Power in Possessions

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A week or so ago, while watching Back to the Future III, I decided it might be cool to buy a Colt Peacemaker. I was astounded at the price I would have to pay to buy one and thought just briefly it might be cheaper to travel back in time. However, since Deloreans go for $25,000 or more, I can buy several Peacemakers at that price, but it made me think about inflation and how far our dollar goes. I also realized that I could unwisely splurge on a Delorean or I could put away that money for retirement. I can have pleasure now or peace of mind later.

When I ran the numbers, I found something very illuminating. As they clamour for higher minimum wages to help people live better lives, I found that the numbers tell an interesting story. Below is a chart showing the historical price of certain goods and their annualized rate of inflation since to today’s approximate price. The calculated inflation rates tell an interesting tale.

Item	Historical price	Year	Current price	Inflation rate
Colt Peacemaker	$                   8.00	1885	$      1,250.00	4%
Gasoline	$                   0.88	1995	$               3.31	9%
Stamp	$                   0.19	1988	$               0.45	4%
Gold	$              350.00	1995	$      1,650.00	9%
9mm FMJ	$                   0.25	2007	$               0.75	25%
Atomic fireball	$                   0.05	1988	$               0.25	7%
Minimum Wage	$                   3.25	1995	$            10.75	7%
House	$      128,000.00	1995	$  245,000.00	5%
Car	$        10,000.00	1995	$    15,000.00	3%

It also tells me in what I might want to invest as a hedge against inflation or as the government continues to print money it does not have to pay its bills. It also tells me a little about what the government suggests we buy, what society suggests we buy, and how useful those things really are to making our lives better.

If these were investments, they have very different rates of return. If you are a child, the rise in the inflationary rates will pay for the kind of consumables that children seek. If you are an adult, it also pays for it. However, some of the things the government doesn’t want you to buy have risen at far higher than the standard inflation rate. While the USPS tells you to buy Forever stamps as a hedge against inflation, the data shows that stamp prices are among the slowest increase in price. What gives us the highest rates of return? Gas, gold, and ammunition beat even the rapid spike in the minimum wage. Even though it seems like a Colt is way up in price, standardized over that many years, it hasn’t increased nearly as much as other things. As investments, some things are wise for their yield; other things are useful for the value they bring to our life. I think a house brings a lot of value to life, but I don’t know anyone who finds a lot of satisfaction out of all the gold he has. Gold is, after all, pretty boring and mostly useless.

Why do these things hold value? Primarily, I wager they do because they are not things in which the government is directly interested or can directly manipulate. You can always find gold or make your own bullets, but by yourself it’s tough to build a house, a car, or even a pencil. These goods give you the best bang for your buck literally and figuratively, because they allow you to negotiate from a position of power. That’s why government doesn’t want you to have them- they give YOU power.

Personal property provides power to the people. Government is a self-licking ice cream cone interested primarily in its own advancement. Any benefits you receive are usually and largely accidental or coincidental. Why aren’t guns on the list? Well, guns don’t actually kill people. Guns allow you to fire bullets. Guns don’t accidentally blow up. Ammunition does. Guns don’t actively fire themselves. They are how people project bullets. The bullet makes a gun different from a rock as a weapon. Gasoline makes a man faster than a horse or a bicycle, or even a train. Gold is transferrable for almost any commodity, despite my reservations against it, and so it gives men power. In fact, you’ve heard of government’s golden rule: he who has the gold makes the rules. These things give men power. Cornering the market on chalk or candy or stamps will never make you rich. It will maintain the status quo, which is what government wants.

I still disagree with raising the minimum wage. If you look at the items we need, they keep pace with the rise in inflation via wages, so a new employee can buy no more than I could when I was brand new to the workforce. It gives the impression that we accumulate wealth faster per hour, but I remember movies from the 80s in which saving $5 million in ten years was a big deal. Now the federal deficit is in trillions, or a million millions. The numbers are so big they have no meaning. The efforts of government do not really have any meaning. They are not designed to empower you.

In the end, the rich man is not one who invests in things. It is the man who spends his money well. I have maintained for some time that it’s not how much a man earns as much as it’s a function of how much he has left over after he pays his bills. By that metric, our government is worse than bankrupt! By other comparison, I have coworkers who earn $20,000 more annually than I. However, they purchased houses that cost them thrice per month what I pay, meaning that if they take 30 years to pay off their mortgage, that expense alone sucks up all the difference in our wages. If you spend the difference in disparate earnings on more expensive lodging, that in essence can negate the extra money you earn. I have no problem with owning things. The main problem is when your things own you.

Government wants your things to own you, but God teaches that we can be masters of our souls, our destinies, and the world around us. Government maintains the status quo while God encourages improvement. There is power in what we posses, but it is less about what we possess than it is about how we use it. If you buy things you don’t need with money you don’t have to impress people you don’t like, you trade what matters most for what matters in the moment. Eventually, we learn that our power is in what we possess, and that it’s not in things but in how we use those things to bless the lives of people around us.