Rupee Madness

While most reporters are obsessed with Trumps latest Tweets, there are monumental things taking place elsewhere in the world. India, with the world's second largest population, has just embarked on a radical "demonetization" effort pulling 86% of its cash out of circulation. To quote from the below  CNBC article:

Three weeks ago, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi surprised his country with an announcement banning 500- and 1,000-rupee notes — worth about $7 and $15 respectively — in a bid to tackle corruption and terrorism.

Clearly this has roiled the daily lives of the 1.3 billion people there to a fair-thee-well ... and might spill over to other world economies. The poor planning of this dramatic monetary move has caused untold hardship on particularly the poorest of Indian citizens. To see the details of their anguish ... see: CNBC Story.

Hardship

Some children in drought-stricken California are forced to bathe only once a week because of the shortage of water there ... see: SF Gate Story. Now I realize that times have changed and we live in a more pristine nation. But when I was a thirteen year old boy, I worked on a Pennsylvania farm for one whole summer ... milking, haying, plowing, mucking the barn, etc. And, like these put-upon California waifs, I too could only take a bath once a week. You really don't know what a bathtub ring is like until you take your only full-body lavation of the week on Saturday night. I'm not sure but I don't think that my plight was then a subject of the national news.

At that time I worked for ten weeks, ten hours a day, six and a half days a week ... all for my room and board and $100. I think that this works out to be about 15 cents an hour cash money. Although I'm sure this was then the equivalent of slave wages, I loved every minute of this experience