Over the Holidays my son and I were watching a television show entitled Scorpion. The show put engineers, hackers, mathematicians, and a little boy at the center of the action.

The plot was the Federal Reserve Banking system was being held hostage by an entity which had hacked into the Fed’s internet system, threatening to shut down the world’s economy should they not receive $2 trillion of Bitcoins.

This is comical.

History’s largest banking fraud being held hostage, demanding bitcoins as ransom.

I know. You don’t believe me.

Several decades ago Germany sent their gold reserves to the Federal Reserve bank of New York for safe-keeping. The reason is Germany was concerned their gold reserves may fall into Soviet hands (this was during the Cold War).

In January 2013, Germany asked for the 3000+ metric tons of gold be returned to Germany. In response, the Fed stated it would take 7 years to return 5% of the gold.

Why, with the technology, the equipment, the logistics and modern know-how, does it take 7 years to transport this rather small amount of cargo. While I understand the concern regarding theft and loss, a lake freighter can carry 78,850 long tons of cargo, so approximately 5% of one shipment would complete the job in one voyage.

But the Fed wasn’t returning the 3300 metric tons. They were returning 165 metric tons over a period of seven years. (It is my understanding the markings on the returned gold did not match what was put on deposit several decades ago).

And Bitcoin? What’s a bitcoin worth? It has no tangible value. Things which have tangible value do not wildly swing in value on a month-to-month basis. I asked a family friend and they told me bitcoin’s value is based on data.

Data?

I was speaking to a former business associate this past weekend. He told me he took all the data, articles, recordings and information as well as his work records over the past 40 years and poole the data into one 8-T external hard drive. Quite a bit of the data he stored could not be opened with today’s technology as the older programs have been passed by.

It’s useless data.

I’m sorry, but I want something I can depend on for today, tomorrow, and next week. I may even want it to be of value in 6-months.

Consider other assets. Would you put purchase a house or a building whose value fluctuated as much as bitcoin?

Would you invest in a business the same way? Only if you believed you could play the market timing…

Getting back to the television show, as I said,

Holding intangible (and a questionable monetary value) hostage and asking to be paid with a coin that is as volatile as my ex-wife. I don’t know about you, but I found the entire episode lost as I found the premise so laughable.

Then again, the only ones who are laughing in this world’s economy are the owners of the Federal Reserve.

In an article dated 13 December 2022, former Presidential candidate and retired Congressional Representative Ron Paul noted some very concerning statistics.

He said the reason the Federal Reserve cannot raise the interest rates to what they would be in a free market it the government would have a difficult time managing the federal debt.

Some stats which back this up are as follows:

the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) 40% of the federal budget will be used to pat interest (just the interest) on the debt 2052.

The CBO also noted the service on the national debt will be larger than the defense budget by 2029! Raising the interest rates by even a small amount can raise annual interest rate payments by billions of dollars.

In addition, the Social Security “Trust Fund” will begin to run deficits by 2035

Secondly, the Medicare Trust Fund will run deficits by 2028.

As I stated before, raising the interest rate to the level needed to combat inflation would impose hardships on individuals and businesses while raising federal interest payments to unsustainable levels. The result would cause a major economic crisis and a government default on its debt.

This crisis will bring about social unrest and violence as well as demands for the government to step in to ‘fix’ these things. Obviously, government ‘fixes’ would reduce civil liberties and increase government control of our economy.

“The only bright spot is this crisis will also fuel interest in the ideas of liberty and could even help bring about a return to limited, constitutional government, free markets, individual liberty, and a foreign policy of peaceful trade with all.

“Those of us who know the truth have two responsibilities. The first is to make the necessary plans to ensure our families can survive the forthcoming turmoil. The second is to do all we can to introduce as many people as possible to the ideas of liberty.”

Did you catch what Ron said?

MAKE NECESSARY PLANS TO ENSURE OUR FAMILIES CAN SURVIVE THE FORTHCOMING TURMOIL.

Which is what my book, Prospering in a Socialist Society, is all about. Prospering is not a one-person job as one person prospering while others are suffering just to feed and clothe themselves isn’t prospering.

