Part 2/13:
The crux of the argument starts with a stark reality: the U.S. dollar’s purchasing power has eroded by approximately 87% since 1971. Using historical data, the speaker illustrates that a dollar in 1971 could buy about 30 Hershey’s chocolate bars; today, that same dollar can buy roughly 1.15 bars. More recent inflation metrics show that since January 2020 alone, the dollar has lost about 25% of its value, underscoring how inflation has accelerated in the past few years.