Thoughts from the Tractor Seat: What Should a Dollar Be Worth?
By Ken Polehn
The Dalles, Ore., June 26, 2025 — I’ve been thinking a lot about the American dollar. Not the paper itself, but the worth behind it. What should a dollar really be? What should it buy? What does it stand for?
From where I sit—on a tractor seat in the cherry orchards of The Dalles—there’s a growing sense that a dollar just doesn’t stretch like it used to. Inputs are up. Groceries are up. Fuel is up. And while prices climb, the value of hard work seems to shrink.
So how do we make the American dollar worth more than just… a dollar?
Make It Real Again
Start with this: a dollar ought to represent real work and real value. It should mean something when a farmworker picks a bucket of cherries in the sun. It should mean something when a family saves and sacrifices to pay off a piece of land. It should mean something when a kid gets their first job and puts that money in the bank.
But somewhere along the way, we traded real value for artificial numbers. Wall Street gains don’t put food on Main Street tables. Trade deals designed in boardrooms often shortchange the folks who grow the food and build the backbones of our communities.
Inflation Isn’t Just Economics—It’s Personal
When inflation hits, it’s not just a policy term. It’s the extra $100 at the feed store. It’s the price hike on fertilizer. It’s fewer groceries in the cart and a gut punch when you fill your truck.
Controlling inflation isn’t about politics—it’s about protecting the dignity of work. That means our leaders need to balance budgets, quit printing money we don’t have, and stop punishing the people who produce with more taxes, tariffs, and red tape.
Reward the Right Things
We’ve built a system where speculation gets rewarded more than stewardship. We need to flip that. Let’s invest in what lasts—healthy soil, strong communities, skilled hands, and clear water. Let’s pay a fair price at the farm gate, not just inflate margins at the grocery shelf.
A dollar backed by honest labor, sound policy, and long-term thinking will always be worth more than one built on borrowed time and empty promises.
The Bottom Line
If the American dollar is going to mean something again, it has to stand for more than just money. It has to stand for trust. For work. For value earned and value kept.
So I’ll keep working the land, like my parents did before me, and keep believing that a dollar—when it’s earned with sweat and spent with purpose—should still mean something in this country.
About the author:
I was born in 1961 into a second-generation farm family in The Dalles. I grew up on a tractor seat, moving irrigation pipe with my sisters before school, and spent my summers picking cherries alongside the children of migrant families who returned year after year. My wife, children, and parents have all worked the same land. I’ve served as county Farm Bureau president, sat on the county fair board, and continue to support 4-H and FFA. I’ve seen firsthand what happens when farmers are squeezed out—not just of business, but of the conversation.
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