Prospering is a communal activity, as no one lives in a vacuum.

This means your extended family members and friends need to get their own copy of the book so everyone is working to prosper from the same guidebook.

Again my upcoming book will be available at https://TedLeithart.com  Sign up for to my email list and get the entire last chapter for free (Not even a cost to ship). This chapter details how to turn this Titanic of a world around, with no elections or insurrections or revolutions necessary.

Go there NOW!!

There are several places where you can find various articles penned over the past couple of decades regarding Agenda 21, Agenda 2030 and the Great Reset.

Simply stated, “by 2030, you will own nothing and be happy.” (Forbes Article sings the praises of this world in 2016)

The reason for this goal is to make the world a more equitable
place to live and work, where everyone is provided an equitable quality of life. Based on the argument that the rich can finance the world should the (the rich) will be required to provide for others via taxation and under threat of incarceration.

There are some problems which many do not seem to recognize. Those who are fans of Agenda 2030 do not realize the rich of the United States, should they be required to turn over 100% of their assets to a fair, altruistic government, would not fund this earthly nirvana for a few months.

Politifact.com published an article in October 2019 using the following headline:

“The 550 U.S. billionaires together are worth $2.5 trillion. If we confiscated 100% of their wealth, we’d raise enough to run the federal government for less than eight months.”

An excerpt from an article from thehill.com (Taxing just the super-rich won’t fund America’s future) states:

“Even if lawmakers fund Biden’s plans through higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy, they would need to raise taxes even further to fund the government we already have. Social Security, for example, is projected to raise only 83 cents in tax revenues for every dollar of benefits it pays out over the next 25 years. Covering these existing shortfalls is a tall order: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found in September that stabilizing the national debt at 100 percent of gross domestic product by 2050 – an ambitious goal, yet well above the historical average – would require reducing annual deficits by $730 billion relative to current law starting in 2025. The top 1 percent of households would need to pay at least 70 percent more in total federal taxes to cover that amount, which doesn’t include the costs of Biden’s proposals or $2.8 trillion in additional COVID aid subsequently passed by Congress.”

The article ends by noting such wonderful dreaming would only happen should every American contribute.

Conclusion: There’s too little assets to fund these dreams.

This is just for the United States, which is roughly 4% of the world population yet being the world’s wealthiest country. As a result, using American wealth to fund nirvana throughout the world will not fund these dreams as well, as the average net worth, should the net worth of Americans be distributed throughout the world, would be $7000.

Lastly, the US government’s overhead has been demonstrated to be 78%, which means the government uses 78% of its income to fund its internal operations, leaving only 22% to serve those it is intended to serve.

All together, these numbers and statistics lead to one conclusion. The newly funded rich will be the bureaucrats and oligarchs, leaving pennies and nickels behind for entrepreneurs and existing businesses and individuals.

Again, in 2030, you will [supposedly] own nothing and be happy.

What’s more pitiful is individuals such as Klaus Schwab, #GeorgeSoros and their comrades will own everything and they will be unhappy and unsatisfied.

Last Friday some friends were travelling from Cincinnati to places unknown for a well-deserved vacation.

So I ran them out to the airport.

As I was driving them, I asked my number one go-to question when a friend is going on vacation. “Would you like to have a 64-year old chaperone accompany you on your travels and ensure your safety and well=being?”

Unfortunately, I received the number one response I get when I ask this question. They laughed and replied, “No, thank you.”

I feigned disappointment for a second or two, gave them a hug and wished them well. Since they were flying at night and it was a 40-mile drive, I left.

About 3 hours later I got a call.

“Could you pick us up at the airport?”

“Sure. What’s the problem??

“The flight was cancelled.”

“Sure.”

So I quickly got dressed, almost tripped over the dog (he likes to sleep in hallways at times for some reason) and was on my way. When I got there, they were waiting for me where I had dropped them off.

They piled into the car and off I whisked them to their house. Along the way they told me their flight was cancelled as there was no TSA officials working that evening so they were not allowed to get onto the flight.

“You mean that when the YSA isn’t available we don’t revert back to pre-9/11 procedures?”

