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I think you missed my point. Look at prices from 1900 to 1940. Very slight increases in prices. You have a point on amounts but lets look at real wages. I don't clear $50.00 per hour. There is the slight bite from taxes, healthcare, insurance etc. Real wage is closer to $28.00 to $30.00 per hour. The 7 gallons of gas I could purchase in the 60’s is about 9 now. Not much better in 50 years. We have not progressed by this measure. Net vs. gross income.

"Not much better in 50 years. We have not progressed by this measure. Net vs. gross income."

Yet we have. Look around. We live in much larger, nicer houses, we drive large SUV's which get better gas mileage than the cars of the 60's. We've got greater access to entertainment. We've got better access to better medicine (for now).

Gasoline is not a real good example because we have had ridiculously stupid energy polices for the last 40 years. And world demand has dramatically increased.

The cumulative effect of small amounts of inflation has not had any noticeable detrimental effect on our standard of lifestyles. Only if you stored massive amounts of money in a mattress would you notice the difference.

Currency is not meant to be a long-term store of value. It's meant to be a short term store of value to facilitate transactions, and on that measure, our paper money far outperforms gold because it has less year to year fluctuations.

People also confuse tax policy and Federal spending with monetary policy. And those two should be kept separate.

The FED has not facilitated congressional spending. And they can borrow money almost as easily on a gold system as they can on paper money. After all, they can promise that our children will pay it back in anything they want to.

The FED is not the cause of taxation or over-regulation or unwise trade policies. Let's keep the blame where it belongs on Congress and the Executive.