Some friends and relatives will call me old. I disagree as age is a comparison to something else. Having said that, I do remember when:

Mr. Mangia (we called him the grocery man) would show up at our house with his truck full of meat, veggies and fruit. He had installed a freezer or two in his Step-Van so the meat we’d buy from him was butchered. More specifically, he would take our meat order and show up 1-2 days afterwards with the cut of meat we wanted.

But Mr. Mangia also sold Bazooka bubble gum from his truck. His price was 2 pieces for a penny.

Dad was a doctor with a very low overhead. He had majored in accounting in business school before attending college before attending pre-med school before attending med school. So he did his own books.

At the end of every month, Mom would assemble the daily journal into monthly bills and write them out. We three boys got to fold the bills, stuff the envelopes, seal the envelopes, stamp the envelopes with (I believe I began stamping the bills with $0.04 stamps). Next we sorted the bills by zip code for the post office and Mom or Dad would drive the bills to the post office.

Each of us boys received $1 per month for our services.

When I turned 12, I began a newspaper route. It was a small route consisting of 30-40 customers. As I recall, I netted about $0.50 per week per customer. At the time I thought I was wealthy.

At sixteen, I began working for Bill Koch at Sports Car Forum. This was a Jaguar, MG, Austin, and Fiat dealership on the East side of Columbus. I was paid $2 per hour for cleaning the cars (both new as well as used). From time to time, I drove a brand-new Jaguar XJ-12 to West Virginia and traded it for a new Jaguar XK-E, which I drove back to Columbus. I also did this with MGs, Austins and Fiats.

By the time I graduated from high school, I had accumulated enough savings to pay full-time tuition at The Ohio State University for four years. As I recall, three quarters per year was $800 if you were attending full-time.

Many ways we interact and conduct business have changed over the past several decades. As a result, comparing prices is difficult in many cases. But here’s some prices from the early 1970s to give you an understanding of how much inflation has taken from you. When I was in high school, I missed buying the following cars (I graduated in 1975). The car, the price I negotiated and today’s price are:

1962 Jaguar XK-E                                              $1500                    $105,000

Aston Martin DB4GT                                       $2000                    $382,000
(for a DB4, not a DB4GT. The last price I saw for a DB4GT was $1.4M)

Jaguar C-type                                                    $2500                    $3,100,000

In 1985, I purchased a Ferrari Dino 246 GT for $22,000. I did this as a Porsche 944 turbo sold for close to the same figure and my opinion of Porsche was they were a liability, not an asset (most vintage Ferraris increase in value over time). Today’s price for the same car is $425,000.

Now I realize supply and demand has a lot to do with the increase of these cars, as they have gone from older, used, quirky cars to collectible art.

Here’s another price you may be able to identify with better. College tuition. From $800 a year for a full-time, in-state student to $31,000. That’s a 3775% increase or an 86% increase per year, on average.

You may argue I went to college when the only computers were mainframe or there was little technology compared to todays. But left to the marketplace, that is, allowing capitalism to work its wonders without outside interference, a price for the same product should go down over time due to competition as well as better and newer technology lessens the value of older technology.

Why the HUGE difference?

I would argue there’s only two entities which have worked to increase tuition so greatly. Inflation and the national government getting involved in education to a much greater level are the two factors.

Thanks to these two factors, of which Bidenomics is a symptom, $20 is the new $1.

Back in February, I cut my leg on a wire rack at work. I was wearing long pants and the rack did not cut my jeans, but it did scrape about 6” of skin off the front of my shin. It hurt, but I thought little of it until I looked down at my leg and noticed my navy shoes were now purple.

Several co-workers came over to help and we stopped the bleeding but decided I should still go to the hospital to make sure the injury was repaired as best as possible. Before leaving for the hospital, I called my wife to tell her what happened and what hospital I was going to visit. She didn’t answer the phone.

I texted her and there was no response.

Next, I called the next door neighbor and asked if they could knock on the door of the house and tell my wife what had happened. My wife assumed it was a door-to-door solicitor and did not answer the door. In frustration, I contacted my son (who was 300 miles away) and he got in touch with my wife.

I’m still having swelling on that leg most days so I decided to stay at home this weekend rather than attend an event where I would be walking through woods for 8 hours.

Late Sunday afternoon, I was pleased to see I had no swelling on the injured leg. I snapped a photo and sent it to my wife. Somehow she only received a portion of the picture and began to call and text to find out what was going on with my leg.

But I had turned off the sound on my phone that morning and had forgotten to turn it back on. So I never received the texts or calls my wife was making.

Several hours later, I went to bed as my work-day begins at 5:30 am. An hour later, I was awakened by a knocking on the door. Considering it was 11 pm and I was getting up at 4, I ignored the knocking. Not to be deterred, this intruder to my dreams proceeded to unlock the house with a key and call out my name.

I assumed my family had returned home from the event I was supposed to attend, but it was my brother-in-law. My wife had called him to check on me since I was not answering the phone.

