What is $5,000 worth today, and is it better than 1,600 in the 80's?

millercarbon ...

That was truly excellent. Thank you for posting it.

The term "dollar" is a term of measurement, not unlike the terms "pint" "quart" or "gallon." So, when we ask  someone how much they want for a certain product, and the response is: "ten dollars," the retort should be: "ten 'dollars' of what?" Americans used to know that "ten 'dollars' of what?" ... meant ten "dollars" worth of either gold or silver.

The hidden secret is that with precious metals as a basis for money, it is impossible to build a welfare state.

 In order to create an additional "dollar" under a metal system, another "dollar's" worth of metal must be dug out of the ground. That applies the worth of labor to the "dollar." 

Under a fiat (paper) money system, the government can print at will to support all kinds of nefarious things ... like unending political wars for example.

The benefit of a fiat money system is that it empowers those in control at the present time. The ultimate price of a fiat money system is huge debts that must be paid by future generations. At the present time, the national debt stands at 23 trillion dollars, and the unfunded liabilities stand at over 200 trillion dollars.

Gold/silver is the currency of free men. Paper is the money of economic slaves.

Here's a good start for anyone interested in the subject:

https://www.amazon.com/Ron-Paul-Money-Book-Congressman/dp/B000M0R36M

Frank

Anyone who reads Ron Paul will be shocked to discover the crotchety old geezer has a deep well grounded knowledge of our constitutional republic and monetary system. Turns out there’s a reason they make him look on TV like a yammering old crank- he’s talking point blank about tyranny and liberty and how they institute the one while making us think we’ve got the other.

The Federal Reserve Bank is neither federal (its privately owned) nor holds any reserves (its all paper certificates) and isn’t even a bank but a clever way of bailing out banks. It was the third US central bank, the first two having failed so disastrously no one would have supported another. But we were tricked into it. The fascinating story is told:

https://www.chinhnghia.com/The-Creature-from-Jekyll-Island-by-G.-Edward-Griffin.pdf

Edwin Vieira is a constitutional scholar and attorney who has argued AND WON cases before the Supreme Court. His magnum opus on money-
https://www.amazon.com/Pieces-Eight-Disabilities-Constitution-Foundation/dp/0967175917

These are the anti-dotes to the brainwashing we call education, so effective I came out of college with a business degree and knew all about stocks and bonds and yet somehow mysteriously never a word about silver and gold. A whole four year degree built around the uses of money without ever a word about what money actually is. Now I know why.

With sound money, money with actual intrinsic value that cannot be created from nothing, all the power is with the people. We would find better and more efficient uses, everything would be cheaper and better and more, and questions like Eric asked, the answers self-evident.

As it is we still manage to have improvements with technologies like Synergistic and Tekton use, a whole bunch of things that never even existed 50 years ago and make music sound better than ever. B&O developed a moving iron cartridge, Soundsmith developed it to perform light years better. And the only reason its Hyperion is $8k instead of $80 is our bogus unit of measure.

Based on how much we have deviated from discussion of audio, I must conclude that I am correct in all of the points below:

• Class D is the only high end audio amplifier topology left.
  
• Power cables don't matter
• Speaker driver counts should be a prime number.
  

A silver dime is worth about a bit less than $1.50 (90% silver and 10% copper). Silver is trading in the range of $13 - $15 an ounce. And yes, things were a lot more affordable 40 - 50 years ago! Though wages were comparably lower.

How many here remember when gasoline was .27 a gallon?