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[–] RiverWind 1 point 0 points (+1|-1) ago 

You are correct in stating that OP is wrong regarding the belief that "sound money" ie gold or silver, will "save us from debt slavery".

Firstly, so much of the gold has already fallen into the hands of a small group of private hands that it is not viable as a guarantee.

More importantly though, OP raises the issue of money and debt. This is a huge problem which underlies most of the world's woes and which few understand. I can try a quick explanation for people, that hopefully will shed light.

  • The Government has some crucial powers, including: 1) The ability to exact taxes from the population 2) The ability to nominate the legal tender in which taxes must be paid or in which other debts can be satisified.
  • The government's power to imprison you and seize your property gives value to their chosen "coin of the realm". You have to get hold of the legal tender.
  • The government has the power to create its own money, if it wants. It doesn't need to borrow it and can make as much as the economy needs.
  • Instead of sensibly creating its own money, the government has given this incredible power to private organizations, called banks. (The Federal Reserve Bank is not a government organ, like the Department of Defence, but a private company, just like Mars, the chocolate company, or Deloite the accounting firm, or Uber the taxi service.)
  • When the government needs money to purchase things it does not have the political will to pay for by raising taxes, it turns to the Federal Reserve to loan them money. Loan! (In Europe, a different private bank exists fulfilling this role, the European Central Bank.)
  • None of the money that the government borrows from the Fed exists prior to the government borrowing it! (This is crucial to understand.) They simply tap some numbers into a computer. That is it, believe it or not.
  • The government later repays the Fed and pays interest. Where does the interest come from? (Where does all money come from?!) From money created out of thin air, as debt by the Fed.
  • This is the root of all economic evil.

Instead, the government could remove the power to create money from the Fed, and create it itself. This money would not be created as debt! It could be spent by the government into the economy as and where it is needed, on infrastructure projects, for example.

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