Earth Day was last week and is an opportune time to reflect on our dependence on the little rock with some water and vapor on top, especially with the recent not-so-gentle reminder from Iceland’s volcanoes. Following peace – defined as the absence of war, regardless who wins the Nobel Peace Prize these days – the environment is the next highest priority for human society as a whole. As Congress works to instigate another preemptive war against yet another third world nation with continued economic blockades, war is not exactly productive as nation-states spend time and resources murdering… ourselves. Mankind’s twentieth century was the bloodiest on record, and saw the deaths of over 170 million human beings by the wars, prisons, and famines created by our own governments.
The continuation of preemptive wars of aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan into the 21st century is ceaselessly flogging the country I love along a path to spiritual death. Tyrannical rule at the barrel of a gun abroad and domestic despotism are the age-old recipe for eventual poverty and slavery.
The bright side is the last half-century also saw a revival of respect for the environment. I grew up hearing a relative’s stories of when Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River caught fire in 1952 and 1969, and a river had to be hosed down. (photo) These stories would seem ludicrous now – if I had not lived in China for several years and seen up close how centrally-planned economies can utterly fail to protect citizens from health hazards. A return to local sovereignty and a healthy respect for property rights hold the keys to continued improvement in the environment and our living standards.
But enough of that for a moment. One of Earth Day’s traditions that at least several of my relatives and friends have begun is to start new habits such as eating foods without chemical preservatives (yes, even those the FDA says are safe), reusing bags, recycling paper, glass, and aluminum products, or biking to work every day. My new habit? Minimizing use of dollar bills, aka “Federal Reserve Notes.” Let me explain.
Dollar bills are toxic waste. Literally, the ink of each dollar bill contains arsenic, cadmium, mercury, thallium, zinc and cyanide. One of many branches, the Chicago Federal Reserve bank by itself generates enough hazardous waste every day to fill an NBA basketball court to the rim. (Source) In 2008, the FED destroyed over $148.5 billion in unfit currency. (p. 8/50) The heavy metals are present to thwart counterfeiters, but ironically the Federal Reserve itself is the master counterfeiter whenever it expands the supply of dollars to assist Congress with its reckless spending.
What to use instead for cash? Fortunately, the US Mint already provides an alternative. Any household can purchase $1 Sacajawea or presidential coins and have them shipped free (well, at taxpayer expense to be fair) to your home. Orders can be made with credit cards, some of which will refund you a cashback amount from the transaction fees. Why is the government offering such a deal?
Well, the coin costs about 6 cents in metal and probably a few more cents in labor plus the shipping costs, but the replacement of $1 dollar bills in circulation outweighs the cost of printing new notes [5.3 cents for a $1 bill and 13.5 cents for a $100 bill (p. 31/50)] every few years and dumping the toxic shreds in an EPA-approved landfill.
However, the true hazard is the money-printing of the Federal Reserve. The time is fast approaching when the masses will wake up and realize inflation is a policy that does not last forever. The US Mint still produces pennies and nickels, even though they no longer hold any real purchasing power. The spot price for the metal contained in a $100 box of nickels is currently over $125. While the penny was debased to be 98% zinc in 1982, if you add the spot price of the metal and the coinage costs, it costs more than a penny to make a penny. Pre-1982 pennies? The copper spot price of these are 2.3 cents, over double their face value!
Why does the government continue to mint these coins at a loss? To not do so is a sign that the FED is losing control. The suppression of the gold price, as I warned last July when gold was $900 an ounce, also cannot last forever as it has risen nearly 30% since that date.
America stands on the precipice of a currency crisis, a massive sovereign debt default, that will rock our lives and ruin the lives of our children if we continue to leave the “stagnant quo” Establishment in power. The same Establishment that plunders well over 50% of all wealth produced by the American people to feed the dogs of war, its bloated bureaucratic salaries, and its reckless spending and sponsorship of corporate monopolies.
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Downsizing, defunding and decentralizing the federal government are the answers to our country’s woes. These very same actions will also result in environmental decisions being made on a local level, rather than having DC dictate to the States what they can and cannot do with their lands and natural resources. The States created the federal government, not vice versa, and were the true genius of the founding fathers. They believed the only way a strong central government could be held in check was to have the States all be sovereign, a point completely lost on modern-day career politicians who desire and act to control others.
The Whig Party, which was later resurrected as the Republican Party, was greatly influenced by Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton desired a nationalized central bank (such as the FED), a large national debt (check!), protectionist trade tariffs and regulations to favor select groups at the expense of all others (such as NAFTA, WTO, and rampant government-sponsored corporatism), and an aggressive, warlike foreign policy.
While both modern-day Republicans and Democrats favor these ruinous policies, the original Democrats were heavily influenced by Thomas Jefferson and to a large extent even George Washington. They favored sound money of gold and silver and no central bank, balanced budgets and no national debt, a system of free enterprise freed from government’s harmful economic interventions, equality for all under the rule of law, and a foreign policy of non-interventionism marked by “peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, and entangling alliances with none.”
The Hamiltonian policies have always led to overall national economic ruin; but with enormous profits for the gravy train favored by government. To stop the plunder and looting of the citizenry, these United States must return to Jeffersonian principles of a decentralized government.
[Other suggested reading: "Is the Dollar a Ponzi Scheme?" and "Freedom from Fascism."]
April 26, 2010
