Month: February 2024

What is money? Money is the most marketable commodity. You trade it to buy things. How did we get to paper money? Well, in the past, people bought thing with gold, because it was hard money (hard money means it is hard to find, or make). However, gold is very heavy and far too valuable to use for every-day modern-day purchases. So the government decided to use paper money instead. You could trade gold for paper money, and when you wanted to buy something, you go to the bank and trade in the paper money for gold. And paper money made sense because paper money was easily divisible to use to but things and it was portable. It was not long before people figured out that the paper money also had value and started to use paper money to buy things instead of gold. The government could not print more money without mining more gold. It worked great! however, the government became greedy and started printing more money without mining more gold. This caused inflation, prices going up with the value of paper money going down.

Counterfeiting is when people illegally print money. Can governments counterfeit? Yes they can, and they do. For example, the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve controls how much money is printed in the US every year. Technically, paper money has no value, so all money is fake. When banks create money out of nothing (a.k.a. paper and ink),and pump it into the system, that is counterfeiting.

Mark Twain wrote a critique of James Fenimore Cooper. I it, he criticizes Cooper’s writing technique. Twain’s critique was known as a legendary attack. In this critique, Twain was funny, which I think is odd, but cool. He was also scathing towards Cooper’s writing technique. This critique was a rhetorical masterpiece. Twain lists eighteen rules of romantic fiction that Cooper violated. Rule #18 was Twain’s strength, “Employ a simple and straightforward style”. Something that Cooper did not do. He ridiculed Cooper’s techniques. If you read this critique, you would almost feel sorry for Cooper, but if you read Cooper’s book(s), you would understand and be on Twain’s side. I know I was.

Here is an example of Cooper’s works. It is called “Deerslayer”. This book has no visible plot and makes no sense. Let me show you what I mean. The book begins with two men lost in the woods. One man, Deerslayer, was an expert hunter. The other man, Hurry Harry (what kind of a name is that?!), was not. Harry also speaks in two different dialects at the same time, making him very hard to translate. Deerslayer finds the place where they were hiking to, but Harry does not recognize it, even though it was Harry who picked out the spot. Later, they were talking about a man called Tom Hutter, who lives on the land they were hunting on, but does not own the land. If Tom does not own the land, why is he living there? There is then an extended dialogue about Indians who can shoot a target the size of a fly at five hundred yards. That is not possible! No man’s eye could pick something like that up! Tom lives on a floating house called the ark. It is a fortress! It is a huge houseboat, and it has bullet proof walls. The lake that the boat is on right now, Deerslayer does not recognize it. Later Tom says the lake has no pale-face name yet, but Deerslayer’s tribe calls it “Glimmerglass”. How can Deerslayer know the name of the lake if he does not even recognize it? Even later in the book, it describes that Deerslayer and Harry are looking for Tom again, so they search downstream in their canoe. They come upon a turn in the river that the canoe could barely get through. Then go a little farther and see Tom on the shore with no sign of the ark. He says it is hidden in the brush, and it is. Two things do not make sense. Number one, if Deerslayer’s canoe could barely fit through the river in some parts, how could the massive ark fit through those places? And also, if it was that big, it would be too big to be hidden in the brush. It was just not possible. And there are many other instances in the book that make no sense to the reader that Cooper wrote either because he did not care, or he was just not thinking.

When I was sixteen years old, I made this plan that I would use to build a life for myself. I wanted to get an easy job over the summer to earn money, so that I could invest some of it into successful companies. The rest would be used for college. I do this for two years before I go to college. I also raised and bread rabbits when I was younger. I started raising rabbits at a very young age, so I have had several years of experience. I put in my plan that I would major in computer engineering in college. Since I was two years ahead in school, because I homeschooled, I did dual enrollment for my first two years of college. After that, I went to college and graduated two years early in computer engineering. While in college, I bought an old car, but as long as it got me from point A to point B, I was good with it. I got a well-paying job after I graduated and I rented an apartment to live in. I lived in that for two years before I made enough money to buy a house. It was a small house, but it was close to family, so I was good with it. I worked hard at my job, and attained many promotions. I worked up in company and made a lot more money than what I started with. With my spare time, I like to blacksmith, so I build things in my garage/forge, like knives and other weapons, because I like weapons. I did this for the rest of my life, until I retired. I would  not change anything about this plan.

