Trego's Mountain Ear

I can look at 1976 through 1980 as the Carter years – but I have to recall that Wilson’s book, influenced largely by the stagflation that was occurring as he wrote, was written during the Nixon-Ford years.  Yes, Carter was bad on inflation – but we have to admit, Nixon set the stage.  Both parties like to spend money they don’t have.

KYFHO stands for “keep your (expletive not shown) hands off”.  Some of the descriptors of KYFHO philosophy that Wilson uses in his book follow:

“There used to be high priests to explain the ways of the king – who was the state – to the masses.  Religion is gone and so are kings.  But the state remains, as do the high priests in guise of Advisers, Secretaries of Whatever Bureau, public relations people, and sundry apologists.  Nothing Changes.   FROM THE SECOND BOOK OF KYFHO”

“Never initiate force against another.  That should be the underlying principle of your life.  But if someone should do violence to you, retaliate without hesitation, without reservation, without quarter, until you are sure that he will never wish to harm – or never be capable of harming – you or yours again.  FROM THE SECOND BOOK OF KYFHO (Revised Eastern Sect Edition)”

“Pity the poor diseased politician.  Imagine: to spend your days and expend your efforts making rules for others to live by, thinking up ways to run other lives.  Actually to strive for the opportunity to do so.  What a hideous affliction!  FROM THE SECOND BOOK OF KYFHO”

“. . . no government, so called, can reasonably be trusted for a moment, or reasonably supposed to have honest purposes in view, any longer than it depends wholly on voluntary support.” from NO TREASON by Lysander Spooner.”

“The paternalistic state does give its people a sense of security.  But a snug, secure people tends to resist movement – especially forward movement.  From THE SECOND BOOK OF KYFHO”

Wilson emphasized the economy, and how the creation of more money from nothing fuels ever increasing inflation.  My old paperback suggests I first encountered An Enemy of the State back in 1976.  KYFHO, economics and libertarian revolution in a plausible interstellar future: F. Paul Wilson’s Healer and An Enemy of the State, the 1990-1991 Prometheus Hall of Fame winners  offers what is probably a better take on the topic than mine – definitely more professionally written.

Inflation Calculator can do a good job of showing how inflation has treated the Yankee dollar since 1913, or any period between then and now.