What this website stands for…
This website is about real conservatism. Real conservatism is laissez faire. This means if whatever you are doing isn’t negatively impacting anyone else, government has no right to interfere. Examples are, government has no right to tell someone who they can or can’t marry, government has no right to tell us which books we can read and what women can and can’t do with their bodies.
Government turning a blind eye to a business spewing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is not conservatism. That is governmental negligence. Carbon dioxide contributes to climate change and negatively impacts all of us.
Economics
Especially in the early years of this website, articles focused on economics and that still is true to a lesser extent. Frugal Ron has first hand knowledge of how government can impact people’s lives.
This author bought a dairy farm in 1971 with $4,000 debt per cow when $2,000 was the highest recommended with $2,500 the absolute maximum. This was not a smart move.
The 1970’s were a period of high inflation. That combined with hard work and good decisions, Frugal Ron’s farm expended into selling grain and flourished. In 1977, because of a drought, a major purchase of irrigation equipment and a well was made, almost all with borrowed money. After a couple fantastic years, things changed. Unfortunately, Frugal Ron’s loans all had variable interest rates. Another big mistake.
The Federal Reserve’s inflation fighting meant Frugal Ron’s biggest expense, interest, tripled between 1979 and 1980 (from 7 percent to 21 percent). At the same time, corn prices dropped from $3/bushel to $2/bushel. And, land values crashed.
The invisible hand of the market guided Frugal Ron out of farming. He went back to college and started a lifelong quest to understand the market forces that impacted Frugal Ron’s farming career. What you find on this website is the result of those efforts. (He also has a lifetime aversion to borrowing money, especially loans with variable interest rates.)
The previous anecdote does not mean Frugal Ron blames the government for his exit from farming. Bad decisions made years earlier resulted in Frugal Ron’s vulnerability to interest rate changes and price shocks.
FrugalRon loves data and facts. On this website, every effort is made to show how the data and facts impact us.
Change
The world changed and Republicans descended into a fact free fantasy world. This hasn’t changed this website’s reliance on facts, but has made the articles more direct.
What’s more, Republicans claim to be guided by their Christianity. However, the religion they are following is not Christianity. The last person that should be quoting Bible scripture to anyone is Frugal Ron. But, someone has to do it. Never thought that would happen on this website, but here we are.
More…
The internet is a great opportunity for two way conversations. If you disagree (or agree) with what you read on these articles, please use the comment area to share your thoughts. I always reply and have written whole articles answering readers’s questions. Democracy thrives when different viewpoints are expressed. Don’t be afraid to express yours.
Frugalron.com is a subsidiary of Curran LLC. Curran LLC owns and copyrights all material on this website. Since this website is dedicated to sharing ideas, Curran LLC encourages readers to share any material contained here. You are simply asked to give credit to www.frugalron.com.
