On Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 1:14 PM, Michael Torrie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > What's interesting is that the solution is spun as being "socialist" or > "anti-free-market." I mean the government's involvement with anything > is wrong. Interesting that Libertarians call for a return to the gold > standard, which would have the effect of nationalizing the national > reserve (not necessarily a bad thing) and require explicit government > control over the price of gold.
Yes, and this is because Libertarians believe in the Constitution which states in Article 1, Section 8, that the Congress shall have power to... "To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures; To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;" http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#A1Sec8 Among the few things that the Federal Government SHOULD do is mint and regulate money. The Federal Reserve is as "Federal" as Federal Express. I love free enterprise all day long, but I think is ridiculous and suspicious that our government has abdicated its responsibility to mint and regulated money to a private central bank. Thomas Jefferson (co-founder of the Democratic party) said, "I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." Woodrow Wilson, who later said after pushing the Federal Reserve Act into law, "I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world. No longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men." Somewhat unrelated (but who can miss a chance to quote Jefferson?), Jefferson also said... "I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." "To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." "The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." -Bryan /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
