The word “civics” refers to the education of individuals of the obligations and rights the citizens of civil society, within the laws and traditions of their nation-state. Related education in history, religion and media literacy is often included. In the United States, this is the overt argument for public education, to ensure the US constitution is upheld by the citizens of the United States, privately, and in public life.
Why is monetary theory not a core curriculum in public education? An understanding of what money is, where it comes from and how it works is a necessary foundation for the existence of political self determination. If members of the public lack this understanding (and they do lack it) they cannot make informed decisions about their own government or future.
To understand what I mean in the assertion that people cant possibly chose their own future through a democratic process, without knowing how their currency works, I will attempt to explain money. Most people in North America might believe something like: “I know what money is!”
Most making this claim are wrong.
Let’s start by defining the term “Hard Currency”. This is any system of money that represents real value, or a real amount of some physical commodity. The opposite of this is called a “fiat currency” where units of money have value only because a central authority asserts it to be so.
For the entire history of the United States up till 1971, a US dollar was a token or note representing a real amount of silver or gold. Bank Notes and Dollars were simply receipts for gold or silver. This meant that a bank or central authority could not create money out of thin air, but could only issue paper currency in amounts proportional to gold or silver held in reserve. A citizen holding a paper dollar could at any time, take that dollar to their bank and exchange it for the real gold or silver it represented. Paper is not real money.
After 1971, the reality of gold-backed money in the United States changed. Money was redefined and no longer represented any kind of physical reality. A 100-dollar bill issued prior to 1971 bore the text:
“This certifies that there have been deposited in the treasury of the United States of America One Hundred Dollars in Gold Coin payable to the bearer on demand.”
After 1971, a 100 dollar bill bears the text:
“Federal Reserve Note, One Hundred Dollars”
You may ask yourself: “What does a modern 100 dollar bill represent, if it is not ‘backed’ by any physical commodity?” Perhaps you don’t ask that question, perhaps you simply “believe” that a piece of printed paper is, by itself worth 100 dollars in goods or services.
The Federal Reserve says “this piece of paper is worth 100 dollars” and people believe it. This system is called fiat money, because the “money” people use, whether its paper bank notes or simply numbers counted in digital transactions is “worth something” only because people believe in it, and not because it represents some amount of a convertible commodity such as gold or silver. There is however, a small problem.
In the United States, all US currency is created out of thin air by an institution called the Federal Reserve. The name is misleading, “Federal” seems to imply that the United States government, or more correctly, the people, through the government, own or control the institution which creates their country’s money. The “Federal” Reserve is a privately owned central bank with the power to print money, and control interest rates. It is unaccountable to the US government, or through that government, the people.
This has some nasty consequences for normal people. The federal reserve does not just create money out of thin air and inject it into the streams of American commerce, it loans newly created money to the banks and government with attached interest. That means that if the government needs another billion dollars to pay for the latest illegal war, the Federal Reserve creates that Billion out of nothing, and loans it to the government. If the Government were to pay that loan back instantly (unrealistic) it would have to pay back not only the Billion, but the interest as well. That additional interest accrued between the loan and its repayment has to be paid in, guess what US dollars, which the government and banks also borrow from the Federal Reserve.
This system creates an even increasing burden of debt on the public. This debt is paid back in part by interest rates on loans, as well as though taxation of the earned private income of citizens. In short, the central bank system of fiat currency creates a system of permanent public indebtedness. By “public” I mean YOU. The money in your wallet is debt, owed to the Federal Reserve. The Fed created that money out of thin air. This seems like a pretty bad system for a country founded on the principals of personal liberty and rugged individualism in the tradition of the Enlightenment of the 18th century. It gets worse. In addition to a system of money with automatically attached debt, the Fed also devalues the money held by individuals and public institutions by continuously increasing the money supply.
The system of fiat currency is a system of public enslavement.
It is the reason why high-school civics is no longer a requirement for high school graduation. The few hereditary banking families which control your nation’s money do not want you to know that you are a slave.
