Eating the seed wheat

The Obama dollar is facing a long winter.

In Laura Ingalls Wilder's book "The Long Winter," blizzards roared from October until April in 1880-81. Laura's husband to be, Almanzo Wilder, had a new homestead near De Smet, S.D., but he and his brother spent that winter in his brother's store building in town. There Almanzo built a false wall and hid his seed wheat behind it.

As the bitter winter raged on, the people of the town ran low on food. Most of the farmers had just moved to the area and had not raised a crop the previous summer. Normally, trains brought in supplies for the stores in town, but because of snow piled up on the tracks, even they weren't able to get through. The whole town was in danger of starving.

The Ingalls family ate some of Almanzo's seed wheat, but no one else in town knew about it. Almanzo would have let them eat his wheat, but it wasn't enough to last long and he would have no crop to plant the next spring.

What does God's Word say about economic cycles? Find out in Dan White's new book, "The Jubilee Principle: God's Plan for Your Economic Freedom." The book is also available in e-book form.

TRENDING: Biden offers grants to teach children U.S. 'inherently racist'

A farmer out of town had raised a crop of wheat that past summer. Getting caught in a blizzard was almost certain death. Nevertheless, Almanzo and a friend risked their lives and drove their sleds far away from town to find that farmer with the wheat crop. They did find him, paid him a high price for enough wheat to feed the town, and then got back to town just before the next blizzard blew in.

Almanzo risked his life to save the town, but he also saved his seed wheat, stuck between the two walls in his building. When the blizzards finally stopped in April and the spring Chinook blew and the ground thawed, his bin was still full. He could have a crop the next summer.

The Obama reaction to the economic blizzard has been to eat the seed wheat. They have met an overspending crisis by overspending, have met the debt crisis by going further in debt, and have encouraged Americans to do the same.

For example, in August disposable income in the U.S. rose by one-tenth of a percent, less than inflation, so real income actually went down, continuing a recent trend. While real income went down, spending soared. Most of that spending increase went to the Cash for Clunkers program. Because consumer spending increased, generating increased economic activity, the Clunkers program is widely considered to have been good for the nation's economy.

However, if income went down and spending went up, where did that money come from?

It came from savings.

During the boom years, America's personal savings rate was one of the lowest in the world. With the economic scare, people wisely began to spend less and save more. The Cash for Clunkers program reversed that. The savings rate went from 4 percent in July down to 3 percent in August, a large one-month drop for a whole nation.

So what's happening here, when people made less, spent more, and took the difference out of savings? They're eating their seed wheat. They're consuming resources today that they will need tomorrow.

The government has done the same thing, with the stimulus package, the housing credit, the Cash for Clunkers program, the bank bailouts, the automotive bailouts and long-distance pizza for the president. They're consuming tomorrow's capital today.

What would have happened if Almanzo had eaten his seed wheat? He would have had nothing to plant and his next year's crop would have been cut.

Now America must pay the price for consuming tomorrow's resources today. Specifically, because of Obama's profligate spending policies, those nations of the world that hold dollars have apparently decided to abandon the dollar as the world's reserve currency and to shift to gold and a basket of currencies. The Obama dollar is already cheap and seems doomed to dive much farther. If the Obama dollar is worth a lot less, then nearly everything we buy will cost a lot more. This is happening as the economy needs a boost, not a breakdown.

Ultimately, this is not just an economic problem. This is a character problem. When Almanzo Wilder risked his life to save a town and his seed wheat, that took some character. Undisciplined overspending is not conservative character, but liberal indulgence. We have been eating the seed wheat, the Obama dollar is dropping, and now we must face the time of lean crops.

Dan L. White is the author of "The Jubilee Principle: God's Plan for Your Economic Freedom." The book is also available in e-book form.