $110 in the local currency would give shoppers a 10% bonus, for example.

What do you think? Would you use a local currency in order to support your community? Or are you going to shop at Walmart until they pry the cart from your cold dead hands?

[UPDATE: Also, here's the Chicago Tribune's version.]

There's a poll on the article (Q: Would you use a local currency? A1: Yes! A2: This is for Hippies.). Currently, the 'Yes' voters lead with 63%.