“The refusal of King George III to allow the colonies to operate an honest money system, which freed the ordinary man from the clutches of the money manipulators, was probably the prime cause of the revolution.”
~ Ben Franklin
“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous than standing armies…
If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of currency…
The banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of their property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered”
~ Thomas Jefferson
If you want to remain slaves of the bankers and pay for the costs of your own slavery, let them continue to create money and control the nation’s credit”
~Sir Josiah Stamp (1889 -1941)
“We are grateful to the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost 40 years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is more sophisticated and prepared to march toward a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual Elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries.”
~David Rockefeller Council on Foreign Relations
“By having this war on terror, you can never win it, so you can always keep taking people’s liberties away. The media can convince people that it is real. By repeating the story over and over, eventually people believe it.” “We created the federal reserve in 1913 through lies”
“The ultimate goal is to get everybody in this world chipped with an RFID chip, and have all money be on those chips, and everything on those chips, and if anybody protests what we do or violate what we want, we just turn off their chip”
~Nicholas Rockefeller, from a conversation with journalist Aaron Ruso.
This is total control and total oversight of every single person on Earth, by a few hereditary banking families.
Next year, see if your complete apathy had as much positive impact as your inaction had this year.
Tags: Academics, Government Tyranny, Manuel Dexter, Miscellaneous, money, Mythbusting, Politics, Poverty, Revolution, The Gullible Public
125 Posts in Total
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Charbroil:
Peegies:
Doug1:
Kimski:
Dr. F:
Thank you for this story.
This federal bank rort is abominable and disgusting.
It makes money for jam for those who least deserve it.
I only wish more active people understood these dynamics in order to reverse this disturbing facilitation
Ah, I can almost smell it now.
A Brave New Farenhight 1984.
Food, guns, silver… Just like our forefathers.
“The refusal of King George III to allow the colonies to operate an honest money system, which freed the ordinary man from the clutches of the money manipulators, was probably the prime cause of the revolution.”
~ Ben Franklin
Interesting…In school This was never mentioned in my History class a little over a year ago. The feud between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson came up, but nothing about King George III refusing to allowing the Colonies to operate a money system. I’m definitely going to have to look into this…
I did a quick search on Google and found a snopes article about the Jefferson Quote. They’ve determined it to be false, and they’re usually pretty thorough with their research. Where did you find this quote? It does sound like something he would have said…
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/jefferson/banks.asp
It’s late, and I’m a zombie right now, but I’ll make a quick comment about the meat of the article.
I’m not an economist, and I’m really just posting this because I want to see if there is any fallacy in my line of thinking.
I’ve always thought of money, be it Paper, coin, or a shiny rock to be nothing more than a unit of measure for “work.” It’s Tangible, transferable, generic, “work”
Before there was currency, we used a system of barter. When a fisher needs wheat, he trades fish for wheat, but what if the farmer doesn’t need any fish? He gives him a shiny stone for the wheat and whenever the farmer needs fish, he could give him the stone back in exchange for fish. Throughout the years, it became much easier to just trade in shiny stones because it could be like a wild card for “work” no longer would you need to trade fish for wheat.
When people work, they are given money in exchange for the value of work they’ve done. The amount of work this person does is equivalent to the amount of money that they’re given. When that worker spends his money, he is trading the work he did for someone to do work for him.
The point that I’m trying to make, is that it doesn’t matter if the currency is paper, shiny rocks or clam shells. All that matters is that people work for it and use it trade for others to do work for them.
Your line of thought is somewhat correct – the main issue you are missing though is the worth of the money. In the barter economy (or gold based money for that matter) the value of the money is based on the real “product”.
Once this connection is severed institutions like Federal Reserve can decrease value of the money you possess/earn by releasing more money to the market (printed or more often electronic).
So in fact people with no accountability to the public have the power to decide how much you and your work are worth… sounds scarily familiar to the f word.
“The point that I’m trying to make, is that it doesn’t matter if the currency is paper, shiny rocks or clam shells”.
