The Data
What the numbers say
The Modern Exodus thesis is not abstract. It has a paper trail. These are the data points that ground the argument in empirical reality.
M2 Money Supply
2019–2021
35% of all US dollars in circulation today were created in a two-year window. From 2019 to 2020, M2 increased by 19%, followed by 16% the following year. Everyone holding US dollars was diluted by 35% of the whole.
Implication: In 35 of every 100 dollars of savings, the life energy stored there was siphoned and redistributed without the holder's consent.
Source: Federal Reserve (FRED)
Dollar Purchasing Power
1913–2022
The United States dollar has lost about 97% of its purchasing power since the founding of the Federal Reserve in 1913. That means 97% of the human time and energy deposited in 1913 was taken from those who made the initial deposit.
Implication: A dollar deposited in 1913 today buys roughly what three cents would have then. The theft was slow, cumulative, and nearly invisible at any given moment.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U
Wage-Productivity Divergence
The inflection point
From 1948 to 1973, productivity increased 96.7% and hourly compensation increased 91.3% — nearly in lockstep. From 1973 to 2013, productivity increased 74.4% while hourly compensation increased only 9.2%. The divergence began precisely in 1971 when the US abandoned the gold standard.
Implication: Workers produce more and receive less. The difference doesn't disappear — it gets redistributed upward via the inflationary mechanism.
Source: Economic Policy Institute / Bureau of Labor Statistics
Cumulative Inflation
1913–July 2022
Cumulative inflation since the founding of the Federal Reserve. The YoY rate compounds exponentially. A 2% annual inflation target, maintained for 50 years, is not a small thing — it is the mechanism by which value is quietly extracted from the population over time.
Implication: What appears moderate year-over-year is catastrophic across a human lifespan.
Source: InflationData.com / BLS
A note on sources. The data cited here uses government and institutional sources — including those the thesis critiques. The irony is intentional. Even by the official metrics, the scale of purchasing power destruction is staggering. The actual figures, adjusted for methodology changes, are likely worse.