“No. You just cancel the flight and go home.”

“Do they at least provide a percentage off the flight for the inconvenience?”

“They don’t even offer to re-book you on another flight.”

“It used to be when a flight was cancelled by the airline, they were obligated to reschedule you on another flight.”

“Not any more, I guess. They didn’t offer anything.”

“So are you re-booked?”

“Yes. We’re flying at 5 am. So we have to be back at the airport at 3 am.”

So here we are – supposedly the world’s last superpower. When the government decides it doesn’t want to work, we simply shut down the country – or at least the part of the country where laziness reigns supreme.

Whatever happened to the government working for us – as in public SERVANTS?????

With such sloven-ness reigning supreme, it’s a good thing we live in such a powerful country. Otherwise, I’d think, if I was an enemy of the United States, it would be a good time to attack. Who knows whether the military would even show up to the fight? After all, It might be New Years’ Day or the Super Bowl might be on.

All I can say it’s awfully comforting to know I can prosper in our socialist society with such good engines of government at the helm. Otherwise, I may wonder, just exactly how do I provide for myself and my loved ones with such an inept bureaucracy.

Luckily, I have the answer to that – my upcoming book, Prospering in a Socialist Society. Sign up for my email list at https://TedLeithart.com and you’ll be the first notified when the editing is completed.

Yesterday while I was working, I ran into some old friends. When I first met them, their older daughter was in high school. Now she’s a veterinarian with about 7 or 8 years of practice under her belt.

We discussed some small talk for several minutes. You know, “How are you?” “How Dave (her husband doing)?” “How’s the vet practice coming?”

Her daughter began telling me about her economic difficulties. By the time she graduated from veterinary school and established her practice, she was in debt for $358,000. After five years in practice, she had lowered her debt by less than $10,000.

“WOW” was about all I could express.

Ms. Vet decided to renovate the house she was purchasing and sell it to reduce the debt in her life. She realized most Vets (and MDs) are living under a lot of pressure to keep up appearances and the only way they can keep up the appearances is by living paycheck to paycheck – even though their income is several hundred thousand dollars.

Ms. Vet completed the renovations and sold her house. She dedicated all of the proceeds to paying off her debt and reduced it from $350,000 to $100,000. Still a massive chunk to pay off, but nothing like making monthly payments on $350,000 of credit.

I recall listening to a local doctor tell the same story several years ago. He was a specialist and was grossing almost $1,000,000 a year.

He had all the baubles of success – the house, the cars, the toys, and so on.

However, reality hit when one of his relatives died suddenly.

The immediate family was concerned on how they would afford to continue living life the way they were accustomed to as they no longer had Dad’s income to depend on.

“No worries”, said the doctor. “I make over $900k a year. I’ll just buy your house and you can live in it for as long as you like for free.”

WOW. What a nice guy.

Caveat warning – this is a story of 15-20 years old, so please keep this in mind when I recount the numbers involved.

His brother-in-law’s house was valued at $150k or had a $150k mortgage on it. “No problem,” thought the doctor, until he was denied a loan to purchase the house.

All of a sudden, rich doc meets reality.

I learned a long time ago about money. It wasn’t so much about how much you earned a year or what kind of house you lived in or the car you drove or the vacations you went on.

It was about paying cash for everything.

Harry is a long-lost friend who is very wealthy and is well-known in Cincinnati. For example, Harry bought James Bond’s DB5 several years ago for $4.5 million. A few years before that, I ran into Harry at his business. He had just parked his new Ferrari (the price was close to $1 million). I had just parked my Ferrari in the same lot as I was in the midst of doing business with Harry’s firm.

“I’ll trade Ferraris with you” I joked to Harry. Harry replied, “As long as we trade the car payments as well.”

My reply was my Ferrari was paid for (I paid $20k for mine. It was used, but still a nice driver). Once he pays his off, then we could trade.

True – Harry was driving a model of car of which less than 500 existed in the world. I was driving a similar car that was used, but had a similar panache. Harry paid 50 times what I paid for a similar experience, simply because Harry was keeping up appearances while I was happy taking my car anywhere I pleased without a worry.

