Monday, January 16, 2012

The Tyranny of Government Debt

There is no doubt that Americans are suffering under the tyranny of the United States’ government debt.  The amount of this debt is staggering in scope and each individual American is bowed over with its weight, no matter their political affiliation, and Americans need to be released from these tyrannical chains.  The question is how to accomplish this.  Politicians, regardless of whether they are wearing a donkey or elephant costume, mouth platitudes to a reduction of this tyrannical debt, and turn right around and increase the scope and size of the State, proving their ineptness and the lack of veracity in their words.

So, back to the question, how to reduce the tyranny of the United State’s debt?  Karen De Coster notes a suggestion put forth by an individual by the name of Philip Smith, in a news article titled Melting Gold Coins To Reduce National Debt.

Smith believes if the government would take all of the gold coins out of circulation and melt them into bars, the U.S. would be able to pay off the national debt. He says the gold coins are not doing anybody good just sitting around so the government should take action.

Karen notes that the idea, as presented, is not satire.  What came to my mind when I read this this morning is the following observation of Edward Gibbon, put down in Volume One of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, wherein Gibbon comments on the debasement of money under the reign of emperor Gallienus, the role this debasement of money played the in civil unrests within the Roman empire, and the salutary effects which can be attained by restoring the just value of money.

The repetition of intolerable taxes, imposed either on the land or on the necessaries of life, may at last provoke those who will not, or who cannot, relinquish their country.  But the case is far otherwise in every operation which, by whatsoever expedients, restores the just value of money.  The transient evil is soon obliterated by the permanent benefit, the loss is divided among multitudes; and if a few wealthy individuals experience a sensible dimunition of treasure, with their riches they at the same time lose the degree of weight and importance which they derived from the possession of them.

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Volume One, New York, Random House, The Modern Giant Library, pg. 272

Posted by John Venlet on 01/16 at 08:36 AM
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