Four Letter Words

“Food” is a four letter word. It’s vital for our long-term survival. Here in the United States our cost for food has been rising rather steeply. There are a number of related reasons for this phenomenon. China is suffering severe drought as are certain parts of the Southwest U.S. Other global regions are having difficulty raising food because of weather or war. As I have noted in previous columns, food is not included in the government’s “market basket” when calculating inflation. Somewhere in the bowels of Big Brother’s lair is a “white paper” that thoroughly justifies why food should not be part of the inflation/cost-of-living metrics. Major appliances such as washers and dryers are included, and most people purchase those every ten years or so. So why is it that “big ticket” items are dropped into the basket but not a basic unit of survival such as food?

The conspiracy theorist that resides in my body suspects that government does not include food in the market basket so they can lie to us about our cost or standard of living. They assume, probably rightly, that even though we see the increases in prices or the shrinkage of portions at the supermarket, we are not clever enough to identify the accelerating costs of our nourishment. They probably also assume that if we are perceptive enough to detect the creeping price increases, we’ll blame the store, the wholesalers or producers rather than the limply weak dollar that our Federal Reserve and our overspending governments have given us. If the government were the information source of the inflationary status of our food, we might blame them (correctly) for higher prices. So, in your efforts to eke out a living, “food” becomes a four letter word.

Another four letter gem that the market basket ignores is “fuel” or energy. We all know how little impact energy has on our cost of living, don’t we? (sarcasm mode). As our gasoline prices leap to roughly four dollars per gallon, the daily commute is transformed into a costly and necessary proposition. The politicians, primarily President Obama, loudly and crassly blame “Big Oil” for our situation, but the greatest culprit is the weak dollar…again, the Fed and the feds are to blame. As the value of the dollar slides, the number of dollars required to purchase goods must increase. The per barrel cost of oil ratchets upward while the worth of our dollar is shrinking. Add to the weakness of our currency the fact that our energy needs are nearly 70% dependent on imports, and we are condemned to the pain of higher costs. Fuel and food…are four letter words that represent vital elements of our economy and our lifestyles.

Rain is word that is having a huge impact on our economic situation today. Clearly the flooding in the Mississippi Valley and the various tributaries is covering thousands of acres of valuable crop land. It may be several years before the submerged acreage can return to its former productivity. If you’ve been following the news, you are probably aware that more than 130,000 acres in Missouri were intentionally flooded by the Army Corps of Engineers to minimize the threat to more highly populated centers downstream. The rain has delayed planting in many other areas of the Midwest and will undoubtedly result in lower yields because the growing season will be shorter than normal. The wet weather will have the greatest impact on feed grain production which will cause livestock feed prices to increase, and thus, elevate the prices for meat, dairy and poultry products. In addition, because feed grains are the primary components of ethanol bio-fuels, in order to satisfy their contracts farmers will have to divert additional acreages from feed-oriented production. As a result of the terrible weather, both food and fuel will be more costly in the near and distant future. Food, fuel and rain are four letter words that will have a negative impact on our economy as we move forward. The most damaging effect, however, has come from an unaccountable Federal Reserve Bank and an irresponsible federal government. If our money were sound, and if our political class did not promote an asinine energy policy, the bad weather would be limited to a short-term inconvenience for consumers in the supermarkets and at the gas pumps. Once again, the political elites and the banking interests blow it, and the people pay the piper.

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Dire Education

If you want to succeed, you must go to college. Since the end of World War II, that has been considered conventional wisdom in our society. We are constantly bombarded with facts and figures supporting the idea that without a college diploma, a person will not be capable of living a financially satisfying life. So, one would assume if all that were true, a college education would be as important as any staple such as bread or milk. Higher education, as a necessity, has been infused into our marrow, melded into our subconscious, and branded into our epidermis. In other words, the absolute requirement for one to matriculate from an institution of higher learning is sheer propaganda. Oh certainly, it may be helpful. Four or more years of learning to do one’s laundry, managing one’s pocket money, and attempting to avoid a drunk and disorderly citation are valuable learning experiences that can pay dividends for a lifetime.

When I was teaching, my favorite students were those who in mid-life decided to pursue higher education. There were a number of reasons that they had not done so earlier such as an unplanned pregnancy, flunking out, military service, tired of school and bevy of other personal circumstances. They truly appreciated the classroom. Because of their life experience, they would challenge anything I said that tripped their “b.s.” alarms. Their work was timely and well done. The adult students would engage in vigorous debate as we examined issues that impacted mass media. They were older, wiser and more mature than their fellow students, and ……….they paid their own bills. They wanted a 3 credit-hour course to contain 3-credit hours or more of content and value. The bottom line is that the value of a formal education is directly related to the effort of the student. Personally, I have more than seven (7) years of college and university education, but my greatest learning was acquired on my own by reading and studying outside my academic field.

You might ask why I am discussing this subject when we have budget showdown underway and military conflicts in a number of areas around the globe. The cost of higher education slides into our current environment because we are focused on the costs for government, healthcare, energy and food. Over the past two decades college costs have been at the top of escalating outlays. In other words, the cost for higher education has increased much faster than for many other sectors of the economy. Why? Why should students and their parents pay so much for something that may be of questionable intrinsic value? Why should parents and students pay so dearly for four or more years of steady leftist indoctrination from instructors and professors who are refugees from the turmoil of the 1960’s?

Because of the upward spiral of college costs, many students face years of student loan debt repayment after graduation. In a small way this is a good thing. They learn rather quickly how oppressive debt can be, and maybe can translate their personal situation into a basic understanding of how deadly debt for the country can be if it becomes too unmanageably huge. In addition after the graduates have been out of school for a few years, they’ll begin to understand what real learning is about. They’ll use the tools they developed in college to equip themselves for real life. Self discipline is something that many college students develop in their forays through the halls of academe. It is extremely difficult to sit through the political and philosophical garbage spewed by many college teachers without suffering from a massive gag reflex.

Neal McCluskey wrote in a February, 2008, article that the primary accelerant for the rising costs of college was the myriad government programs for loans and grants to allow our children to advance their educations. All the programs have done is to provide a huge pot of money for schools to tap and has allowed them to escape true fiscal responsibility. In defense of the colleges and universities of America, they really need those funds in order to provide a higher level of pay for their U.S.-hating, aging hippie faculty. Think of it as a welfare program because a large number of those faculty members could not survive in the real world. They must have the nest of the academy to nourish them and protect them because they cannot fly on their own.

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