The next morning I realized the way the previous evening had gone, I had confirmed ‘karma is a bitch.’

As I was glancing through the various articles I read through each week, I noticed an article which got my attention more than the others. ‘BRICS stockpiling gold in massive numbers’ was the headline.

While United States’ politicians think nothing of increasing their debt (as THEY are the ones borrowing $10 billion a day to feed the hungry masses within our borders), Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are purchasing gold in record amounts.

Gold has been a desired commodity for 4000 years while growing your wealth by borrowing more has been the idea of governments and Keynesian economics for about as long.

Matthew 18 speaks of an unmerciful servant, who was forgiven a great debt yet refused to forgive a fairly small debt. How was this resolved? In verse 30, the unmerciful servant threw his fellow servant into prison until he could pay the debt. A few verses later, the unmerciful servant was handed over to jailers until he could pay back his debt.

In both cases, whether the debt was small or large, the debtor was enslaved in prison until he could pay the debt.

How does this apply to the United States and the world today? Both are in a world (actually, a world of hurt is too small as we’ve borrowed every asset in the world 3-4 times over) of hurt as total debt is around $350 trillion while the world’s assets total about $100 trillion. We do not owe this debt to ourselves. Only the Federal Reserve would be silly enough to lend money to an organization which sells obligation (to be paid with interest) back to the Federal Reserve. How does lending a created liability to be repaid with a liability plus interest to the lender create an economy?

That’s similar to buying liabilities and paying interest on these items that are decreasing in value over time, thus creating the aura of wealth (in the short term).

There’s only one end game in such a situation. Enslaving the borrowers until the debt is paid in full.

It is amazin’ how many well-meaning people, government officials, government workers, and private citizens believe such a cycle must continue, otherwise we are reducing the quantity or quality of services needed to sustain the nation. This demonstrates how ill-educated many are.

It also demonstrates how diabolical and evil individuals our masters are.

There is a way around this, but it isn’t pleasant. It requires care and love for others as all of us will be on an austerity program.

Can you imagine the country going through the 7 steps Financial Peace University takes you through? Personally, I envision many would continue to fiddle away while watching the Titanic cruise along without a care about any icebergs (even though I believe the iceberg has already been hit, back in 1971 when the USA could no longer pay its debts with real money).

There’s another aspect to obtaining financial peace. You can read its strategies I outlined for you in my book, Prospering in a Socialist Society. Not only do I demonstrate multiple reasons why you should be resisting the nation’s current course, I provide multiple case studies of individuals who did thrive, even while living in tyranny.

How smart people would not care whether the Democrats lose the White House or Congress in November…

Every four years America gets all in a dither about who wins the White House and who gets a seat in Congress. Americans spend millions upon millions to ensure their favored candidates get elected. But does it matter?

In the book Tragedy and Hope (1966), Bill Clinton’s mentor points out the United States was quickly coming to the time when it didn’t matter whether a Republican or Democrat got elected as the march toward the socialist utopia (in the USA and the world) would continue.

Here we are, 58 years later and an insightful student of things politic can easily witness the walls, detours and false alternatives provided to and by the President, his Cabinet and Congress to come close to repairing problems.

A simple example of this was the lie perpetuated during the COVID pandemic. BLM demonstrators were welcome to protest – and protect violently – while other Americans were threathened with jail, job loss and more should they live their lives like it was still 2019, 2015, or 1999. If COVID was such a threat to the planet, where was the consistent enforcement of CDC rules?

Like I said, false alternatives.

A wise person would realize who’s in Congress and the Oval Office doesn’t matter. What matters is the deep state, the bureaucracy, soldier on no matter who’s ‘elected. Then they would work day and night to bolster the detours and walls were reinforced so the march toward the worker’s paradise could continue unabated.

A wise person would also realize the Supreme law of the land is the Constitution. We, the People, only assign 17 duties to the Federal government to limit their power – reserving all the other infinite jobs and duties to each State and to the people. So they would hold the President, Congress and the bureaucracy to those 17 duties only.

But the President, Congress and the deep state are too big, too powerful, you say? They are too big to fail? NOT AT ALL.

Everything happens in this world because it is funded. And the source of the Federal government’s power, as a result, is the Federal Reserve. Considering the Federal Reserve is the largest representative of fiat money in the Western world, you could say the Federal government is funded by a ponzi scheme. Nothing else.

Each state simply needs to begin minting silver and gold coins, which they are allowed to do, and begin to nullify all Federal regulation in their state which exceeds a strict interpretation of the Constitution.

The only remaining job, then, is to sit back and watch the party as the Creature on the Potomac and the Creature from Jekyll Island implode together.

A friend called me this afternoon. She’s working on a project that extends her finances but also, if successful, helps her to achieve her dreams a lot more quickly. If her short term goal goes well, a lot more people in her niche will hear of her soon…

She has been asking for advice on this project from time to time, but today she said “sales were not going well and time is running short.

