The Real Cost of Inflation

We continue to be told that inflation is minimal, but that is not the case.  Inflation still exists, but it affects things most of us aren't purchasing.  This is the first year in five that good crop and grazing land hasn't gone up significantly.  Most of us aren't buying farmland, but all of us are dependent upon what that land produces, and very much counting on someone to work the land.  The harvest is looking shaky this year, not in the amount, but in the price.  In much of the cropland, the weather has been optimal, but a big harvest may actually bring the price down, while farmers and ranchers have not yet recovered from the years of drought.  Shemitah hasn't even been figured into the equation.

The following is a quote from an article written in 2011, entitled, "High Costs Make it Hard to Grow Young Farmers."
"[Some people are] sitting in New York [and] saying, 'Well, I don't know, I've never even been to Nebraska, but by golly, I'm going to buy some Nebraska land,' " Goss says. "And you have these groups coming together ... that are buying farmland [and] driving up farmland prices to prices we've not seen before."

Goss says even though the Federal Reserve is keeping interest rates low for the next few years, banks simply aren't lending to high-risk first-time farmers.  FULL STORY

Young men with degrees in agriculture can't afford machinery and land.  The equipment required to farm is in the hundreds of thousands and good farmland is selling between $5,000 and $10,000 and acre.   Even at the low figure, a small farm, 160 acres is upward toward a million dollars and that's not enough ground to produce crops to pay for the equipment needed, much less turn a profit.  Most farming households in America have one spouse that works away from the farm.  Some farmers, and there really aren't many farmers left; have inherited their land and rent additional land for crops or pasture, while their spouse works in town.  The numbers look big on paper, but the genuine profit is marginal.

The cost of farmland and machinery, of course affects the cost of groceries, but for some reason the economic reports do not consider these most basic variables into the equation regarding inflation.  To be honest, when I began researching this subject, I expected to find some seriously concrete figures and statistics, but there really aren't any.  Basically, the farmer invests hundreds of thousands of dollars on the hope that he'll make enough to meet his operating expenses and stay in business another year.  Most of the young folks interested in agriculture are already eyeing a deal with Monsanto.  The average age of a farmer working the land is 56 years old, and many of their sons do not intend to follow in their father's footsteps.  Much of American farmland that is operated by independents, is mortgaged or leased.

Farming and ranching is now heading into bigger and bigger operations and we already know, only the big corporations can afford that kind of outlay of investment.  When a farmer can't meet operating expenses, the banks foreclose and that independent operation ultimately becomes just another holding of a conglomerate.   Meanwhile, the food supply becomes more centralized and controlled.   The real cost of inflation is slavery!

Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants to Pharaoh. Give us seed, that we may live, and not die, and that the land won`t be desolate."  Torah of Holy Scripture 

Which Way is This Discrimination Truly Aimed?

Discrimination against religion.  These businesses are not protesting gay weddings!  They are just preferring to not participate, but according to court decisions, that is no longer their right, as Americans!

Cake decorating is now political.  Please allow me to clarify.  It's political if you have strong religious beliefs, live in a state that may or may not recognize same sex marriage, and own a business that becomes the target of the Gay Agenda.

Masterpiece Cakeshop

A decorated cake is just as much a work of art as any painting, sculpture, or tapestry.  Artists, by definition, express themselves, in their work!  

What happened to the right to refuse service?  What happened to a dissatisfied customer just “taking their business elsewhere?”  I have an idea for all of us business folk who do believe our beliefs have a priority in our business dealings.  We must seek our Creator and ask Him for a creative way to deal with this tyrannical agenda.  A person who has started a business, tended to that  business and perfected their art, craft, or skill can still be protected, but it won't be by the government.  The business owners have genuinely invested of themselves in their business and their community, unlike the plaintiffs, who have merely seen an opportunity to raise their bully pulpit once again.

Two of the three cases that have gone to court and the judgment has been rendered against the business owners took place in states that did not even recognize same-sex marriage, at the time the lawsuits!  The state didn't recognize same sex marriage, yet insisted that a business recognize it.   Are judges and officials so blind that they cannot see they are being foolishly used to further an agenda, or are they willing and compliant to favor a specific belief over another?

I have two suggestions for business folk everywhere.  First, present your craft, your business, your service as an “art.”  Art is protected and applauded for it's uniqueness and even offensive statement.  The crucifix in urine comes to mind . . .  Once your business is established as artistic, copyright your particular statement.  For instance, my soap labels all have a Bible verse on them, yet my soap is “crafted.”  I would suggest bakery owners who base their business on their beliefs, do something similar.  The religious discrimination is only going to become stronger and more invasive, and the discrimination is against the religious.  

These business people, unlike the artist in 1987, are not applauded for their religious statements, but actually penalized for their beliefs.  I hadn't realized how long the anti-Bible agenda has been going on, but the momentum it has gained recently is reprehensible.  The first amendment is being destroyed by the very courts that are in place to uphold it.  Fining a small independent business owner on the grounds of their religious beliefs, and I don't care how it's presented in legal jargon; is persecution.  These entrepreneurs are facing the demise of their livelihood for their beliefs . . . in America.  This is going far beyond the loss of the first amendment.  

The condescension with which these business people are being treated is shameful.   Colorado does not license same sex marriage, yet Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop is being court ordered to create art that is against his heart.

Although Oregon did not recognize same sex marriage at the time of this incident, the state has now legalized it, but that still does not change the circumstances of this particular case.  The Kleins who own Sweetcakes by Melissa became the target of a lesbian couple, before Oregon even legalized same sex marriage.  Some of the comments following the article, made by the "i-pad legal experts" are priceless.

Pennsylvania just legalized same sex marriage and the owner of Cake Pros was immediately in the crosshairs of a lesbian couple.  The reporter was more than obvious in his condescending title of the article.  Included is a comment made in an interview given by one of the "brides,"   Petrich told WFMZ she wanted to support her hometown, and that's why she chose the bakery. "We asked her to make us a wedding cake and not marry us. I didn't understand."
Maybe I'm wrong here, but if I wanted to support my hometown, and one bakery didn't want my business, I'd just go to another one.

This final reference is not a bakery, but it sure puts the icing on the cake.  Are Americans with strong religious beliefs about marriage, GMO, health care, etc. going to have to go underground?  A couple rent out their grand farmhouse for special events, so of course a lesbian couple saw their opportunity.  The judge went so far as to order the owners of Liberty Ridge Farms to actually give money to these women.
The quote contains the link to the full story.  “No one should have the happiest time of their life marred by discrimination,” McCarthy, who was represented alongside her wife by the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement, according to the New York Law Journal. “We hope this decision will protect all New Yorkers from having to go through the hurt that we experienced.”  They were only renewing their vows . . .

I do not have a spotless track record when it comes to marriage, but I can saw unequivocally, the last thing I considered when making wedding plans, was to create some political statement or worse, make my "special day" be the cause of other's discomfort or destroy a business!  If a wedding means so much to these couples, why make a point of patronizing a business that would prefer not to have their business?  Perhaps these individuals have felt shunned and discriminated against, not because of their sexual preference, but due to their bullying tendencies.

For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:  And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.  ~ Romans