Unfortunately, the Federal Reserve (a private banking corporation) working with the USG and the big banks has been destroying the buying power or value of paper money with their policies. Paper or digital money can be easily mass ‘printed’ flooding the markets and requiring more FRN to buy the same items over time.
Liquidity Easing is a monetary policy used that artificially keeps interest rates low, prints money out of thin air, and supports the federal government in its insane policies of selling USG bonds to foreign nations putting us into ever deeper debt which is a hidden tax that will have to be paid back.
Very interesting article, it always amazes and disgusts me how these so-called ‘bankers’ and ‘financial advisers’
can pull off all of these dirty tricks and acts of callous theft and fraud and still somehow looks themselves in the mirror every morning.
How anyone can justify their continually escaping just punishment for their crimes I will never know.
These people are not human, they are some of the most low-down dirty snakes in the grass that the human
race will ever spawn.
This film covers this subject in great detail.
http://vimeo.com/13770061
Zeitgeist: Addendum – 2008 by Peter Joseph from ZeitgeistMovie.com on Vimeo.
Zeitgeist: Moving Forward is also a must see.
http://www.zeitgeistmovingforward.com/
Link to the full movie, online, here:
Yes I’ve tried to explain how money works in very simple terms to people….women actually….and they don’t get it….ever.
This money created by debt, is the reason financial collapse occures, for instance in the houseing industry. You see, you go and borrow 300 thousand for a house and say the bank makes you qualify by insisting that you have 100 thousand up front. This not only reduces the amount of debt you are in….it actually maintains house prices cheaper…..because less people can save the 100k to qualify so less people can afford houses, especially expensive ones. Less demand means cheaper prices.
The current system is to loan money to any loser no matter if they have never demonstrated being able to live within their means in their whole life……never mind actually save anything. The bank “lends” this money into existence……they don’t have it in deposits…..because nobody needs to save anymore to qualifiy for home loans, car loans, holiday loans, credit cards etc. So the bank has to loan out more, but have less in deposits. They are actually loaning you money they don’t even have. It’s lent into existence…..it exists in the future only…….your future earnings are the only collateral that they really have. Over time they have to keep lending more and more…..on less credit worthy people, for bigger and bigger things. Eventually it comes crashing down because people over extend themselves and can’t pay. Prices of the houses collapse…..and your left with a debt that you can’t pay even if you sell your house…even after making payments on it for 10 years. Instead of gold or silver in the bank vaults…..the bank has nothing except your “I OWE YOU” But when the prices collapse, you no longer have anything that you can sell to pay that debt…..and your stuck owing a million on a house that is worth peanuts……that you can rent for half what it’s costing you to pay your mortgage…..so you fail…go bankrupt……..and that imitation gold evaporates like fart on a windy day……gone. And that’s for the debt that had an asset like a house to show for it. All the car loans and holiday and credit cards don’t even have anything to show for them…..unless all those shoes and handbags have appreciated in value and you can have giant garage sale and make a profit lol
In the old days, the bank couldn’t lend you what it didn’t have. And you couldn’t borrow without proving your credit worthiness by saving and meeting all your financial obligations on time. All gone now. Credit is one of the things that is becoming a right.
I laugh at people who say…..I bought my house for 200k ten years ago…and now it’s worth 500k. It’s all bullshit…..sell it and see how much bullshit it is….what do you live in if you sell it….you buy another house….and the one you buy you will have to pay the inflated price for too…..and the costs of selling…..and costs of buying……and moving…..and you end up losing. The truth is that your house is not worth any more then it was before….money is just worth less.
@ Stu, April 27th, 2011 – 13:46
“I laugh at people who say…..I bought my house for 200k ten years ago…and now it’s worth 500k. It’s all bullshit…”
Unfortunately, with regard to that, you are right. How many people across the USA had their house values go to shit in mid-flip? Poor chumps.
We have personal finances turned on its head, in the USA. We see all this neat shit and put it on credit, thinking “I’m worth it!” Problem is, the stuff ain’t worth it, but you’re stuck paying for it a couple hundred bucks at a time; by the time you pay the latest toy off, it’s obsolete and you’re chafing to buy the next one.
