Murray Rothbard said it best when he said that “the threat of gold redeemability imposes a constant check and limit on inflationary issues of government paper. If the government can remove the threat, it can expand and inflate without cease. And so it begins to emit propaganda, trying to persuade the public not to use gold coins in their daily lives.”
Why does government hate the gold standard … or any real standard for that matter?
At the heart of government’s attack on gold, silver, bitcoin, and other commodity standards is an outright hatred for accountability and private property, and a real love for theft.
How It All Began
On April 5th, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt forbade “the hoarding of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates within the continental United States” by executive order 6102.
How could government be able to control buying power without the public knowing of a direct tax?It had only been 20 years since Congress signed the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 into law in what would become the biggest act of theft and bamboozlement on the American people ever. How would government be able to control buying power without the public knowing of a direct tax? A fractional reserve system run by the power elite allowed for theft at an unprecedented level. It allowed for the manipulation of buying power and the control of all American’s real money and trade.
Then, on January 30th, 1934, the US Gold Reserve Act was signed into law demanding the rendering of gold and gold certificates to the Federal Reserve. The federal government traded paper fiat federal reserve notes at $20.67 per ounce of gold and managed to take more than 8000 tons of gold from the American people. Once the gold was off the market, the federal government raised the rate of gold to $35 per ounce in an attempt to inflate the value of the dollar.
Government then feared that, with the confiscation of gold, people would use silver as a way to curb the control of the Federal Reserve. This resulted to passing of the Silver Purchase Act of 1934 imposing a 50% tax on any transfer of silver and calling for the cease to any silver mining.
Power Moves
Taxation in its simplest form is theft, but government has also stolen by removing any real backing to the US dollar, allowing it the ability to temporarily spend without limit. This is purely an illusion. Making gold illegal gave the federal government unprecedented control over buying power and took real savings from Americans.
The fact is that with the passing of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and executive order 6102, the federal government started the disconnect from a gold standard and the confiscation of private gold ownership. This ushered in the printing of federal reserve notes which by 1971 were completely disconnected from any gold standard or any other real commodity backing.
It wasn’t until 1974 that the federal government would lift the ban on private ownership of gold.
Today and Tomorrow
In summary, the federal government created a central bank in 1913. Then it made the private ownership of gold illegal and attacked silver with a tax and control. Government then disconnected the US dollar from a gold standard in 1971 and lifted the ban on gold in 1974. The government literally stole the wealth and real money from the American people.
Gold has survived dictatorships and oligarchies, serving as a standard governments haven't ignored.With no standard or a check and balance on government debt, the federal government has been able to spend, temporarily, with no limit. I say temporarily because history shows us that governments have spent themselves into oblivion and eventually the market corrections will occur, reducing empires to rubble. The chains of economic sanity have been eroded by over 100 years of attacks on real market standards and actual money.
While gold has been attacked by governments throughout history, it has also stood the test of time, surviving many dictatorships and oligarchies, still serving as a market standard that governments haven’t ignored.
As the federal government quickly approaches $20 trillion in debt and over $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities, the US dollar will continue to grow as a note of debt. The government's ability to print debt and spend without limit has only been possible with the Federal Reserve and the attack on real money. Gold, precious metals, and market-based currencies have the ability to outlast any government and give individuals the ability to control their own property.
Stewart Jones is a lifelong resident of Laurens County and a proud 8th generation South Carolinian. He currently serves as Chairman of the Lakelands Republican Liberty Caucus as well as an elected State Republican Liberty Caucus Board Member.
This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.
