Money is nothing, yet we are foolish enough to accept it in exchange for something.
Preposterous!
I wish my statement were preposterous. Unfortunately it isn’t. It is a simple, inescapable fact for which I’ll provide proof. However along with the proof I have other things to say about money, questions to raise, and hopefully doubts to instill in the minds to the unwary.
“Money has no value except in exchange.” Those aren’t my words, however they are inescapably true. Just how true I’ll try and reveal in this post and further posts to follow. Yes, to get the whole story you’ll have to come back since this topic is far too big and far too sinister to comfortably encapsulate in a single post.
What do you think money is?
Is money something that sets you free, or is it something that chains you? Is money a matter of convenience, or an implement of control?
While we’re tempted to think money is something convenient created to make our lives easier, it isn’t. The purpose of money is not convenience. Money wasn’t invented in order to facilitate trade. Money was invented to facilitate taxation.
Money has never been about convenience, it has always been about control.
The proof money is worth literally nothing.
Since two of the must influential nations on earth are the United Kingdom and the United States I’m going to use their currencies as the evidence supporting my hypothesis. However you’ll find similar hollow, meaningless promises used to back up virtually every currency in the entire world, there are no exceptions.
Read on and become enlightened even as you find yourself distressed.
The English Pound.
In the United Kingdom this messages appears upon a £5 banknote: I promise to pay the bearer on demand £5.
What does this mean? Well, this is how the Bank of England’s official website describes the above promise. Their explanation appears under the Heading “What is the Bank’s “Promise to Pay?”
The words “I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of five [ten/twenty/fifty] pounds” date from long ago when our notes represented deposits of gold. At that time, a member of the public could exchange one of our banknotes for gold to the same value. For example, a £5 note could be exchanged for five gold coins, called sovereigns. But the value of the pound has not been linked to gold for many years, so the meaning of the promise to pay has changed. Exchange into gold is no longer possible and Bank of England notes can only be exchanged for other Bank of England notes of the same face value. Public trust in the pound is now maintained by the operation of monetary policy, the objective of which is price stability.
How hollow is a promise when all that serves as legal tender for the promise is another promise?
Such a promise is worth absolutely nothing. To be precise, all a £5 banknote is actually worth is another £5 banknote. If you’re still resisting this truth perhaps music will sway you, so let me quote a famous singer, “Nothing for nothing means nothing.”
The United States Dollar.
In the United States this messages appears upon all paper USA currency:- This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private.
The following question and explanation of this utterly meaningless promise appears on the US Treasury’s official website.
“I thought that United States currency was legal tender for all debts. Some businesses or governmental agencies say that they will only accept checks, money orders or credit cards as payment, and others will only accept currency notes in denominations of $20 or smaller. Isn’t this illegal?”
Answer:-
“The pertinent portion of law that applies to your question is the Coinage Act of 1965, specifically Section 31 U.S.C. 5103, entitled “Legal tender,” which states: “United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues.”
This statute means that all United States money as identified above are a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether or not to accept cash unless there is a State law which says otherwise. For example, a bus line may prohibit payment of fares in pennies or dollar bills. In addition, movie theaters, convenience stores and gas stations may refuse to accept large denomination currency (usually notes above $20) as a matter of policy.”
What does this flowery verbiage mean?
Pay particular attention to the line “There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services.”
With the line above the US Treasury actually acknowledges there are no Federal laws which mandate that any private party must accept currency or coins as payment for goods and/or services.
In such realizations doth freedom dwell…
Essentially the Treasury of the United States of America has reduced the inscription “This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private” to a hollow promise that is not even backed up by Federal authority.
That US $50 bill you grasp so tight and hold in such esteem? It is worth nothing, not even that paper it is printed on.
But how did this happen?
How did matters come to this? Surely something must back money up? Well, yes, and no.
In the ever more distant past money pretended to have value by being struck or minted from a valuable metal. Gold and Silver are metals of such limited supply their very scarcity apparently grants them some unique, universal, and intrinsic value. Therefore when money was manufactured out of valuable metals the weight of metal within the coin was itself the value of the money the coin represented.
So way back when money was made of precious metal it was real, right? Wrong.
But to find out why that assumption is wrong you’re going to have to think about its ramifications, then come back and let me think about them with you. But how will you know when I’ll revisit this topic again? See that subscribe button in the top tight pane? That’s the only way.
{P.S. If you can’t conceive of a world in which money doesn’t exist then I encourage you to visit Malmaxa. Will you find Malmaxa to be a place of paradise or anarchy? I’m not telling, you’ll have to find that out for yourself.
P.P.S. If you’re interested in reading the the next part of this post you ma do so here.}