My house? Bought twenty-five years ago; never mind the price or the “estimated value” today. What matters to me is that it’s worth living in, and I’ve paid off the mortgage. I have no debts. I’ll worry about the selling price of the house when I’m ready to move to South America.
“money is just worth less.”
If that is the case…. then Why acquire money?
How do I feed my family?
Manuel,
That was an excellent article. I’m familiar with this subject and concur with your statements. I’d like to add a few things for readers to contemplate.
1) Unlike a private firm, the USG does not have to report its future liabilities as debts, only current ones. The USG federal long-term debt (your debt really) is at least $60 Trillion USD/FRN. The current deficit is about $14 Trillion. Future promises (social security, medicaid, other programs etc) are at least another $60 Trillion. None of those numbers includes State and Local government debts.
The USG uses GDP to measure economic activity. It’s really bogus more than anything. America’s GDP is about $13-$14 Trillion a year. Here is an example of what is considered activity: a BMW made overseas in say Europe arrives in America. An American goes to his bank and gets a loan that can be traced up the loaning ladder to the FED and US Treasury or whatever (it’s complicated) that originated in China or Saudi Arabia buying USG bonds. The American consumer gets his new BMW. While the American car dealer and the local bank made some money from the consumer it really is American money shifting around. Meanwhile, the manufacturer and originator of the loan also get measured into the claim by the USG of GDP claimed as economic activity pretending to be growth or strength of our economy. The credit markets should really be called the debt markets.
2) Historically, all fiat (fake) paper currencies eventually collapse. The FRN is overdue for a collapse very soon. BTW, the FED doesn’t pay taxes on its profitable game of loaning fake money to the USG.
3) Increasingly, nations are getting away from using the US FRN as the world reserve currency. Historically, all world reserve currency’s eventually get replaced by another and with the way the USG/FED is destroying ours that will occur sooner than later. As this happens, more FRN held around the world will move back to America devaluing our money still more while increasing prices (inflation!).
4) Related to #3, commodities are traded in FRN. As the world gets away from that prices will increase as the policies now benefit Americans yet hurt the buying power of others. Much of our food is imported and the FRN as reserve currency helps keep prices lower. When that changes prices will increase.
5) The FED’s policies with the cooperation of the USG are devaluing your buying power and debasing the currency.
Charley Jones has a regular guest “Mike From East Texas” who speaks with some authority on economic matters. Mike echoes most everything said here and is one very smart man:
http://dfw.cbslocal.com/category/watch-listen/overnight-with-charley-jones/#
http://texasovernightfan.wordpress.com/mike-in-east-texas-economics-over-night/
http://www.ustream.tv/user/TexasOvernight
http://thepatriotperspective.blogspot.com/2010/11/economics-by-mike-in-east-texas.html
http://www.tactools.org/mike-in-east-texas-audio-economic-outlook-2010-11-29/
Although I agree with this article. I personally don’t feel that this has anything to do with topic of this site.
I believe in the message of this site and the movement. MRA’s have a variety of social polital backgrounds. I hate to see this site turn into A Libertarian/Conservative/Republican/Reptilian Voice for Men.
Speaking as the Adjunct Assistant Director for the Northeastern Chapter of Libertarian/Conservative/Republican/Reptilian Voices for Men, I disagree. Without your money, you’re not going to experience much more in your manly life than heartache. This is a warning call, plain and simple. I don’t care if it’s sex-neutral. Men can get this information and then get off their butts and do something for themselves.
We need not less of these helpful articles, but more.
Mr. Adjunct Assistant Director for the Northeastern Chapter of Libertarian/Conservative/Republican/Reptilian Voices for Men, I concur.
Seriously, though, Rexx. I assure you this site isn’t turning in to anything. I promise you we will crap on everyone equally.
Like it’s the Men’s Room – an equal opportunity crapper!
It is certainly not my intention to stir up a dichotomy between adherents to rivalrous U.S. political sentiments. Arguing about the perception of political differences is not worth the effort in regards to an end point I wish to make.
