Is America Broke
Part III
A Solution for the Financial Crisis
"The rich ruleth over the poor,
and the borrower is servant to the
lender." [1]
Abstract
This is the
third and final paper in the Is America Broke series. In the first two
articles, several of the contributing factors to today’s financial crisis were
discussed. Several important questions were asked:
Why is the most
advanced economy in the world buckling at the knees, acting like a punch weary
fighter? How did the largest creditor nation on earth become the largest debtor
nation? Are soaring debt levels consummate with wealth creation or a
diminishing standard of living?
In the process
of finding answers to these questions, we were led to the root cause of our
economic problems: the monetary system itself, and more specifically – the unit
of money of that system.
Our present day
unit of money is the Federal Reserve Note or dollar bill. A dollar bill is not,
however, the same as the dollar of the Constitution. The first is a piece of
paper; the latter a weight of silver.
A system of
paper fiat debt-money is diametrically opposed to the monetary system of gold
and silver coin mandated by the Constitution. Paper money is unsound and
unconstitutional.
Such a system
allows excess credit and money creation to run amuck, resulting in huge sums of
debt that can never be paid off. This reduces the purchasing power of the
money-unit (dollar bill).
The more money that
is created, the greater is the loss of purchasing power, and the poorer we all
become. The solution to the debased condition our monetary system is in is to
return to sound money of gold and silver coin. We should never have wandered
off the path laid out in the Constitution.
It is too easy to
point the finger and say: the system is broke; Wall St. is to blame; there was
not enough oversight, etc. These are all valid concerns, but what good does it
do to expose them, if a viable solution is not offered?
The following
work offers a solution. It does not provide all the answers; it does, however,
provide a starting point from which the healing process can begin. The
information is from the 18th chapter of Honest Money.