My question for this day... 8-2-22

In the new testament, James 1:8 tells us that a “double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.”

Webster defines it this way. “DOUBLE-MINDED is wavering in mind : undecided, vacillating”

My question for this day..

Is a politician who claims to be Christian yet takes non Christian stands on issues double-minded?

SUPPLY AND DEMAND THEORY AND GAS PRICES TODAY 7-4-2022

Two take aways from the supply and demand theory.

If supply increases and demand stays the same- price decreases

If supply decreases and demand stays the same- price increases

So, let's look at the price of fossil fuel using the supply and demand theory.

Specifically, let's look at the price of gasoline at the pump, although fossil fuel has many more uses than gasoline.(1)

Gasoline pump prices at the end of 2020 were roughly $2.00 per gallon.

Gasoline pump prices in early February 2021 were roughly $3.20 per gallon (and were continuing to trend upward).

What changed?

Before Joe Biden became president, he promised to shut down the Keystone pipeline on Day 1 of his administration. He kept this promise. His administration also tightened the screws on all further fossil fuel exploration.

This started well before Putin invaded Ukraine.

Demand had not significantly increased.

Artificially decreasing supply of fossil fuel by shutting down major portions of the fossil fuel industry was and continues to be the overriding cause of the sky rocketing price of gasoline.

AND...

The exorbitant cost of gasoline is the overriding reason for the recession that we currently are experiencing.

Choking off the lifeline of the American economy is wrecking our economy. We may well find ourselves in a full fledged economic crash and an actual depression far worse than a recession! A depression can have much worse consequences globally leading to world wide conflicts worse than we are currently experiencing.

Do we need to move away from fossil fuels? YES.

However, two key elements are needed.

1. Better technology. Right now we lack the ability to replace fossil fuel with acceptable replacements. Wind and solar are NOT sufficient to support our current infrastructure. Add electric cars to this and we'd need wind mills and solar panels on every corner- literally! Imagine driving through our country and never losing sight of wind mills and solar panels in the cities, deserts, near ocean shores (in the water), mountain tops, great plains, National Parks, Washington State to Washington D.C., Hawaii to Alaska.

2. Patience. Phasing out fossil fuel and phasing in replacements (not necessarily wind mills and solar panels) takes time. How much time we have- I don't know.

(1) Fossil Fuel is not just gasoline. It's oil and grease to lubricate our cars, boats, jets, heat and air conditioning systems in your homes, machinery in factories, even your bicycle. It's also an ingredient in rubber and plastic products. From the time raw materials are taken from the ground purified, mixed with other materials, shaped into useable parts to the time they are put into use such as this computer I'm typing on, fossil fuels are required. Artificially decreasing the availability of this resource WITHOUT an acceptable alternative is an assault not just on oil companies but our entire economy, on our very lives!

Value of the American Dollar (part 2)- What is the Effect of printing dollars without creating anything of value?

The right way- Well, let's say a new beneficial drug is created and produced. The creators benefit. The new drug requires ingredients. Suppliers of the ingredients benefit. 

Truckers have to move the ingredients to the drug factory. The trucking industry benefits as do the truck building industry and the diesel producing industry. 

Pharmaceutical scientists' learn how to produce the drug. Their education and value increases. 

New workers are needed to produce the drug. Our work force benefits. 

Truckers have to move the new drug to the pharmacies. The trucking industry benefits as do the truck building industry and the diesel producing industry, a second time. 

A doctor has a new medicine to help his patients, his/her business increases. 

Retail employees have another product to sell making their jobs more valuable and secure. They and their company benefit. 

The consumer has to drive to pick up the drug. The automobile and gasoline industry benefit. 

The consumer's health improves and he/she again become contributing members of society. Society benefits. 

As you can see, not just the pharmaceutical company's position is improved but other businesses, all of which make up a portion of the economy, improve too. This is an example of how one thing lifts up many other sectors of the economy. This increases the actual wealth of the United States' economy and if no additional dollars are put into circulation, each dollar is a bit more valuable. 

The wrong way- Now let's look at what happens when the tail wags the dog! More dollars are put into circulation without any increase in the economy (no new products, no new gold, no increased education, etc.). 

 Okay, time for an extreme and exaggerated example. Say an ounce of gold is worth 100 dollars. So each dollar is worth 1/100 of an ounce. Next day the amount of dollars in circulation doubles. That means that each dollar is now only 1/200 of that ounce of gold! So, your dollar is only worth ½ as much. 

Our Government giving money away whether to all citizens, irresponsible borrowers, illegal aliens, or foreign governments creates no value. This devalues our economy and our dollars. Although giving money away is advertised as a stimulus for those receiving the money, the stimulus effect only lasts a short time then results in increased inflation a few months later. (Kinda like getting drunk to solve your problems- works until the next morning when all your problems are still there and you're hung over.) 

A better way- Make loans with interest to foreign governments (like China does). Modify how we treat illegal aliens. (Insure they are productive naturalized citizens before allowing them to join our society.) Make government benefits earned (anyone remember CETA? Or WPA?). “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.” 

                                                                    ___________ 

 Okay, I admit that choosing the pharmaceutical companies was a bad idea. I find them charging U.S. Citizens ten times what they charge citizens of other countries is disgraceful as is the entire financial side of the medical industry (10 different prices for the same

 procedure is wrong!).

The Value of the American Dollar. (part 1)

The wealth of the U.S. is based on the gold in Fort Knox, the natural resources we have, the land we own, the businesses we own, the homes we own, the cars and boats we own, medicines, even computers and TV sets we own as well as more abstract things like the education level of our citizens, the values we hold, the faith that others around the world have in the stability of our government and our free market system that allows any one of our citizens to excel in the field they choose and possibly get rich with their ideas and inventions. These all put together are called the economy. 

These are some of the things which create the value of a dollar. Intrinsically, a dollar bill's value is just ink and the paper it's printed on. It is the fact that it represents the extrinsic value of all those things mentioned above that gives it it's value.