I was looking over my social security statement and thought it would be interesting to see how many oz of gold I earned. (I changed the salary #'s around because I do not want to post how much I am making)
In 1999, I was a bagger/clerk at a grocery store working part-time during my senior year of high school. That year, before taxes I could have bought 10 oz of gold.
I started working full time at a real IT job in 2003. That salary could by 76 oz. of gold that year.
Using $1300 of USD's for 1 oz of gold in 2010, the salary could by 47 oz. of gold.
Here is the staggering point. The salary has nearly doubled from 2003 to 2010. 76 – 47 = 29. How can a salary nearly double, but buy 29 oz of less gold than 2003?!?! You mean to tell me a 4k bagger in 1999, today only can buy 1/5th of gold compares to someone making ~15 times that salary in 2010?
What upsets me is how can you get excited about 5-10% raise when the cost of food and energy continues to increase? Who wants to work when more and more of your paycheck is goings towards the basics like food, utilities and gasoline? I am not looking to break even. I am look to save a percentage of my paycheck to afford nice leisure time.
If we are paid in USD, you have to be hedged in non-USD instruments. Buying a US bond or CD that yields a few % does not keep pace with the USD losing purchasing power. So, while my rare earth, uranium, gold/silver miner stocks are in USD’s, their % gains will outpace the dropping USD. I do not see anyone in staff that will increase the federal funds rate like Paul Volcker did in 1981 since Big Ben and a few other fed officials said we do NOT have enough inflation…yikes!
ReplyDelete