One of the saddest things in today’s world, is the feeble effort to create value by means of the printing press. Around the world, all currencies, which are supposed to represent worth, value, stability, and asset conservation, are merely printed pieces of paper with ink and engravings on them. That’s it. Value cannot come off of a printing press, and that’s a truism if there ever was one.
Something of actual value, is a tangible thing. Actual value, is a tangible thing which has been grown or mined. Now think about it for a minute. A carrot, steak, orange, milk, ice cream, or any edible item has been grown or raised with grown things, as with meat. A cow, pig, or chicken cannot live without food which has been grown, be it fed to them, or allowing them to pasture or be cage free. A home, with its lumber, copper wire and pipe, roofing, paint, wallpaper, carpet, glass, insulation, concrete, or what have you, was built with things having been grown or mined. Glass comes from sand, lumber from trees, paper from tree grown wood, a slate roof has been mined, and fuel in the form of oil or gas has been mined. Electricity has been generated from generators which have been made from mined things, and the juice transmitted over wires made of mined things. Gold and silver have been mined, as has coal, which probably made the steam which ran the generators. Cars are made from mined iron ore made into steel, and the upholstery was made from animal fibers or chemicals which were mined. There is no tangible item on earth, which was not grown, mined, or made from things grown or mined. Nothing.
When things are grown or mined, we eat, drive a car, live in a home, take medications, wear clothes, or watch TV. Everything we need and use, was mined or grown, or derived from things which were mined or grown. Tangibles then, are valuable, useful, and life sustaining. Without tangibles, we cannot live. Without tangibles, we will die. Tangibles, are things of value. Pieces of paper, are not a tangible with value, other than for papering a wall, creating cellulose insulation, making newspapers, books, or similar paper things we need and use. Piece of paper which represent actual values, such as deeds to homes, titles to cars, or wills, are pieces of paper which represent actual value and give ownership to them. Pieces of paper turned into ATLAS SHRUGGED, which I repeat, everyone should read, buy, and pass on to kids and everyone you know. Here’s another quote from page 98:
“She heard him chuckling, and after a while he said, “Dagney, there’s nothing of any importance in life, except how well you do your work. Nothing. Only that. Whatever else you are will come from that. It’s the only measure of human value. All the codes of ethics they’ll try to ram down your throat are just so much paper money put out by swindlers to fleece people of their virtues. The code of competence is the only system or morality that’s on a gold standard.”
Tangibles are necessary and life sustaining, and throughout history have been stores of value. When people trade with each other in times past, and for 150 years in America, the trade vehicles used had value equal to what was traded. In other words, silver and gold tangibles, which represent effort, mining, refining, milling, smelting, stamping, transporting, and distributing, were as valuable as the items bought, sold, or traded. Equals for equals. A valuable gold or silver coin traded for something of equal value in the form of a quart of milk, automobile, home, or restaurant meal. A trade of something valuable for something else of value. The gold or silver coins represented the above mining, etc, traded for the tangible which also required effort, labor, and capital expenditure. The gold and silver used as trade vehicles, were compact values. Values which required every bit as much capital expenditure to produce as the car, milk, or home. Is it not reasonable to expect that when you trade one thing for another, that the things traded and used as trade, should all be valuable? Not only valuable, but of equal value? The reason for trade is because a farmer has more milk than he needs, and he makes a living selling milk. A dress maker has more dresses than she needs because she makes dresses for a living. Why should they trade their milk and dresses for something of less value than their milk and dresses? They shouldn’t and didn’t for the first 150 years of the American dream, which has become a nightmare. The currency was backed by gold and the coinage was made of silver, thereby people traded bought, or sold for equal things.
It’s all so elementary my dear Watson. Equal things for equal things. Valuable, compact gold and silver, traded for another tangible value, no matter what it was. My silver dime bought me a ride on the streetcar or bought me a double scoop ice cream cone. My Dad’s gold backed dollars bought him a new Plymouth for $660 in 1940. But now? No more silver coins, no more dollars backed by anything, and guess what? No more equals traded for equals. Un-backed pieces of paper, rolling off the presses by the billions, and constantly buying less and less, with hyper-inflation just around the corner. The saddest part, is that Americans and for that matter the rest of the world, cannot remember gold backed currencies and silver coins. They are too young to remember, unless they are as old as the hills like me. Just imagine what knowledge passes away when people die. When my Dad and Mom died, they took with them all the knowledge and experiences they had. I’d like to turn the clock back to about 1920 and see all the steam locomotives, movie palaces, trolley cars, amusement parks, and no slums.
Now, how to get rid of the national debt? Easy. First of all throw out the Federal Reserve. Second, the Treasury prints its own money, and prints enough to pay off all foreign debts instantly. This will create no inflation, as the new dollars are all going off shore. Those with T Bills or bonds issued by the Federal Reserve can let the Fed pay them off as they see fit. Presto! No more national debt at least to foreigners.
Third, balance the budget by getting all troops home, declaring total neutrality, and not messing in anyone’s business at any time, ever again, nor subsidizing any foreign nation ever again. No more wars, and of course there would be no ’terrorism,’ if there is any anyway. Anyone who wants to trade with us, will be welcome, but there will be enough tariffs to equalize our wages with theirs, and they can feel free to do the same, meaning there will be no tariffs on their end. No more ’free trade,’ in other words. NAFTA and all the other gobbledygook agreements will be nullified and we can start over. There will be plenty of jobs for returning servicemen in factories producing what we use and need, rather than tanks, guns, and bullets. Never again any federal handouts to anyone, and 90% of the federal government will be disbanded. Numbers one and two would eliminate most if not all federal debts.
The 28th Amendment to our Constitution will read: “The Sixteenth Amendment is hereby abolished. At no time, shall the Federal Government ever subsidize any group, organization, club, corporation, or individual, nor regulate or dictate to any such entity. All federal departments and bureaucracies established sine 1933 shall be abolished. There shall never again be a central bank, and the privately owned Federal Reserve is hereby entirely separated from the United States Government. The Government of the United States of America shall never again run a deficit, spend more than it takes in, nor tax the incomes its citizens. The Federal Government’s expenses shall be paid for with tariffs or other taxation approved by 75% of the voters. Coinage above a nickel shall be made of 90% silver, and all paper currencies shall be backed by gold, silver, or platinum and be freely convertible. All Federal programs such as Medicare, and Social Security shall be gradually abolished as recipients die, and no new entrants allowed.” How’s that for a beginning?
Please do not celebrate the birthday of dishonest Abe, who was responsible for the deaths of 620,000, denied habeas corpus to many, prosecuted those who disagreed with his war, and refused to even talk with the South when they wanted to avoid the war he started. He re-stocked a fort in the South, in the South’s harbor, when he was warned not to do it. I cannot understand Republican worship of that man! Why don’t they celebrate the birthday of Ron Paul?