Title: Is It All About Money? Original CoS Document (slug): [[https://conventionofstates.com/is-it-all-about-money-1|is-it-all-about-money-1]] Login Required to view? No Created: 2024-07-27 15:46:38 Updated: 2024-08-03 03:00:00 Published: 2024-07-27 03:00:00 Converted: 2025-04-14T21:31:55.810681846 ---- Money is a medium of exchange - nothing more. In early times people would exchange a pig for a cow or a toga for some potatoes. **Then, money was invented.** Instead of dragging a pig around, you could have a pocket full of gold coins. Gold coins had intrinsic value because of the scarcity of gold and valued in making jewelry.  Gold coins became a medium of exchange in Roman times. Dollar bills were substituted for gold coins because dragging gold around was also inconvenient. The invented dollar was worth so much gold and was called a treasury note. In the early 1900s one ounce (oz) of gold was pegged at $20.67/oz. **Then came Franklin Roosevelt** In 1933 Franklin Roosevelt suspended gold redemption in dollars and required everyone to turn in their gold. Gold was then re-valued at $35/oz. The inflationary debacle had begun. **What did Richard Nixon do?** In 1971 Nixon declared that the US would not convert dollars at a fixed rate of gold. Now we have a fiat currency (no treasury notes), meaning money is only as valuable as we think it is and is backed up by the value of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the nation. In other words, money is only as valuable as the faith in the dollar. **Legal Corruption** Why do candidates want money for their campaigns? How much money is spent on campaigns roughly correlates with who wins the campaign – not always, but generally speaking. He who spends the most is the candidate that gets his message to the people. That is why we are incessantly asked for money by the candidates and why billionaires give millions to campaign managers. They are buying influence. It is called legal corruption. World countries are tired of having to settle international trade in US dollars so they can buy oil and other goods. Digital currency and the BRICS accord promise to liberate the world from dependence on the US dollar as the reserve currency. The world also thinks little of US bonds because of our national debt. That leaves the only means of the US government to finance their spending is to print money, which is inflationary. The US cannot raise taxes without Congressional approval, raise tariffs, or conger up more gold, so they print money. Printing money over and above the growth in GDP is inflationary and is a not-so-hidden tax on the American people. Digital currency will replace the dollar in international transactions, increasing the speed and lowering the cost of money transfers. \\ **How Do We Tame the Inflation Monster?** How do you halt inflation? Inflation is addictive. The Federal Reserve target for money supply increase has been two percent per year in the past, which approximated the increase in GDP. Over the years the value of US currency has decreased. What was $20 in the 1950s is more than $200 today in equivalent value. How would you grade the Federal Reserve and the US Government in protecting the value of the money supply? Worker’s wages have not kept even with the cost of living. Social Security is in jeopardy. Who is the big winner? The US government, of course. They pay down their debts with cheaper dollars. This is why we need a balanced budget. What does a balanced budget mean? When does an emergency occur? The answers are yet to be defined. Does an emergency occur whenever the President says there is one? **Enter in to Convention of States** How do we tame the inflation monster and bring sanity to money affairs of this nation? This is the question a Convention of States can make recommendations to solve. Presidents seem to want to spend more money than they are allotted. Representatives and Senators do not seem to want to solve the dilemma. That means a Convention of States recommending a Constitutional Amendment is the only activity left than can solve the problem – if we are wise enough to do so. One way to resolve the budget issue is to put all the alternatives on the table and have a debate on which alternative is the best. Maybe the states can debate the alternatives and make their recommendations. The states are closer to the people than the US government. The convention of States’ job would be to identify the best alternatives to present before people. A national debate would be a welcome discussion to find the best alternative – assuming something is better than what we have now. \\ This debate could require considerable time. It will take time for the Convention of States to define recommended alternatives. It will take time for the states to debate the issues. It will take time to have a national debate. How these debates proceed must be defined so that there is a time limit for the debates to end. Then it is up to the states to pick the best alternative.  After all that, three fourths of the states must agree on the alternative to become an Amendment. Is there a simpler solution that incorporates the wishes of the people?