The ECONOMY
The term economy refers to a huge array of issues, but as a start, here's a definition found on Google: "An economy is a system of making and trading things of value. It is usually divided into goods (physical things) and services (things done by people). It assumes there is [a] medium of exchange, which in the modern world is a system of finance. This makes trade possible."
Our Medium of Exchange:
- Troubling Concerns:
- The medium of exchange for hundreds of years in the United States has been the dollar. But because of financially irresponsible decisions made by elected leaders of both major political parties, that dollar has lost much of its value. That hurts you and me. Our current inflation (a persistent decline in the purchasing power of money) means that our income is providing us fewer and fewer goods and services. By overspending, the government is effectively taking the money from our pockets without asking us to vote for that.
- The federal government is seriously and openly considering creating a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). This digital currency would be "programmable, trackable, [and] easily manipulated" (quoted in Pirate Money: Discovering the Founders' Hidden Plan for Economic Justice and Defeating the Great Reset, Kevin D. Freeman, 37). You would not own or have total control over "your" money. This currency could easily be used to stifle your freedom, control your speech, and determine what items you can buy (39).
- Positive Changes:
- Our U.S. Constitution gives states the power "to stop the threats of inflation, federal overreach, and the Great Reset while preserving personal liberty and privacy" (https://piratemoneybook.com).
- Other states are exploring legislation to offer a "constitutional, state-based, transactional (gold and silver) currency" that is as easy to use as a debit card (https://transactionalgold.com).
Our Process of Making and Trading Things:
- Troubling Concerns:
- Our current local (and national) political leaders continue to push for higher taxes and accept wasteful and unaccountable spending (e.g. Measure 110 and the homelessness crisis).
- They lay heavy financial burdens of taxes, regulations, and restrictions on small and mid-sized businesses which reduce jobs, raise prices for everyone, and inhibit human flourishing.
- The government's insistence on costly, environmentally harmful, and unreliable use of wind and solar energy has a direct, negative impact on energy affordability—which also raises prices of nearly everything we buy.
- Positive Changes:
- Reduce taxes and increase charitable contribution deductions for people to choose the organizations that work best. A free market economy—based on the freedom of individuals to choose what they want to buy and make rather than on plans and directions of government—best promotes efficiency, safety, and prosperity. In such an economy, government’s role is to provide well-defined, limited public goods and services while safeguarding private ownership and the rule of law.
- Government cannot create wealth. It must carefully prioritize what is most needed for the "general welfare", not wasting money taken from citizens on unproven or unnecessary items. Just as a household prospers when it creates a reasonable budget and lives within its means, so should the government.
- Reduce overly restrictive land use laws which will increase the availability of jobs and affordable homes.
- PERS: Without cutting benefits for those who receive them, we need to work to lower the cost of PERS (Public Employee Retirement System), which is choking our local and state economies. Qualified people can do this, but citizens have the responsibility to vote them into office.
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