Rising Costs & Falling Value

Most people in Britain, apart from the traditional and wealthy, are reducing the number of Christmas cards they send. It’s not that social media messages are nicer or emails more personal, far from it. It may in part be the sheer tedium of repeatedly signing one’s name and addressing dozens of envelopes. Primarily, it’s about cost. One Pound Sterling will not even by two Second Class stamps in 2019. At 61 pence each, and 70 pence for First, seasonal cards are an extravagance many can do without. The bright sparks who run Royal Mail increase the cost of stamps year on year; apparently unknown to them, the public consequently send fewer letters making their business less profitable. My 12-pence stamps (pictured) would have sufficed to send one card First Class in 1980 when they were produced. I now need five of them, plus an extra penny stamp, to send one card by Second.

Like a drug addict requiring an ever-increasing quantity of narcotic, businesses and governments require greater quantities of our cash just to maintain service levels. Economists call it inflation; I call it being ripped-off. As the value of money declines, so the price of goods and services rise. Money and wealth are further diminishing in value as death beds approach. How long have you to live? How many years, or days do you have left? On what will your money be spent as you struggle for breath, or your heart refuses to pump? The value of silver, gold, houses, cars, stocks, shares and postage stamps will be understood for the worthless trash they really are. The carnal man will gain this understanding as he expires, the spiritual man knows it already. 

“You have sown much, and bring in little;

You eat, but do not have enough;

You drink, but you are not filled with drink;

You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm;

And he who earns wages,

Earns wages to put into a bag with holes.” 

Haggai 1:6