In fact, I never locked the car the entire 7 years I owned it.

Back to Ms. Vet.

She’s realized the same I did decades ago. Keeping up appearances for others and doing so with loans and credit cards is stupid. Living within your means and enjoying what you have been blessed with is much more enjoyable than any million-dollar car or $50M house.

What’s my fun car today? A $4000 Toyota that I take anywhere I want, it starts every time I turn the key and I can treat it like a car.

And that’s the point of my musing today.

Maybe the entire country needs to relearn this. We’ve borrowed every cent three to four times over should you add all the debt, both public and private and compare it to all the assets, both public and private.

Who’s going to continue to lend money when the country, in essence, has gotten a 300-400% mortgage on every car, house, farm and apartment building within the country.

Instead of being paupers with ‘ppearances, it’s time to be financial independent which will make you foot-loose and fancy free.

Otherwise, the country can follow the course most free countries follow. Free countries evolve into dictatorships via debt, taxation and regulation. And, should you let the country follow this path which so many have followed, how will you provide for yourself, your family as well as your loved ones.

THAT I can answer – in my upcoming book

Prospering in a Socialist Society.

Sign up for emails at https://TedLeithart.com and you’ll be the first ones to receive the book.

P.S. You may wish to purchase several copies of the book so your loved ones can use the book for a reference source for themselves.

Have you ever had a chance to meet someone or to go somewhere that you recognized was a missed opportunity? I have many in my life.

For example, my parents began travelling more a couple of years after all the kids were out of the house. At the same time, they wanted to have family travel with them.

I recall a trip to Israel. My parents invited my bride and me but my bride was unwilling to travel outside of the United States.

This happened again a year or so later when they went to Hong Kong to visit my Aunt and Uncle (the missionary/ hunter uncle should you have read any of my posts about Uncle Herb). Again, my bride was unwilling to travel outside of the United States.

In retrospect, I should have been a chaperone to my parents to help them during their travels and should my bride decide to stay home, so be it.

But it wasn’t just vacations and travelling where the missed opportunities happened.

For example, in 1995 I was in Los Angeles attending a Jay Abraham Mastermind. Jay’s seminars at the time were a rather brutal regime. The day began at 8:30 am and formally continued until 10:30 pm although the talking continued until 2 or so.

During dinner the second evening, Michael Basch, who Fred Smith hired to be CMO of Federal Express when the business was starting, sat down next to me. We exchanged a few pleasantries and after a few minutes, I excused myself as I needed to collect my thoughts and relax a little.

I headed up to the outdoor pool. As I hit the water, I realized Michael was probably feeling the same way and if I would have spoken a little more with him and asked whether he wanted to hit the pool for a relaxing swim after he finished eating, I’d like to have a little time to talk with him one-on-one.

The same year, my brother and his family moved to England as he had been accepted into a doctoral program at Cambridge. A year later, my brother asked whether I would like to visit England with my son for a few weeks during the summer. I obtained a passport for him and was looking into tickets.

Unfortunately, the same person, now my ex-wife, told me in no uncertain terms that I would not be allowed to take our son out of the country. Stupidly, I listened to her rant rather than challenge it. So this son has never experienced the villages and byways of the United Kingdom.

I recall another missed opportunity when I was in high school. A local individual advertised an Aston Martin DB4GT for sale for $2000. I went to check it out – after all, how often was an Aston Martin for sale in central Ohio in the 1970s?

The Aston seemed nice enough save for the peeling paint on the aluminum hood of the car.

I was seriously interested but told the owner I would have to sell my Triumph TR-6 over the next couple of weeks in order to have the money to buy the Aston. He agreed to wait.

A couple of weeks later, he called to see whether I had sold the TR-6. I had not. Then he asked, “Would you like to trade the Aston for the Triumph?”

I began to have doubts as Aston was going through a bankruptcy at the time. Also, I wondered what insurance would be on an Aston Martin for a 16-year old. Then there was the parts – and the expense of those parts. So I declined the offer.

A couple of weeks ago I looked up the value of the Aston in 2022. $1.25 million.

