"fiat money and liberty are incompatible ... therefore one must unavoidably destroy the other"
Written in 2010.
There is a provision in the Constitution of the United States, that says that States should use nothing but gold and silver as money (Article 1, Section 10). We are not taught that in school, and when it is remembered it is primarily viewed condescendingly as a quaint, antiquated relic of an older time that is now wholly impractical and even a little funny. This is a deadly mistake! Because 100% commodity based monetary system is a great protector of liberty of the people, abandoning which inescapably leads to the destruction of Freedom. Let me explain why.
If money is defined as a medium of exchange for goods and services, then there are two ways to do money: Fiat and Commodity. One is dishonest the other is honest.
Fiat money has no intrinsic value in itself, it is worthless pieces of paper, or now simply electronic computer signals 0's and 1's. It is backed by nothing, and is created out of nothing. There is nothing backing it except government force.
Commodity money, as the name implies, is a commodity, such as gold, silver, or any other convenient commodity. It is produced as any other good, like copper, concrete, or computers. It cannot be conjured out of nothing. Its purchasing power is measured by its intrinsic value, and it needs no government force behind it for people to accept it as a medium of exchange.
Now here is the problem.
When "money" is created out of nothing it becomes an instrument of plunder, by which the one who issues it can lay claim to goods and services produced by other people, in exchange for worthless pieces of paper, or now in exchange for worthless electronic computer signals. In a word, fiat money is the essence of legalized counterfeiting, of plunder, theft and fraud. It is something for nothing!
Simply put, fiat money is nothing more than legalized counterfeiting that allows the government and the banks to rob and control the people.
Recent "bailouts," or shall we call it for what it was,—thefts,— are a great example of that. Trillions of "dollars" were conjured out of nothing and the banks and the government became the owners of entire industries! In exchange for what? For computer 0's and 1's of course! Because it's money, you see. Or is it?
Not exactly. It was not so from the beginning.
Money originated as a commodity; and the true, honest definition of money is this:
- Money is simply a commodity that is commonly used as a medium of exchange, and its purchasing power is determined by its intrinsic value.
- 1) Homogeneous (every piece of the same weight is equal in value to any other piece of equal weight).
2) Durable.
3) Infinitely divisible.
4) Contain great value in small size.
5) Preserve purchasing power over time.
6) Easy to handle.
7) Cannot be conjured out of nothing. (Money must be something you CANNOT print).
Yes, you can still use paper or computer signals to transfer the ownership of money, the commodity that is the medium of exchange. But that paper, and those computer signals must not be viewed as money themselves, merely as binding promises to pay real money, the underlying commodity. Anything less than that is an old fashioned slight of hand, plunder, theft and fraud!
If we had 100% commodity based monetary system, none of the recent "bailouts" would've been physically possible. Because you cannot easily double the amount of the underlying commodity in the world in the space of 3 month, like Federal Reserve did last year, doubling the nation's money supply to pay for the "bailouts." Therefore 100% commodity based monetary system, honest money, is a great protector of property rights, and it binds and restrains the government from robbing the people and from redistributing their wealth. The question between Fiat and Commodity money is this: Who should spend people's money? The people who earned it, or the government? This is the question at the core of the problem.
Honest, 100% commodity based monetary system is the only system yet conceived by man, by which he can restrain his government from robbing him through legalized counterfeiting and inflation. This is, in part, what Jefferson meant when he spoke of binding men with the chains of the Constitution, because gold and silver place an iron restraint on the ability of government to counterfeit and inflate, and thus rob the people.
This is the lesson that Americans have to learn again, if they are to retain their liberty, because fiat money is a violation of that eternal principle: "Thou shall not steal."
Fiat money, that old fraud that was brought here from England, has been the instrument of enslaving and robbing this great nation. "Allow me to issue [legally counterfeit] a nations currency, and I care not who makes its laws," bragged Mayer Amschel Rothschild, the European banker who pioneered this fraud. This is what happened in our nation too. The legally counterfeited money, money created out of nothing are used to buy politicians, legislatures, media, schools, courts, judges, police, army and industries. It is used to subvert all the institutions that were designed to preserve our liberty, and to create and fund the institutions designed to enslave and destroy us. This is how the government was able to step outside of its constitutional bounds,—because they got a counterfeiting machine! Now they can subvert the whole world! This is precisely what they have done! The good news is that 100% commodity based monetary system destroys that counterfeiting machine!
The lesson that people of freedom have to learn the world over is that fiat money and liberty are incompatible, they are the opposites of each other, and therefore one must unavoidably destroy the other. It flows from a fundamental principle, that you cannot build a free and prosperous society on fraud. Fiat money is the fraud!
We must return to the principles of our inspired Constitution, and restore an honest and sound, 100% commodity based monetary system if we are to have any hope to preserve liberty and prosperity in this land. The formula that succinctly describes this idea is this:
- Righteousness + Silver + Gold = Liberty
Fiat Paper = Theft and Tyranny
There is a brilliant piece of legislation in the House of Representatives called HR 4248 Free Competition In Currency Act Of 2009 authored by Representative Ron Paul, that legalizes the Constitution by allowing gold and silver currencies to compete side by side with rapidly depreciating Federal Reserve Notes. This will allow for the most harmonious transition from the current collapsing fiat system to a sound, honest, Constitutional, 100% precious metal based monetary system. I urge all to support it!