My Word

We hear and read something every day what a 1920s song had to say about the distribution of wealth: “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.”

There’s another one from that era with a lyric that says “It ain’t necessarily so.”

I remember a quote from Lee Nor Mack, a former city council member at the ribbon cutting of the housing project in West Shelbyville. Someone said to Mr. Mack, “This is a great thing for your people isn’t it?” which was the most politically incorrect thing to say.

In 1971, Ben Allen Thomas Sr. brought his father’s diary to me at The Shelby News’ office, which at the time was located where Sixth and Main Coffeehouse is today. The fragile and well-worn ledger was becoming illegible, and “Mr. Ben Allen” (as I fondly called him) wanted me to type the pages so he could read them easier.

I was fascinated. I was intrigued with the daily accounts of livestock and crops. I was amazed such a document still existed, because pages dated back to 1863.

The interest on the national debt is about 2 percent or $340 billion, a mere drop in the bucket for our spendthrift Congress. The stock market goes up and down based on rumors about what the Fed is going to do about interest rates.

If the rationale is that keeping interest rates low will force conservative investors away from government bids and AAA-rated corporate bonds, I then do agree. The problem is we’ve been doing this for years, plus buying back our bonds with money we do not have, and it hasn’t changed anything.