“Do you have any marketing advice to help me leverage this project and make it a success?”

“As a matter of fact, I do.” I recalled the project will come to fruition in about a month, so she has little time to waste.

“I recall you are connected well within this circle of people, arguably measuring 2-3 million associates in this ‘circle.’

“I’d do something that attracts them to rally to purchase your products. In fact, many times the spiff is more important than what you are actually selling…”

“How so?” she asked.

“I have a friend who purchased a newsletter for several years. He rarely read the newsletter as the newsletter was in the same industry his business was and he was at the pinnacle of the industry. So, in many ways, an interview with him could have been a featured article in the newsletter.

“Still, he bought. Year after year.”

“Why would he do that?” she inquired.

“He liked the spiffs. The freebies that came with the subscription to the newsletter. It’s the reason Sports Illustrated has their swimsuit issue. Many subscribe to Sports Illustrated just to receive the annual swimsuit issue.

“It could be a clock radio. It could be a sweatshirt with a logo or saying. It could be a coffee cup saying ‘Ted is the Best Human Ever.’

(At the church I attend, I grab a ceramic coffee cup rather than a Styrofoam one due to the health issues hot Styrofoam can cause. I tend to grab the mug that says “Best Human Ever”).

“How about a spiff that the first 50 buyers get that is specific to this sales event? Over time, this could be highly collectible or highly prized. Connect this spiff with the affinity group who would be likely to rally to your cause because you are helping others within the group. Even at a rather high price, the spiff and the helping others gets people to ‘ante up.’”

I followed up with a brief self-image lesson I learned from the Psycho-Cybernetics foundation and suggested we talk in a day or two after we let the subconscious mind do the heavy lifting/ sweating/ worrying for us.

She said ‘wonderful’ as well as ‘Thanks. I love you…’

It’s nice to share the love by providing insight to those seeking answers.

This is an iteration of what my book, The Fastest Way to SuperCharge Your Business (without working your ass off), which I wrote about 10 years ago. I’m in the process of editing the book and should have it available for download at https://TedLeithart.com soon…

The #USA is schizoid

Personally, I am ‘mazed or maybe the right word is appauled by the country going from #Reagan to #Obama in less than 20 years.

How’d young ‘Merica, formerly known as the Land of the free and the home of the brave, move from #RonPaul to Joe Biden in 16 years?

How did ‘Merica go from Obama’s fundamentally working to change the country to ‘TRUMP-TRUMP-TRUMP’ and then back to “Oh, socialism isn’t that bad” Biden in another 4 years?

the only thing that makes sense is the amount of marijuana being smoked by Americans, because such vascillating is nothing short of the country being schizoid

Like, totally man…

As I was visiting a local retailer this morning, I walked by a couple of friends who were having a discussion. I must admit, I do not know the gist of the conversation or what the point one of my friends, Alex, was trying to make to Randy.

But, as I walked around the corner to where they were, Alex asked, “What Color do you think most people in Washington DC are?”

Like I said, I wasn’t privy to the entire conversation, so the question hit me blind. However, I immediately had a response. My response was such that both Alex and Randy were chuckling while nodding their heads.

I asked, “Well, am I wrong?” Both Alex and Randy stated in their own way I was absolutely right.

Was it a racist comment? No.

Did I compare one ‘race’ with another (I put race in quotes as no matter how much melanin is in a person’s skin, we human are all one race). In fact, I’ll go one better. I cannot believe with all the intimate moments humans have with one another, it doesn’t matter whether humans have been around for 5000 or 10,000 or 100,000 or 2 million years, we’ve cross-bred with each other sufficiently to make us all some iteration of Heinz 57.

Did I make a snide comment others may pick up as inappropriate or rude? Not at all.

So what was my answer to the question “What Color Do You Think Most People in Washington, DC are?”

It’s very insightful when you hear the answer…

My answer was “CCP Red.”

Given this answer had an overwhelming majority of those overhearing the conversation agreeing with my answer, it seems to me it would be smart to understand how to Prosper in a Socialist Society. After all, since that is where Americans … Hell, after all, since that is where most people in the world find themselves today, you need to CLICK HERE to be transported to a site which will give you specific strategies of how you can prosper while living under tyranny.

I have come to realize that the timeless principles the Founders of the USA used to create the government and the society, the free-est the world have ever seen, you didn’t need all these other new organizations.

You had education, health care and care of the aged, you had transportation, you had murderers and assassins, for millenia before 1776. Today, there isn’t anything new – it’s simply new modes of how these issues are addressed.

So the over-arching principles of what government is, was and shall be does not change.

Therefore, why were all these agencies created 100-130-155 years after the country was founded?

This concludes with – in my opinion – there is no need for social security or HHS or the Dept. of Education or the FBI. The heart of man is as black as it always has been. There has been no change.

So, why was it so important to create these new agencies that would fix all these problems the country has done well without and that history demonstrates are at best human, at worse demons, working for an entity whose sole thirst is to gain power.