This week, I learned of two stories written by Washington Irving. They were The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and Rip Van Winkle. I will give a small summary of both books so you know what I am talking about.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is about a school teacher who was new to the small town of Sleepy Hollow. He was a young man, and very superstitious. His name was Ichabod Crane. Ichabod is fascinated with the ghost stories shared with the people of Sleepy Hollow, especially the one about the headless horseman. It is said that a man lost his head during the Revolutionary war, and searches Sleepy Hollow every night in search of his head at the church. No sooner than Ichabod began to play the role of school master in this small town, did he crossed paths with a young woman named Katrina Van Tassel, the only daughter of wealthy farmer Baltus Van Tassel. Since then, he tried to win her heart. However, Katrina had many suitors, including prankster Brom van Brunt, who is also an expert horseback rider. Brom tries to get rid of Ichabod with pranks and tries to humiliate Ichabod, but fails. Ichabod is then asked to a party by Katrina, and accepts. He dances with her the whole time the night of the party, while Brom looks on with jealousy. Ichabod then returns home disappointed and downhearted. It is not said in the text, but it is assumed that Katrina says to Ichabod that she is interested in Brom. On the way home, Ichabod passes the supposedly haunted church. He sees a rider on a horse and calls out for them to identify themselves. Instead the rider chases Ichabod. In the light Ichabod sees that the rider chasing him is headless, with a sack on the horse which Ichabod supposed had his head. Ichabod aims the horse for the bridge leading outside the town. It is said that the headless horseman cannot cross the bridge. Ichabod makes it across and the headless horseman stops before the bridge, supposing Ichabod made it across and is now safe from the headless horseman. However, the headless horseman precedes to throw his head at Ichabod knocking him off the horse. Ichabod’s horse turns up the next morning at the Van Ripper house, and Ichabod was nowhere to be found.

Rip Van Winkle is a story about a Dutch-American named Rip Van Winkle who went for a walk in the Catskill mountains. He meets a man carrying a large barrel of liquor and decides to follow him. The man leads Winkle to a group of people playing ninepins. The men say nothing. Winkle drinks some of there liquor, and falls asleep. He wakes up and the men are gone. He realizes he is an old man. He travels back to his village and it is entirely different. He does not recognize anyone. He talks with some of the people and nothing explains what happened. He then meets his daughter, who is much older than when he last saw her. Things start to make sense then. He was asleep for twenty years, and he tells the villagers what had happened, and an old villager confirms Winkle’s story.

Were the detailed descriptions of the people around the two main characters equally important in the two stories Washington Irving wrote? I think they were. If you did not have the detailed descriptions of the people surrounding the two main characters, you probably would not understand the story as well as if you did have the descriptions. That goes for all stories as well.

Mason Locke Weems was an American minister, as well as an evangelical bookseller and author. He is best known for his biographies of historical figures. The best known one was a biography on George Washington, The Life of Washington. He wrote this book in the year 1800.

The Life of Washington was widely accepted after it was written. According to Google Books, “The effect of this “single, immortal, and dubious anecdote,” and others like it, has made this book one of the most influential in the history of American folklore. Originally published as an eighty-page pamphlet entitled The Life and Memorable Actions of George Washington, it quickly attained immense popularity.” This book helped to influence folklore about the life of Washington. I think that one reason why this book was widely accepted was because he was the first president of the United States of America, which is kind of a big deal.

In this book includes a lot of Washington’s successes in his life, but it also talks about his childhood and his private life, some of which we know nothing about, so he kind of came up with some stories to fill in the gaps and make Washington seem like a better person than he probably was.

How believable is Weems’ book on Washington? Some of these stories he tells about Washington are completely believable, because we have historical evidence that it actually happened. However, some stories he told about Washington he either exaggerated, or it just did not happen. He once said in his book, Washington, as a boy, threw a stone over the Rappahannock river which was over 300 yards long. Now, maybe some baseball pitchers can do this, but Washington as a kid? I doubt it. Some stories he completely made up to make Washington seem ever the more great than he really was. However, some stories are historically accurate. Weems also talk about Washington’s theology. He says that the public loves Washington. He says Washington was the model of greatness. He also gives a detailed description of Washington’s death. He says God has rewarded Washington greatly, and how angels arrive to bear him up to heaven. I would say that this highly unlikely that this would happen. Weems also gives us a detailed description of his childhood. He says that he played strategic army games with his friends, and he was amazing at them. He says that Washington was fast on his feet. He said Washington won every footrace because he was fast. He also tells the famous story of young George cutting down a cherry tree. We all know that story, right?

How believable is Weems’ book on Washington? I would say mostly not believable at all. Most of these stories are made up, but some are true. However, they are so intertwined, I could not figure out which of his stories were true, or false. However, it was widely accepted after Washington’s death, and helped add to common folklore. It was a bestseller, so apparently it was a really good book back then.

A labor union is a group of employees or workers of a specific business or industry or trade that work to maintain a better working conditions, salary, etc. Price inflation is the increase of prices of goods or services over time.

It is commonly believed by many people that labor unions do cause price inflation, however, they cause it not by increasing the current salaries of workers, but by reducing the current salaries of workers. How is this possible? Well, they push their employers to raise the prices of their products. This means that the employees get paid more. Remember when I said a labor union of a specific industry work to maintain a better salary? Some times they do this by pushing the employers to raise the prices of the products, so that people will pay more for the product. This way, the employees get paid more for their work. This may work out for the labor unions, but the buyers of the product now have to pay more for the product. In fact, the buyers may even think that this product is not worth the extra money, and buy something else from a different industry or company. Enough people do this, and labor unions are stuck with even less money than they began with.

Labor unions want more money for their work, so they push their employers to raise the price of the product. Buyers then see the raised price of the product, and decide this product is not worth the extra money, and buy something else. Now, the workers who formed the labor union are now stuck with even less money than they had at the beginning.