Posted by T. Mann on July 15, 1998 at 11:52:43:
In Reply to: WE MAY NEVER SEE A RETURN TO GOLD AND SILVER posted by Shane Hanson on July 13, 1998 at 19:13:17:
Dear Shane,
I understand your frustration and fear regarding what you’ve learned about “our” money system and the banking establishment. I also admire your earnestness in seeking a solution. However, I think you’ve misunderstood at least two important points.
One: Art. 1 Sec. 10 only requires states to make no thing but gold and silver a tender in payment of debts. Clearly, the states must deal in or with gold and silver coin, not you. You, as a Citizen, have the complete right and power to contract (make agreements) with others without interference form government as long as your actions are lawful. If, in those agreements, someone requires you to pay for something using a specific thing, be it gold, silver, FRNs, shiny stones or duck feathers, it is that person’s right to make that stipulation. This is what that party wants in exchange for the goods you seek to buy. It's the basis of barter.
You’re right, FRNs are debt instruments, and have no substance when they are created. And as such, they have no value except in the mind(s) of those who use them. But, who are you to judge what is of “value” to another? Yes, technically, the original debt is not paid but discharged. But it is the debt created by the issuance of the FRN that is not extinguished. (The US government and the FED are the parties to that, NOT yours.) It’s not your debt because you got substance for something of “no value”. Manhattan was purchased by the Dutch for beads! You incur no debt because you performed under the agreement. You gave the person demanding FRNs exactly what they wanted, FRNs.
Two: You need to understand that via the 14th amendment it’s your work (and the work of your neighbors) that gives value to FRNs. You exchanged your labor, your time here on earth, in essence part of your life for those scrapes of paper. In that sense, they have great value! But that doesn’t justify the massive fraud and theft that has been forced upon our people by the current system. Just think of the theft, measured in lives, when the "value" of the dollar goes down due to monetizing by the FED!!!
You clearly recognize, by your bitter remorse at being enslaved by the system, that it’s God’s desire that you owe no man anything and pay your own way each and every day. How your should begin to live this way in your daily life is, however, the subject of another post.
So, go ahead and exchange as much of your life as you can afford for gold and silver, you’ll need it if the signs of what is to come continue. Just remember, when things get bad and you “have” – be sure to be kind and share with those who didn’t see, and have not.