Should America Return To The Gold Standard ?

Originally posted by kettlebellysmith
In my personal opinion, we should base our currency on gold an silver.

The currency is made of plastic. That means it needs to be backed by common sense fiscal policies. Commodity-backed currencies are slow to react to the ever-changing global finances and can't compete with others. You would have to isolate the economy from the rest of the world. The gold standard is an outdated system. You need to go ahead, not back.

reply to post by eradown

Sorry, eradown, but the one thing loyal Americans are not going to give up is our constitution. It might not be perfect, but it's a damned sight better than anything else around, and it has stood well for over 200 years.
I thing Nafta may well be on it's last legs. Americans as well as Canadians are saying "I don't think so."
In spite of what the rest of the world may think about us, we are still capable of thinking for ourselves. NWO? "I don't think so."

reply to post by stander


Sometimes, to move ahead, we must move back. For example, if we have a choice between road A and road B, and we choose A, which turns out to be a dead end, we have to go backwards to the fork and then take road B.
Because Time for us is linear, we're always moving forward, whether we're adopting new or old policies.

Logic 101.

reply to post by stander

Common sense fiscal policies? Can you point me to the planet where that exist? If we had common sense fiscal policies, we wouldn't be in this mess. That's why I'm wondering about fixing currency to some permanent commodity.

reply to post by kettlebellysmith
Then we will need to be more creative. Our labor is what has enriched this country not our money. It is about time we demanded something in return for our labor. Barter enables people to use barter credits to buy goods and services.

I think the countries with the most metals are taking advantage of Americans at this moment. The vatican owns a bunch of gold and they support a one world government. China is buying gold in large quantities. China is either jockeying for the top position in the UN or is trying to lock out the Vatican.

Originally posted by kettlebellysmith
Are you proposing a cash only society(especially a cash only government?)

I don't know if I'd call it cash only, but I may not be thinking of the term in the same way you are using it. My thought is that the government, or the bank or whoever is printing the paper money (I'm assuming still use of paper... actual gold is cumbersome) only prints a dollar bill if there is a dollar's worth of gold in the vault to back it up.

My concern is to prevent a different flavor of what we have now, where they have $10 worth of gold, but print $100 of paper based on it, under the assumption not everybody will call for their gold, or they are going to get more gold. To print the paper, they must have the equivalent gold.

When we build a road, a battleship, or anything else, we have the money to pay for it at the time, or it don't get done.

I absolutely agree!

I think what would happen is that the economy would grow more slowly, and in a less chaotic manner. We as a culture would re-evaluate our priorities, and spend our money more wisely.

I also do not believe it would hurt our infrastructure or military. It would probably be beneficial, as money would be spent more carefully... create a boondoggle, and you've got to live with it.

I believe the whole concept of having an economy grow as much as possible as fast as possible is not healthy in the long run.

Should we do this? I say yes (may be wrong... not an economist).

Can we? I say yes, but it will be painful. But I believe it will enhance our chances of long term survival as a culture, while our present course is leading towards destruction of our culture in one way or another.

Originally posted by kettlebellysmith
reply to post by stander

 

Common sense fiscal policies? Can you point me to the planet where that exist? If we had common sense fiscal policies, we wouldn't be in this mess. That's why I'm wondering about fixing currency to some permanent commodity.

You don't have to leave the solar system to find examples. The parliaments of majority of countries don't busy themselves at this moment with the question how to rescue their financial system from collapsing.

Look around a bit. You read about "silent runs" on the banks who survived; you read about well-known banks like Lehman Brothers or Washington Mutual who didn't survive . . . it all very much resembles the the crash of 1929 and the following Great Depression when United States managed its finances according to gold standard.

You may have misdiagnosed the problem and are offering remedy that is not applicable. But I know what you mean.

Look, you can amend the Constitution with a rule that the rate the government creates money cannot exceed the rate the US population grows and have more dynamic restriction in effect to regulate the money supply than the gold standard.

If the gold standard was in some way attractive, then it would be in effect in some countries. But it is not -- it's out everywhere.

There is a well-written article in Wiki on the subject. Maybe you'll like it.
en.wikipedia.org...

[edit on 10/2/2008 by stander]