Money is supposed to be representative of all the goods and services that the country has produced in an entire year.
A “buck” is referred to as a “buck” because in the early days of American money, a dollar was worth about one deer. Many trading posts didn’t trust American money for good reason: Benjamin Franklin intentionally devalued America’s first currency as a way to finance the revolutionary war.
Soon after the war, the Treasury began working to regain the public trust in American currency. Even going so far as to print “payable in silver or gold to the bearer thereof.”
It worked for a while From 1813 to 1913, there was no income tax in America. More importantly: there was ZERO inflation. The money left to your family by you grandfather had the same value as the day he first deposited it. Americans also benefited from low taxes since most tax revenue was generated from public lands.
A progressive shift in the management of public lands substantially reduced the economic benefits Americans had been accustomed to.
Instead of being an economic benefit to taxpayers: public lands became a net economic drain.
On August 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the act creating the National Park Service, a new federal bureau in the Department of the Interior responsible for protecting the 35 national parks and monuments then managed by the department and those yet to be established. The same National Parks that TODAY have $12 BILLION in backlogged basic care and maintenance costs.
Multiple use of public lands took a major shift towards single use…..in fact: no use at all…..imposing stone age type economic hardships on “wilderness” areas and surrounding communities.
Doubling down on stupidity: Americans developed a love for “free stuff”, voting it into law around 1913. Taking away the means to pay for the free stuff: the once steady stream of revenue generated by managed public lands.
New revenue streams were artificially created.
To pay for all the new “free” stuff: the US Treasury no longer reigned supreme in American fiscal policy. A consortium of 13 private and independently owned banks created the Federal Reserve.
Since 1913, taxpayers have been depositing their tax money into the Federal Reserve system – charged a fee when they deposit it, and another fee when they withdraw their money. Plus “maintenance fees” and interest simply for storing the taxpayer’s money in the Federal Reserve.
When the taxpayers demand goods or services that they cannot afford: the Federal Reserve simply orders the US Treasury to print the money with no backing. Or to print the money with the backing of “borrowed” money: the selling of Treasury bonds – to anyone who will buy them. Including to foreign nationals and hostile foreign governments who have ulterior motives for buying US debt.
Our addiction to “free” stuff means that the American government has to borrow 40 cents of every dollar that it spends. You may have heard that the National debt is $25 trillion dollars. What you didn’t hear about is the $220 trillion dollars Americans owe in future unfunded longterm liabilities.
Spending more money than is generated in tax revenue devalues the currency, making goods and services more expensive to the general public who could afford it a few simple inflation points ago.
Since the public is paying more in overdraft fees, penalties and interest, due to a lesser value currency: the public borrows more money to maintain the public standard of living they have grown to feel entitled to. Since it is an entitlement now, the public demands even MORE “free” stuff. Not seeming to care about the financial death spiral that overspending always leads to.
Entitlement minded citizens then demand that everyone else pay “more” or “their fair share.” Deeming it “fair” to take from those productive members of society, and redistributing it to those who are not.
Killing the only effective means of generating revenue and creating a steady populous ever more dependent on “Secure Rural School” funding, “Payment in Lieu of Taxes ” and any other number of government handouts.
All of which will collapse the system in the very near future.
Just ask France, England, Greece, Ireland, Rome, or Venezuela. All of which have spent far more than their citizens could ever realistically repay.
The bill always comes due… and the Piper MUST be Paid!