Another missed opportunity with a collector car was a Ferrari 250 PF Coupe. It wasn’t a race car look (like a SWB or a GTO) but the price was right. As I recall, it was $5000 as the engine wasn’t the original engine to the car.

Today’s value – $573k.

I’m sure I have plenty more opportunities that I overlooked or didn’t act correctly on, from girlfriends to cars to travels to job opportunities.

But those are all in the past. And like it or not, the past is past. It has no life.

Which leads to the reason I am writing you – so you don’t have another missed opportunity.

You see, the world has been evolving very quickly the past few years. Things you would think unthinkable are quickly becoming the norm.

Among every change is a chance for opportunity – and a possibility of remorse.

I’m writing you so you don’t have remorse by not taking me up on my offer. You see, I don’t know where the world is going – and I am not sure of the timing of events that will change the way we live. But change they will. You know that. I know that. Hell, let’s face it. Everyone knows it.

But are YOU willing to act?

I’m offering a book – it’s in editing as I write this. I plan to have it out to various marketing sources for the Holidays.

What’s so special about the book?

The book will give you examples of individuals who thrived while living in tyranny. After all, how will you take care of yourself, your family, and the people you love outside of your family should the country or the world continue to march toward global governance.

You may think this will never happen. I hope you are right.

But whether you are right – or I am – or there’s an odd mix of the two – it would be beneficial to have insight on how to thrive, how to prosper, in the worst situation.

Charles Dickens wrote “It was the best of times. I was the worst of times.” And then he went on to tell of the Tale of Two Cities. But he never told how a person or a family would thrive whether in the best of times or the worst of times.

Like I said, the book is in editing.

Do to https://TedLeithart.com and sign up for my email list so you will be the first to be informed of when the book is available to grab a copy. Better yet, grab reference copies for every household in your family. They’ll need these insights as much as you will.

A large majority of the US population believes the country is heading in the wrong direction.

Three generations ago our fore-fathers fought against tyrannical regimes because of their crimes against humanity and its experimentation on children.

Two generations ago our fore-fathers determined abusing childen was acceptable as long as it was in the womb.

Today, our fathers sanction the abuse of children similar to Nazi Germany. Recall the world fought against this evil regime.

As has been said before, there is nothing new under the Sun.

This year our Supreme Court stated the abuse of children in the womb is not something they should consider. Instead, each individual state should determine for itself how to nurture their siblings.

But there are some Saviors of children in today’s world. They have begun the Era of Sanctuary.

For example, a town a dozen or so miles to the North decided it would be a ‘Sanctuary City for the Unborn’ a little over a year ago. And this is only the beginning…

I suggest your township, your city, your village, your state and your country decide to be ‘Sanctuary from Tyrants’.

Tyrants as defined by:

1. Determining your guilt by confiscating your property prior to trial by jury.
2. Taking taxes to support entities which do not support ALL citizens equally. Some are more equal than others as the pigs would say.
3. Taking away your freedom of:
   1. Assembly
   2. Speech
   3. Worship
   4. Defending yourself
   5. Searches without warrant
   6. Right to trial by peers
   7. And many more

In short, numerous townships, villages, towns, cities, counties and states are declaring freedom from tyranny and dictatorial rule at level of government. This is resulting in a return to liberty, a return to freedom, a return to the Republic (which is what the Constitution says the country is).

It may cost your stock portfolio, your stately mansion or your career. But would you give your time, talent and treasures so your children and grand-children can live free?

My son is going to a college that offers a business degree in entrepreneurship.

You may learn success as well as failure methods in running your business by trying one thing, then another until you find something that works.

Or maybe you found a mentor to coach you. You can learn these strategies by example as well.

But what an outrageous, over-the-top example you can observe almost every day. All I have to do is say JOE and many will know exactly what I am referring to.

In short, if you want to fail – copy Joe’s strategies. For example:

Joe spends money he doesn’t have without a plan to repay it. In fact, rather than determining how to pay his debts, he asks the credit card company for a higher credit limit (and gets it). He doesn’t even have to provide a plan on how he plans to repay the company.

