Who Determines Value?

Where does the value of an item, any item, originate? If someone digs a ditch how does one determine the value of their time? As most American citizens know someone from a so-called “developing country” would dig a ditch for fewer dollars than an American citizen. What is the difference? How does the person from a third world country determine that they can dig the ditch for fewer dollars? How does the American citizen determine what their time is worth? Realistically.

If we travel back to the Roman Empire days a Roman soldier, the rank and file, earned about a tenth of an ounce of silver a day. Most days were spent preparing for battle, building roads, building forts and the like. Most days they were not engaged in battle but instead were involved in hard human labor. With the current exchange rate (price) of silver around $17.00 an ounce that means the typical Roman soldier earned about $1.70 a day. My guess is their days didn’t start at 9:00am and end at 5:00pm with a morning and afternoon coffee break and one hour lunch. More than likely their day started close to sunrise and finished close to sunset, with little down-time in between. This would garner them approximately $1.70 in todays US Dollars. Can you imagine working on a roadway, laying very heavy stones, for 10-12 hours for $1.70? What is the difference? Please keep in mind, this was a position that people wanted, they trained for–on their on time–in order to be considered for the job! This standard was maintained for several hundred, if not a more than a thousand years. What happened? Banksters.

We can look at more recent history like the industrial revolution. Beginning in approximately 1850 and running through the early 1900’s we see basically the same standard of pay. The work is slightly easier, the hours are approximately the same–sunrise to sunset, and the standard of living is approximately the same. Little changed during this massive time frame. There were several occasions between the Roman Empire and the industrial revolution that people didn’t earn as much, the standard of living, basically, fell off a cliff, war, famine and so-forth. Let’s focus on the times that people mattered and people were living a good life. Yes, some would argue that we are living a better life today than either of these time periods, to which, I say, you are correct. However, we have lost a lot of what made their lives better. Intangibles like freedom, liberty, the right to pursue happiness. These God-given rights have evaporated from today’s society. Were Roman dictators more tyrannical than OBomba? Did the police randomly stop people during their travels and steal all their currency or shot them because they were attempting to comply with a request from the police? We can argue these details all day long, but the point is, the people, in general were at least as “free” as we are today. When we look at the standard of living during the industrial revolution we see massive change. Unions were formed to protect to the people from the CEO who wanted to steal all the labor from the employees and keep the wages for himself. We see the people standing up and taking charge of their situations and demanding a safe work environment so they wouldn’t be killed because they showed up for work. Some of the benefits that we enjoy today were fought for and won by labor unions. These benefits come at cost to someone. What is the value of time and labor, goods and services and how are they determined? Who decides that a Cadillac in 1930 is worth $2,000 but the same car, a 2014 Cadillac is worth tens of thousands dollars? When we sent a rocket to the moon in the late 1960’s the computing power for that rocket was about 1/100th of what my phone is capable of today. My phone was free, with a service contract, but the equipment that has infinitely more computing power than a space traveling rocket ship, was free while the rocket ship, in 1960’s dollars cost millions. How did that happen? Banksters.

Did gold and silver truly keep the tyrants and dictators throughout history in check? Or did gold and silver reign in the banksters and the over-the-top greed of the few sociopaths that were trusted with infinite wealth? Was it due to the fact that the people possessed gold and silver, gold the money of kings and silver the money of the people, that kept these ingrates in line with the rest of the world? There are numerous photos of people like J P Morgan walking down the street among the people. Can you imagine Jamie Dimon walking down the street today or Lloyd Blankfein? Are you kidding me? Do you think either or both would be attacked and possibly an attempt made on their lives? I am not suggesting violence in any form, simply pointing out the fact that these two people have done harm to others while their crimes go unpunished and that could possibly breed some animosity towards them. Just sayin’.

If we ever get back to a gold standard, and over the last two-three years there has been much talk about moving in this direction, what would the value of gold need to be in order to sustain our current standard of living? What would be the basis of making a valuation and who would determine that value? I have read many arguments for gold to be valued between $1,000 USDollars and $50,000 USDollars per ounce. Likewise, with silver, everything from $5.00 USDollars to $1,000 USDollars per ounce. Any way you look at it, those are awfully large swings in valuation. What determines the difference between $1,000 gold and $50,000 gold? Some would argue the volume of currency in the system. Well, what is the value of the currency in the system? I read, almost daily, that fiat currency is worthless because it is backed by nothing but debt and confidence in a particular currency. If that is the case, why wouldn’t gold and silver start at zero value and then move progressively higher as people demanded more? Is that not how the LAWS of supply and demand work? Limited product with a high demand typically means higher valuation for that particular item? But we are discussing an item that represents value. Gold and silver represent labor, energy and resources. These three items, labor, energy and resources were the only items used to acquire gold and silver. Before these three items were introduced to gold and silver they had no value, merely rocks laying in the ground.

So, I ask again, how is value determined? What makes a house in the 1970’s worth $5,000 USDollars but the same exact house, at the same address is worth $200,000 USDollars today? What happened? How did that happen? Banksters. The house did not change, the address did not change, the perceived value of the USDollars changed. Who made the change? Banksters.