WHY GOLD? (Part 2)

We've explored in prior essays how the private ownership of gold and silver in the form of stamped coins occurred at exactly the same time that Democracy developed in Ancient Greece (circa 600 BCE.)

Does the fact that these two seminal events in human history developed together prove causality? No. But common sense provides a link: the private ownership of currency with a universal intrinsic value provides the private citizen with a certain amount of autonomy from the State. This is so because private citizens can then conduct private transactions without the consent, regulation or even the knowledge of the State.

If private citizens can not conduct private transactions without the consent of the state - can there then be true Democracy? Our Founding Fathers clearly did not think so, as they declared in the constitution that only Gold and Silver could constitute currency.

Thomas Jefferson (a scholar of Ancient Greece) wrote extensively on the subject of how wealth and power is confiscated from the private citizen when Banks are allowed to issue fiat currency:

"The central bank is an institution of the most deadly hostility existing against the Principles and form of our Constitution....Bankers are more dangerous than standing armies......(and) if the American people allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and CORPORATIONS that will grow up around them will deprive the People of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered."

Yet today less than two percent of the American public owns gold.

What then do they own?

One hundred percent own dollars. But the dollar has no intrinsic value. It has only a notional value dictated and controlled by the state.

It is true that dollars provides the owner with some transactional power. Yet every transaction must be reported to the government so that it can be regulated and taxed. Every dollar held in a Bank is recorded and reported to the government. Every credit transaction is recorded and reported to the government. Yes, small transactions are settled in cash and not reported to the government. Yet the government still controls the value of your cash in that they can print unlimited quantities and distribute it to whomever they wish (mostly the Banks.) And their fiscal and monetary policies can cause the dollar to lose all of its notional value so that it returns to its intrinsic value: Zero.

Seventy percent think they own their own house. Yet less than ten percent of these have no mortgage. If you have a mortgage you do not really own your house. You are making a bet on a house - that it will hold or increase in value long enough for you to eventually own it. You can not sell it, or trade it without the consent of the Bank. Many facets of your house is owned by the State. They can tax your house, tax your water usage, tax your electrical usage, and even confiscate your house if they deem it to be for the "Greater Good."

Fifty percent of the population think they own Stock. But what do they own? They own a bet that a piece of paper will appreciate or depreciate in dollar value. They have no say over the company that the stock represents. They can trade the stock only through an exchange that is regulated by the government. This is to say they can cash in their bet as regulated by the government. Ownership of Stock provides no private transactional power.

Less than two percent of the American public owns gold. Gold can be held in private vaults. Its value over the long run can not be affected by the US government. But does gold give the owner power to affect private transactions? Only if two private citizens agree that it should. And if they do, the government will not know and can not do anything about it. That's Democracy: which means: Power (Kratos) to the People (Demos.)