In the past 9 months, Joe and his 535 associates have spent $1 trillion more than they have taken in. That’s $1869.158 million per associate spent in nine months. That’s $207.684 million per month. (That’s more than Hunter is spending on his drugs and women per month).

Joe doesn’t have a plan to pay this back. In fact, Joe smiles and says “there’s no additional debt” when pressed about the debt he’s creating.

Rather than allowing the interest rates to increase based on Joe’s spending habits, his associates are demanding worldwide price controls.

Let’s see how this works.

You go to the local hardware store to buy some lumber and nails to do some repairs on your house. The lumber and nails are 25-90% higher in price than they were in 2019 (I know of a homebuilder who waited a year to build his house. Just the trusses for his roof went up in price from $17,000 to $54,000).

Along comes Joe who says, “Sorry, building supply store, but you can’t charge more for the trusses than you did in 2019. Bud, the building supply store tells Joe he can’t purchase materials, let alone pay for his employees, the electric and gas for the store, and all the other expenses connected with running his business. Joe says “too bad – but if you want to stay in business and not have an audit to find these overcharges you’ll do what I demand.”

So Bud either goes bankrupt or closes the doors to his store (which will probably result in a bankruptcy as well).

Imagine doing this over the entire world, rather than following basic economic law and letting prices settle to where they should be in a free market.

Joe is also selling vital material needed to keep his business afloat. Imagine if you sold your electricity, natural gas, heating oil, coal and oil products to your competitors. While you are rolling in the cash (and keeping your prices low) doing this, soon the fuel will disappear.

What do you do when a “rainy day” comes and your reserves of fuel are depleted?

Yes, Joe’s strategies are ignorant. If Joe wants to run his life this way, that’s his choice. When he demands everyone else follow his practices or face fines and imprisonment, that’s socialism.

Aren’t you glad you decided to be socialist in 2009? (Meacham, John, “We Are All Socialists Now,” Time Magazine, February 6, 2009

Every time I stop by Dad’s house I see the same magazine dated January 2020.

The cover story I forget, but an article inside the magazine notes there is no way the Democrats are going to win the 2020 election should they continue what they were doing (at the time). Between the low inflation, the high employment numbers, the stock market, the country exporting oil for the first time in 75 years, there was no front on which the Democrats could win.

Enter Covid. Welcome lockdowns and business shut downs. Stop the economy of the world, please, as it is too dangerous for anyone to even breathe the air someone else is breathing – unless it is filtered through a mask that has no hope in catching the virus in its fibers.

Enter no cash flow and the government paying everyone to stay home.

Welcome a new type of business classification – a non-essential (or small business) versus an essential business (or large corporation).

Begin printing trillions of fiat currency to bankroll of these imposters.

Still, in late summer, statisticians were saying there was no way Biden would win the Presidency.

Two and a half years later. That’s 33 months ago. Food is scarce. No one can seem to get their supply chain moving again. All fossil fuels, which power between 80-85% of the world’s needs, are considered outmoded and unhealthy. These fossil fuels are being replaced by renewables, which produce 1-2% of the world’s energy at the time.

In short, ninety eight percent of the world’s population would pass should the world be dependent on renewables alone.

It’s interesting the elites pushing for such massive changes in the world do not seem to recognize they too will soon be living as a pauper (if you attempt to keep a 2022 lifestyle) or as a king (in the 1700s) because the infrastructure, the workers, the engineers, the technicians and the suppliers will not be there to stoke the supply chain with the goods and services they have become used to.

Less than three years to kill off the Golden Goose. Not a Golden Goose living in a specific country. The Golden Goose which manufactures an economy across the street and around the world.

Meanwhile, the hucksters on Wall Street believe spending more and more fiat currencies and making them at faster and faster rates will keep the world alive.

It reminds me of a house built on sand. And the winds came and storms, and beat upon that house, and it fell with a great crash, because it was built on a foundation of sand.

The first Tuesday in November we have elections all around the country. Much of the consternation about the direction of the country achieves a high point frenzy tends to happen within the last few months of the elections, especially when the country is voting for a President.

And the day after the election, egos are bruised; some are angry; some are hung over and some threaten “wait until 2024…”

If you are like this, or should you have the position that “elections have consequences” before you get back to your son’s baseball game or your daughter’s ballet performance, you are the problem.

