How much metal one can buy with 1k USD - infographic

[mwmkravchenko]

Ignoring the scale of the person, if the cubes are relatively to scale it is a decent representation of the comparative values of metals.

Also, steel is a poor choice as it is not a raw material, iron would be more appropriate.

Comparing the metals to an arbitrary number assigned to a piece of paper is not very helpful.

A friend and I were discussing this the other day and we had some products with price stickers on them (remember those?) and we could determine the year by the sticker. I went back and compared those products to the "price" of gold at the time. The relationship between gold and the products has remained fairly constant across those 40 years. What has changed is the number assigned to the notes of paper we used as a medium of exchange.

Someone once said that in medieval times an ounce of gold would buy a really nice suit of clothes for a man, and today, that still holds true.

Interesting way to think about "prices" and "inflation"...

We have inflation for one simple reason. Somone wants to make more money.

Banks
Government through taxes
Wealthy individuals through Corporations that are supposed to earn more every 3 months.

The last one is the constant driver.

The first two are episodic.

The decoupling of currency from a tangible commodity is the source of the constant generation of more wealth.

Have a finite amount of precious anything that your currency is tied to limits the total possible amount of this currency.

Good, and bad. Bad in that the people that are good at making the money will accumulate it. Wait, that's happening anyway...

Can't say it's working though. 40 years ago there was a middle class in Canada and the U.S. Hard to find now.

Education is the key. Canada is the most over educated country in the world. No one is wanting to do the real jobs.

Sad.

I'll get off my little box now.

Mark