By BOB BILLETER

A 2nd American Revolution?

One of my pet gripes is the way politicians manipulate our economic system and thereby win favor with blocks of voters and win elections. They borrow and borrow, spend and spend and elect and elect.
Of course the piper has to be paid by future generations of Americans. It has taken people a long time to figure this deception out, it seems, but it also appears that people are beginning to catch on.
A couple of weeks ago the Washington Post, a liberal newspaper, published an article entitled “Appalachia is slipping from grip of Democrats”. It is a story of a conservative uprising. It tells the story of a congressional district in western Virginia where the response to the recession has been a dramatic swerve to the right.
There are some dramatic changes taking place in our country and in our state, I believe. As I say, people are beginning to wise up. Better late than never.
It is such an injustice for good citizens to try to live responsible lives and then get wiped out by inflation and a devaluated dollar caused by the irresponsible actions of these political manipulators. It is more than injustice--it is criminal.
It is a crime what has happened to our economy and our money. Because of the actions of these irresponsible politicians, our money is worth about as much as the money in your Monopoly game.
And don’t kid yourself, our political leaders knew what they were doing when they destroyed it.
I got our a bound copy of the file for The Democrat for 1940 today. This was the year I entered high school. I wanted to see what has happened to our money since I was a freshmen in high school.
Ballard Bros. was offering a 1934 Dodge 1 1/2 ton truck, six years old, for $65. The A & P was offering Raleigh cigarettes for 13 cents a pack. A roll of Scott towels was selling for 10 cents, six rolls of toilet tissue for 25 cents. Three pounds of margarine was selling for 25 cents, two 18-ounce loaves of bread for 15 cents, a leg of lamb for 27 cents a pound.
Super Food Service at 250 W. 2nd Street was selling a dozen oranges for 15 cents. That’s a little more than 1 cent an orange.
Kaplan’s was selling arrow shirts for men for 43 cents. The Fountain Cut-Rate was selling sun goggles for 9 cents.
Hill’s Shoes was selling 2 pairs of men’s white shoes for $1.98 plus one cent.
A real estate company was advertising a 6-room frame cottage at 148 Bowie Street for $1,200. A down payment of $120 was required. The monthly payments were $8.28 per month.
And one last item. C & C Motors at 211 Center Ave. was advertising a 1941 Hudson six coupe for for about $700. That’s a new car.
As I said, what these political geniuses have done is a crime. What do you think the trillions in debt that we are incurring now is doing to our money? It’s destroying what is left of it. It is just a matter of time before it becomes completely worthless. So what are the politicians doing now? They are doing the same thing they have been doing for 75 years. They haven’t learned a thing. Or, put another way, they aren’t admitting they have learned a thing. I’m a dumb hillbilly and I knew the score decades ago.
They went to Harvard, Princeton and the University of Chicago and other elite schools and somehow these people missed learning something this basic? That you can’t spend yourself rich? That you can’t borrow forever and not pay the piper? Is it time maybe for a second American Revolution?
Since I was a teenager, my country has been ravaged by banditti in Brooks Brothers suits.