77 Ounces

The Only Number You Need to Know If You're Getting Screwed

How Do We Know If We're Actually Doing OK?

I was looking at the Powerball jackpot this morning. 1.8 billion dollars. Sounds like generational wealth, right?

Then I did the math. Lump sum after taxes in Michigan nets you just under 500 million. Still sounds great until you realize that's about how much our government spends in... wait for it... thirty minutes.

Thirty. Minutes.

The lifetime earnings of tens of thousands of households. Gone faster than your lunch break. A rounding error on some bureaucrat's spreadsheet.

Which got me thinking about value. Real value. Not the kind they print at will.

I've written before about how the Federal Reserve has waged a century-long war against contemplative life itself. How they didn't just devalue our currency by 96% since 1913, they devalued our capacity for the kind of deep thinking and fellowship that makes institutions like Freemasonry possible. How my own Bethel Lodge would be generating $81,641 annually if we'd maintained our historical dues percentage instead of the $10,500 we actually collect.

But let me give you a simpler way to see the theft. A way that doesn't require an economics degree or trust in government statistics.

First, let me introduce you to M2. It's the Fed's measure of how much money is actually sloshing around the system. Cash, checking accounts, savings accounts, money market funds. The whole pile.

In January 2016: M2 was $12.3 trillion. In January 2025: M2 is $21.7 trillion.

That's a 76% increase in the money supply in just nine years.

Now think about this like a fifth grader would. You've got 100 poker chips representing all the dollars in America, and they buy all the stuff in America. Then someone dumps 76 more chips on the table. You didn't create more stuff to buy. You just have 176 chips chasing the same amount of stuff that 100 chips used to buy. Each chip is now worth less.

We didn't create 76% more houses. We didn't grow 76% more food. We didn't produce 76% more anything meaningful. We just printed 76% more dollars to chase the same amount of stuff.

So what should happen to prices? They should go up about 76%, right?

My house in 2016: $161,000 My house in 2025: $275,000 Increase: 70.8%

Look at that. Almost exactly what M2 predicted. The house didn't become more valuable. The dollars became less valuable.

Let me show you another way. If my house kept the same actual value relative to the total money supply:

$161,000 in 2016 × 1.76 (the M2 increase) = $283,360

That's what my house SHOULD cost if it just kept pace with money printing. It's actually worth less than that at $275,000. So even though the price went up, I'm actually poorer.

Still not convinced? Think the M2 comparison is cherry picked?

Let's measure it in something they can't print. Gold.

2016 gold price: $1,250 per ounce 2025 gold price: $3,550 per ounce Increase: 184%

Wait. Why did gold go up MORE than M2? Because smart money knows the real inflation is worse than even M2 shows. Gold doesn't lie. Governments do.

My house in 2016: 129 ounces of gold My house in 2025: 77 ounces of gold

I lost 40% of my house's real value while the dollar price went up 70%.

Let me give you one more angle. If you had $161,000 cash in 2016 and buried it in your backyard:

In 2016, it could buy my house In 2025, it can buy 58% of my house You lost 42% of your purchasing power just by holding their currency

But if you had converted that $161,000 to gold in 2016: You'd have bought 129 ounces Those 129 ounces are now worth $457,950 You could buy my house and have $182,950 left over

The difference between holding dollars and holding real assets? About $300,000 in nine years.

Now add the wage trap to complete the picture:

Median household income 2016: $59,039 Median household income 2025: $75,000 Increase: 27%

Your wages went up 27%. Prices went up 76%. You're running twice as fast to fall behind.

This is happening to everything. Your savings. Your salary. Your retirement. They're all melting like ice cubes while they tell you the economy is doing great because the numbers are going up.

Numbers going up doesn't mean value going up when they're the ones printing the numbers.

They don't want you understanding M2 because once you do, you realize they're not managing the economy. They're diluting it. Like a bartender watering down drinks but charging full price. Except this bartender owns the bar, makes the rules, prints the receipt, and gaslights you about being a lightweight when you notice your drink tastes like tap water.

This is the same theft that turned lodge dues from meaningful investments into pocket change. The same theft that requires both parents to work just to afford what one paycheck used to cover. The same theft that has us all running faster just to stay in place.

But once you see it, you can't unsee it.

The government, the NGOs, the Super PACs, the lobbyists, and the unregistered foreign agents occupying those offices... they're all betting you won't do this math. They're betting you'll see your house "value" go up in dollars and feel rich while your actual wealth evaporates.

Stop letting them.

Pick your commodity. Check it against M2. Measure it in gold. Calculate it in hours worked. Face the truth.

Then maybe ask yourself why we keep playing by rules written by people who can print the score.

And if you're a Mason reading this, at least we're starting to wake up. We just raised our dues to $250 at Bethel. Should be double that based on this math, but it's a hell of a lot better than the $150 we were charging. Baby steps toward pricing brotherhood honestly means baby steps toward seeing through their other lies.

The theft has been exposed. Now what are you going to do about it?

– Brother Rob