DEAR EDITOR:

In 2000, you could buy an ounce of gold for $275. Today it costs $2,700, up 882%. What cost $1 in 2000, now costs $1.83, a decline of 42% in buying power. The cause: excessive printing of money that is not backed by anything. It is just a piece of paper.

Our federal government does this in order to “pay” for the excessive spending that will buy the vote of the public. Once the people realize they can vote themselves entitlements from the treasury, they continue to vote for that political party until the result is the collapse of the currency due to inflation and this causes the complete collapse of the nation. I believe that is where America is headed and it seems to be coming quickly.

The mainstream media won’t even talk about it anymore. Most people don’t know that gold is reaching new highs almost every day now. An ounce of gold doesn’t buy more today than it ever did. It’s the buying power of the dollar that is declining and that makes it appear more valuable.

This government induced inflation is really a silent tax on its people. Over time, they are destroying the value of your savings to fund entitlements that garner votes. We have become willing participants in the destruction of our own country. Both political parties are guilty of doing this, but the Democrats are the leaders in this devastating policy. They invented the strategy!

The Republicans must follow along to some extent or none of them would ever get elected. They have to promise to give something away or the Democrats will win every election. It is producing a death spiral for America.

I decided to get a gold IRA and some good stocks that focus on precious metals in order to preserve some of my wealth. When the Federal Reserve was begun in 1913, one dollar was a decent amount of money. Today, that same dollar’s buying power is worth less than 4 cents. In the century before the creation of the Federal Reserve, all 100 years of it, from 1800 through 1900, prices did not rise. Actually, they went down some.

Politics today is not about what is best for America, rather it’s about what I must do or say to keep myself and my party in power. Certainly, Kamala Harris and Sherrod Brown are two perfect examples of this. The majority of Americans have no idea of the long term consequences of the overspending and excessive printing of our money.

The USA is now over 35 trillion dollars in debt. Here’s what that incomprehensible number looks like: $35,000,000,000,000. The handouts seem like a good thing now but they are in no way worth the cost of the coming cataclysm when the dollar finally collapses.

I hope that you will fact-check all of this information that I have given you. It will scare the daylights out of you and may even change your vote in November.

KEITH McCOMBS

Mineral Ridge