It could be argued that the single most important act of the founders was to provide a sound monetary policy. Money must reflect real value. When a nation's money has no value, and it becomes fiat money, the people lose power; those who control the money control the government and, eventually, all of the country's institutions, including the media.
The founders clearly understood the agenda of bankers, and they frequently referred to them as "friends of paper money." They mistrusted the Bank of England in particular, believing that even if they were successful in winning independence from England, the new country could never truly be a nation of free individuals unless it had an honest money system.
Through ignorance and apathy, past generations have allowed a small group to rob today's generations of their rights, liberties, and wealth. Freedom has been handed over without resistance and paid for by "voluntary" tax contributions and the use of a debt-laden fiat currency.
The founders established a system of coin money that was designed to prohibit the improper manipulation of the nation's medium of exchange while guaranteeing the power of the citizens' earnings. There is no more fundamental problem in the country today than the current corrupt money system. It is virtually impossible for the people to be truly prosperous with the current debt-based system. It is also virtually impossible to have true indigenous power when politicians have been given the ability to borrow unlimited amounts of money.
The federal government has departed from the principle of coin money, as defined by the U.S. Constitution (Article I, Section 8) and the Mint Act of 1792, and granted unconstitutional control of the nation's monetary and banking system to the private Federal Reserve System. These violations now threaten our citizens' economic stability and survival.
The founders clearly understood the danger of allowing bankers to control the monetary system in this country. As James Madison wrote, "History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance."
According to John Adams, if this country ever lost its freedom, it would be due to the people's ignorance of the nature of money. He was right. A government-managed educational system will never reveal the truth about the fatally flawed monetary system. When the time comes to eliminate the current monetary system - and it will, soon - there will need to be a substantial, well-educated group of citizens ready to implement an alternative. It is absolutely essential that the people understand this subject well enough to make sure that what has happened in this country never happens again.
This cannot be a sovereign nation, nor can the people enjoy their indigenous power, when a private corporation owns the central bank that controls the money-creation process of the nation. The power that has been given to a small group of individuals is so immense that calling the nation a free country under the current circumstances is an absurdity. If you don't believe this, please ponder these words of the former president of the United States who signed the Federal Reserve Act in 1913. Spoken in 1916, these remarks by President Woodrow Wilson obviously show that he realized he had made an enormous mistake:
"A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system credit is concentrated [in the Federal Reserve System]. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. ... We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world - no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men."
The good news is that by returning to the monetary system envisioned by the founders, inflation and potentially all federal taxes including the income tax can be eliminated. By not requiring the federal government to "borrow" from the private Federal Reserve (instead, having the federal government re-assume its constitutional prerogative to create its own money), people would no longer have to pay interest on money they created themselves. The nation's people would also gain the right to charge commercial banks throughout the country a modest interest (say, 3 percent) on funds, which they then loan to their customers. This interest, paid to the federal government, would be sufficient to pay for the essential, and constitutional, services provided by the federal government. There would be no need for an income tax, national retail sales tax, or any other kind of federal tax. This plan is fully explained by W. Cleon Skousen in The Urgent Need for Comprehensive Monetary Reform. (See NCCS.net/monetary_reform.html.)
The following list of the current taxes provides a perspective of what has happened since the advent of the Federal Reserve. None of these taxes existed before the monetary and economic policies created under the influence of the owners of the Federal Reserve: dog license tax, federal income tax, federal unemployment tax, fishing license tax, food license tax, fuel permit tax, gasoline tax, hunting license tax, inheritance tax, inventory tax, IRS interest charges (tax on top of tax), IRS penalties (tax on top of tax), liquor tax, luxury tax, marriage license tax, Medicare tax, property tax, real estate tax, service charge taxes, Social Security tax, road usage tax (truckers), sales taxes, recreational vehicle tax, school tax, state income tax, state unemployment tax, telephone federal excise tax, telephone federal universal service fee tax, telephone surcharge taxes, telephone minimum usage surcharge tax, telephone recurring and nonrecurring charges tax, telephone state and local tax, telephone usage charge tax, utility tax, vehicle license registration tax, vehicle sales tax, watercraft registration tax, well permit tax, and workers compensation tax.
It is a daunting list. Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, when the nation was the most prosperous in the world. There was no national debt, the middle class was the largest in the world, and one parent could stay home to raise the children and police the neighborhoods.
Common Sense Revisited is published by Iowa-based authors Clyde Cleveland and Ed Noyes, founders of Restoring the Heart of America, an organization dedicated to constitutional education curriculum and programming. More information can be found at CommonSenseRevisited.org.
