The Village and the Mayor
A village used coins. One coin bought one loaf of bread.
The mayor made the coins, and the mayor loved to spend. Every year he spent more than the village had. To cover the gap, he wrote IOUs and sold them to the neighbours. For years the neighbours were happy to hold them, because they trusted the village.
Then a war started far away. It made oil expensive. Everything moved on oil, so everything got dearer. Soon one loaf cost two coins. Then three.
"Don't worry," said the mayor. "Prices will calm down." They didn't. Year after year, the coins bought less.
Now the neighbours got nervous. When they lent to the mayor, they wanted more in return, not less, because they could see the coins were losing their worth. The mayor hated that. He wanted cheap money. So he started buying back his own IOUs to prop up their price. He bought twice as many. Then three times as many.
It still didn't work. The neighbours kept asking for more.
That was the sign. When a mayor has to buy back his own IOUs and they still lose value, the village isn't having a bad week. Something underneath has cracked.
And still he reached for more coins. With an election coming, he promised every villager a handful of free ones. But more coins didn't mean more bread. Each coin just bought even less.
A few quiet villagers worked it out. A coin is only a promise. What matters is the real thing behind it. So they swapped their coins for things that hold their worth: land, gold, grain, and the clever new machines that had just arrived and could do the work of ten people.
Then winter came.
The ones who had saved only coins opened their jars and found them nearly empty of worth. The ones who owned real things stayed warm and fed.
The lesson was simple, and the village had just forgotten it. When the people printing the money keep making more of it, don't keep your life's work in their coins. Own real things instead.
Want to survive winter? Join the 90 Day Edit waitlist. Reply '90DE' and we'll add you.