Too many Mannies

By Dave Buhlman

Manny Ramirez is the left fielder for the Boston Red Sox, as most people know. All players in professional sports have special talents that most can only dream about, but even among this rarified group, Manny stands out. He’s a hitter. Manny can hit a pitch thrown at about ninety miles an hour, often with plenty of movement on the pitch, like few in baseball today.

Because of his rare talent, Manny is paid a lot of money to play baseball. I’m not sure offhand how much, but let’s say it’s ten million dollars per year. But what if, instead of just one Manny, there were fifty of equal ability. Understandably, that is going to reduce Manny’s value to a professional baseball team because, if Manny does not sign, the team can go out an get one of the other forty-nine Mannys. Under these circumstances, our Manny Ramirez would make less money; let’s say one million dollars per year. Still a nice salary, but what if there were a thousand Mannys? Then the salary plummets.

So it is with the US dollar. If there are more of them, each is worth less.

That is the main cause of the economic troubles we see today. The privately-owned Federal Reserve Bank (the Fed) has increased the supply of paper money dramatically. Because of this increase, the dollars in our possession are worth less. Given that dollars are worth less, it takes more of them to get the things we want - food, gas, and clothes, for example - because prices are increased to reflect the devalued dollar. Those whose incomes are not increasing (most of us) are falling backwards economically. This pattern has been going on since 1913, when Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act, and was most pronounced during the Great Depression from 1929 to 1940. Obviously, we do not want to see those days again. We are not nearly as tough as our parents or grandparents, so the weeping and gnashing of teeth would create quite a din these days.

The Fed and the President are trying various things in response to the crisis, but they are all short-term fixes if, in fact, they actually work at all.

Long-term fixes were recommended by Congressman Ron Paul of Texas, who is still running for President. Congressman Paul was scoffed at by his Republican opponents and the media locksteppers, but he knew what he was talking about, and we’re seeing the problems he warned us about being played out right in front of us today. Still, only few are listening, and virtually none of those strut around the corridors of power. The main message is to stabilize our currency by working our way back to the gold standard, the system that was completely abandoned in 1971.

It looks like Senator McCain will be the Republican nominee, so Congressman Paul’s messages are fading even further from the stage. He has gone from being marginalized to being completely ignored. He’s not the first one in history to be so right, yet be ignored, but it’s Americans today who will pay the price for Congressman Paul’s message disappearing from the public eye. Are you ready?

Dave Buhlman is a former New Hampshire State Representative and published author who supports the return to the Constitutional Republic.