| Letters
to the editor from this week's Chronicle
To the Editor The corruption of science and medicine Science is the process of searching for truth in the physical realm. It makes sense, then, to ask: if “scientists” are biased, will the pursuit of truth be accomplished? Obviously not. Today’s scientific research is paid for by colleges, pharmaceutical companies, governments and lastly by private individuals funding their own work. Colleges depend a lot on funding from government and corporations. Corporations are influenced by government regulations and are funded by their customers for the benefit of the stock holders. Many times those corporation’s customers end up being government or government funded entities. Governments depend on taxes, the printing press for fiat currency, election campaign donors and of course on back-room deals with special interests. Hospitals depend on insurance companies, government funding, philanthropic funds and lastly by patient funding, the latter are far less than the former sources because insurance companies have effectively concentrated patient funds into a funnel that gives them far more influence over healthcare than the patients. Government has also licensed and regulated doctors which is narrowing the choices they can make for their patients. So is all this influence promoting the seeking of truth wherever it may lead? Duh, no. The core cause of this corruption is the centralization of too much power. We MUST decentralize or we will all effectively die. Sanford Staab Redneck Review! No. 361 - 3/27/22 Some month's ago, an article here was entitled "Subtle Deception!" The topic was picked because at the time it was noted that many of the bottles that one bought were only half filled. This seemed to be true especially with ones containing vitamins, or pills of other kinds. To prevent contents from rattling, the top of the bottle would be stuffed with cotton, giving the impression that the contents filled the bottle. Sarcastically, it was claimed that the "Big Hunk" candy bar was no longer BIG, but had shrunk to a size which should have had its name changed to "Little Hunk!" Another example of the deception was the fund raiser candy bar, called "World's Greatest Chocolate." Used by our debate team and by other school fund raising efforts, a person who purchased the bar for $1 not only received a nice long chunk of chocolate, but could take the wrapper to places like McDonalds's, and receive a decent hamburger! But purchasing one at another local school fund raiser at the time the article was written, what was received was again a very tasty piece of chocolate, much reduced in length and diameter, but only instructions on sending the wrapper in the mail putting one in a drawing for some item or another! More subtle deception involved here also! That "deception" topic crowded itself into my mind again recently, when the national inflation index published by our government reported that the inflation reading at the end of February this year, was 7.9% compared to a year ago! But again big DECEPTION was concealed in the report! For one, other believable claims made said the rate was really much higher! And a bit believable when a person noted that the bread purchased in grocery stores, suddenly did a shrinking phenomenon! The Big White brand at our store now had slices that had shrunk in size and width by a very noticeable amount, though admittedly, the price had not changed! In frustration, I bought a different name brand of the bread purchased, but found bread selling for the same price also nearly disappearing in our toaster in the morning! And an email received contained an admission by one seller of snack chips, that the sack of those chips contained by count FIVE less chips than previously placed therein! But much more evidence convinces the average individual that the 7.9% increase was far too low! Restaurants have been forced to raise prices, or simply add $1 or even $2 to every item on the menu, because of their price increases! And fuel costs are approaching twice the cost of one year ago, in some areas reaching $6 or $7 a gallon! And of course, when one compares the measly interest received on savings, often below 1%, to the official inflation figures, it becomes obvious that the purchasing power of each dollar has shrunk much below 8%! Why is this happening? Two reasons need careful study! The first is that the historical record of governments deep in debt, is to allow deliberately higher inflated money because it makes the cost of repaying the debt go down significantly! I even mentioned this in that "deception" article written long ago! Why not it was printed here, does someone like myself deliberately not go deeper in debt, knowing that the falling value of the dollar could eventually become almost "0," meaning that large debts could be repaid with dollars of virtually no or very little value! But a second and very reliable explanation can be found in a study of the equation, MV = PO. This equation can be traced back to the Austrian School of Economics, or at least to some of the more famous economists associated with that group. The M in the equation represents the money in circulation, the V is the velocity of that money, or the average number of times a dollar is spent in one year, the P is the average price of everything, and the O is the total output of the production system in the country. Next week, a careful comment on how big M causes big P! Jake Wren
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