You aren’t alone in this. In fact, I would argue that most Americans, myself included (at times) are apathetic to the whole political process between elections. This says a lot about our priorities.

We say we love our kids and want the best for them, yet continue to support the local public school system after the board of education embraces CRT or teaching transgenderism. These are two examples and these two examples may not upset you, but they are just two examples of a host of problems within our public schools.

Let’s move on as THIS post is not a rant our public schools.

My rant is about your apathy. Your disinterest. Your stating ”I love my children” or grandchildren and will go out of their way to ensure their education, college experience, and life are better than yours was.

I would like to challenge you. Yes, challenge you. While you say “I love my kids” yet turn a blind eye to their education, to the decisions made at a local, state or federal level which will affect their lives for decades, is this love?

Yeah, yeah. I know.

HOW DARE YOU as you try to impersonate Greta Thunberg.

But I’m challenging you for YOUR good, their good and the country’s good.

Should you take the time to visit your school board member’s personally; sit down with your Representative or Senator at both the state and federal level or a beer or a steak (I’ve been inviting Rob Portman, who lives within 15 minutes of me (and we drove past his house DAILY for years)) and casually, respectfully, logically, CONSTITUTIONALLY challenge them on their thoughts.

John Kasich was in my dad’s house many times during the 1970s and 1980s. He was there to solicit campaign funds while Dad met with him to challenge him to stay true to the Constitution (he hasn’t). His predissesor , Samuel Devine had a similar relationship with Dad.
While your elected representatives are seeking money, hold them to proving they are deserving of the money. I didn’t say their party is deserving of money. I am saying specific individuals are deserving of your money.

Because they follow the Constitution.

How do you hold them to following the Constitution? You write letters. You ask to meet with them in their office. You show up with truth and understanding of the Constitution as your stance.

But you’re only one person. I know.

What if you teamed with dozens of others in the same district? And you all had one agenda – follow the Constitution.

I keep harping on this point – follow the Constitution. Why? Because following the Constitution will result in fixing the country in every way. Allow me to show you a one way.

Only Gold and Silver is allowed for spending. This would reign in the Federal government’s spending on most things as they would not have the money. And should they ‘manufacture’ money (like they do through the private Federal Reserve bank), there may very well be a run on the Fed.

What would people turn to without the Fed? Their state’s gold and silver money, which every state is allowed to mint per the Constitution.

But we wouldn’t have money to spend in all the ways the Federal government spends money, from education to health care to welfare. History doesn’t bear this out as Ben Franklin, while living in England during the 1760s, noted the poor were given enough to live in idleness.

Considering the last count I heard was 100 million Americans have determined that work interferes with their lifestyle, so they’ve decided to stop working. It sounds as if America has the same problems with their ‘poor’ as England did in the 1760s.

In contrast, America helped the poor but not to the extent that should they be able-bodied, they could not live off the help provided. They had to work.

Franklin observed the same throughout his overseas travels. In countries where the poor were provided enough to live idly, there were more poor. Conversely, in other nations, when the poor were provided little, the poor worked themselves out of poverty.

A good example of this were my grandparents. After learning how little their annual wages were while living and working on the family farm, they decided to open their own store. My great aunts and uncles believed they would be back shortly as they would go bankrupt.

Within 5 years, many of these great aunts and uncles had their own businesses as well.

My grandparents continued to work their store and purchase rental properties with the profits. By the time they retired, they owned 20-25 properties. This provided a sufficient income for them to live comfortably even in their retirement years.

There is nothing keeping today’s Americans from achieving the same ‘dream’ without government loans, grants and kickbacks.

In closing, gold and silver would also keep inflation at bay, as it is difficult to inflate the value of an ounce of gold or silver (although the Romans did it by mixing their gold and silver with cheaper metals).

In conclusion, the Constitution is the answer for one reason. The Founding Fathers took their time, studying 5000 years of history, in order to determine the government which would provide the greatest amount of freedom to the individual.

“A Republic” as Mr. Franklin said, “if you can keep it.”