I am merely a neighbour to your north whose nation has its own historical division and discord. So in the spirit of the lead article and good will I write the following.
In grossly simplistic form it is my understanding that General Andrew Jackson of the early Union had rallied a populist support among the early greater land settlers of middle America in regards to the banking interests of that day.
In short, as a proponent of a Democratic Republicanism, later morphing into just ‘Democrat’, Jackson apparantly was opposed to the overseas multi-national banking monopolies making a fortune from the North American frontierland and sought to route them out of further dealings with the administration of the early union.
If what was written above has a shade of accuracy it appears that a somewhat similar monopolistic banking interest exists today. Today Ron Paul appears to be one among few talking Federal Reserve.
Also see:
http://www.inmalafide.com/blog/2011/04/27/you-are-slaves/
And: http://elusivewapiti.blogspot.com/2010/01/book-review-return-of-great-depression.html
I’ve been reading AVFM since the beginning, but haven’t been motivated to leave a comment until now. There’s a few points I’d like to bring up.
First, it’s not really accurate to say that the USD isn’t backed by *anything* – it’s backed by the “full faith and credit” of the US government. Now, it’s true that many (myself included) think that the full faith and credit of the US government isn’t worth jack shit. It’s also true that this isn’t a physical commodity – however, the dollar wasn’t pegged to gold because of gold’s value as a commodity, but as a hedge against inflation. The supply of gold being both finite and steady in growth, pegging the dollar to gold meant that the money supply was also finite and steady in growth.
But the value of the dollar isn’t derived from what backs it, but on its utility – what it can do for the bearer. So long as inflation is kept in check, and the full faith and credit of the US government is good, fiat currency is just as sound as hard currency. (Of course, neither of those two conditions will obtain for much longer, if they even do now.)
Second, it’s a bit disingenuous to claim that the US dollar was a hard currency until 1971. Long before that, the Federal Reserve had been practicing fractional reserve banking – meaning that they did not have the dollar-value in gold or silver of every dollar in circulation. Furthermore, going back to the FDR administration and the Bretton Woods system, the dollar was, to the American citizen and for all intents and purposes, fiat currency. Joe American could no longer redeem his dollar for its value in gold from the US government – only foreign governments were privileged to redeem their dollars for gold. All that happened in 1971 was the termination of the Bretton Woods system, ending the international convertibility of dollars to gold – there was no change whatsoever to the average American.
Third, much ado has been made over the fact that the Federal Reserve is a private bank, not owned by the US Government. However, it seems to me that We the People would be best served, not by nationalizing the Federal Reserve, but by ending its monopoly over currency production. That way, you could have your choice of currency backing – gold, silver, oil, grain, microchips, or whatever you prefer, including Uncle Sam’s full faith and credit if you like. This would undeniably make our economy more free – and by corollary, less secure, which is of course why this isn’t practiced. The Gum’int needs to keep us safe, you see.
As I learned more and more about the truth of the world, I became more and more a classical liberal. I took economics courses and learned about the fed, and most of my questions about it went unanswered. 3 months ago I discovered the MRM community, and my oh my, I have found men disillusioned about the economy, but social issues as well.
Thanks for the great article – it all ties into the big picture – feminism IS a tool of this rot, aiming for money, power and to rule the entire planet once they get the chance to fully subdue it and put it in bondage. Jefferson WAS quite right, but the same is true on a larger world scale, with feminism just being used, played and payed to help enslave everyone and then finally themselves.
We can’t possibly fight the enemy we can’t see. We’ve pre-surrendered to the enemy we refuse to see.
Quite possibly the most daunting challenge, obstacle or problem facing the men’s movement as a whole is that so many within can’t see the multi-faceted monster-enemy, which they can’t fight until they allow themselves to see it’s full extent and true nature. Spreading the word to defeate the enemy only works when the word is fully accurate/truthful about that enemy. Feminism is only one of the many heads that monster has grown.
“Useful freakin’ IDIOTS!”
- Karl Marx & Napoleon Dynamite