There was a time in our country when our money was our property. It was more thanjust a medium of exchange or an economic instrument; it was, in a very real sense,property. When a man labored he received compensation in value equal to his work,his produce or his creativity; the money he earned was his property, just asanything else he owned. He could be assured that his money was a store of realvalue, he could spend it as he pleased, he could store in a bank, stuff it in hismattress or bury it in a mason jar in his back yard and it was no ones businessbut his own. He could be confident in the value of his money, that he could digthat Mason jar from the ground years later and still have money that kept anequivalent value as when he buried it, it was real money, sound money and it washis private property. He could be assured that his government could not confiscateit, track it or regulate it once it was in his hands; it was real property, hisproperty. He need not worry about whether he carried a suitcase full of it fromcity to city, state to state or country to country because it was, without anyequivocation, his property to do with what he wanted.In our Constitutional Republic, the Founders were well aware of the potentialdangers involving the nation's currency and with that knowledge they gave us withsome extremely strong admonitions concerning the value of money as property. Theyhad experienced the results of unsound money and knew that monetary instabilitywould not only threaten the nation's economic freedom, but all freedoms andliberties enjoyed by the people.In the preliminary draft of our Constitution the following words were considered:"To borrow money and emit bills [fiat currency] on the credit of the UnitedStates." The wording however, was struck from the final document and for goodreason. Due to the Founders knowledge of history and even their experience withthe "Continentals", they knew the danger that emitting such bills posed to thenation and the value of the monetary property of the People. Indeed, it was morethan just the monetary property Rights, but all Rights of the People thatconcerned the Founders; for they were aware that if the monetary system was evercorrupted that the entire system could be corrupted.In fact, there were some in the Constitutional Convention that believed that itwould be better to discard the entire Constitution instead of allowing "and emitbills" to remain. The passion concerning the ability of Congress to "emit bills"was so powerful because the Founders knew that such ability had the potential toundermine the Republic.The cardinal rule of money as real property is essential for a Free People; absentthat cardinal rule the government assumes powers that will always infringe uponthe Rights of the People. As we have seen, when money is little more than animpotent instrument of exchange, monopolized and regulated by the government thenthe government is; apparently, free to treat it as such. The government can debaseit, confiscate it, control it, track it and basically manipulate it to benefit anyagenda it pleases.Is it any wonder why the Founders were so concerned about taxation withoutrepresentation? Such taxation allowed the King's government to tax the fruit ofthe people's labor indiscriminately. It totally ignored their property rights andamounted to open robbery of the people's private property. Today, we have thesemblance of representation, but in reality those we elect rarely consider ourconsent when crafting legislation. Perhaps if we actually considered what hastaken place over the last century we would once again raise our arms in revolutionand cast out those who should be considered nothing more than common criminalsacting for their own benefit instead of that of the people.Through the years our financial privacy has been invaded through a system that has
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