Poetry Monday

Last week, after I finished Agatha Christie's Sparkling Cyanide, I moved on to a little non-fiction book called Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?

It was an interesting read. Bottom line, when there are a lot of pencils around, the value of pencils decreases. When the value of pencils goes down, pencils are cheap. Unfortunately, the law of supply and demand goes the other way.

When I run out of money, I have to stop buying stuff. When the government runs out of money, they get to make some more. However, when they put this extra money into the economy, the value of money decreases. When the value of money decreases, things cost more. This is called inflation.

Candidates running for office want to get elected. They promise people stuff. The one who promises the most stuff wins. Then, that newly elected person has to make good on their promises so they will get re-elected. They do this by taxing people. When taxes are already high, they can't tax people any more or they get mad so they have to figure out how to come up with some more money. No problem if you are the government, you just make some more money.

However, making more money makes all money worth less, so stuff costs more.

Here's the solution. Somebody needs to have the brains to stop the government from spending and making more money to fund their purchases, but when they do this there is a recession or a depression. The cure for inflation is recession or depression. The cure for recession/depression is to get more money circulating. See the problem?

One thing that would help is for everyone to elect candidates that don't promise everybody stuff (free health care, free college, jobs for everyone, affordable housing) because if we do, these candidates will have to fund all these projects and this won't be pretty. It will mean higher taxes and higher prices.

The happy part about the book is that the author included this poem. I know, you were wondering what all that had to do with Poetry Monday, weren't you?

So, enjoy it as you ponder just how you can serve your country this 4th of July week by making a large purchase with your refund check. Also, stay tuned to this blog for more simplistic answers to life's problems.

Smart
by Shel Silverstein

My dad gave me one dollar bill
'Cause I'm his smartest son,
And I swapped it for two shiny quarters
'Cause two is more than one!

And then I took the quarters
And traded them to Lou
For three dimes-I guess he don't know
that three is more than two!

Just then, along came old blind Bates
And just 'cause he can't see
He gave me four nickels for my three dimes,
And four is more than three!

And I took the nickels to Hiram Coombs
Down at the seed-feed store,
and the fool gave me five pennies for them,
And five is more than four!

And then I went and showed my dad,
and he got red in the cheeks
And closed his eyes and shook his head-
Too proud of me to speak!