# Cents of Discontent

**Published by:** [jer979](https://paragraph.com/@jer979-2/)
**Published on:** 2025-04-18
**URL:** https://paragraph.com/@jer979-2/cents-of-discontent

## Content

I look at this list of prices from 1973 and I see red. I feel anger and I feel fury. I feel this because in seeing this price list and knowing that, only 2 years prior to this, President Nixon infamously closed the gold window, thereby introducing the free floating era of pure “fiat” money. Since then, and you should go check this yourself using any of the LLMs out there, the purchasing power of the US dollar has fallen precipitously. That means that when your grandparents decided, in 1973, that they didn’t want to go to a movie that night, but would rather go another night (say in 2025), the $3.50 they put away as “2 movie tickets” was-surprise, surprise- not able to buy the same movie tickets 50 years later. This silent killer of inflation makes everyone poorer and, disproportionately hurts the poorest in our society. The result? People feel overwhelmed, like they are drowning, because they can’t keep up with the lifestyle they want (even if it’s a modest one). This causes stress, reduces optionality, and hinders people from achieving their true potential. It’s a case of the way our system of money works creating a matrix of servitude and indebtedness that seems harmless (because “everyone lives in it”), but really is a thief along the road of the pursuit of happiness. Why is there so much anger and discontent globally today? I’m not naive enough to think it all has to do with inflation, but I’m not dumb enough to think it doesn’t matter at all. It matters a lot because it erodes the foundation of the Maslow hierarchy.

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