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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kevin McGonigal, post: 2374268, member: 72790&quot;]True, but when the state compels its citizens to accept its paper as having value, it no longer has a value other than keeping the state off your back. If you think this impossible take a look at what the state of Connecticut did in the mid 1780&#039;s. It printed and distributed an avalanche of paper notes and made them legal tender by state fiat. Naturally the more notes it printed and threw into circulation the more reluctant Rhode Islanders became to accept it. When merchants refused to accept it R.I. passed laws making it a CRIME not to accept its money in commerce. Debtors mercilessly pursued their creditors to pay off their debts with worthless money. Oh, by the way, the penalty for not accepting R.I. fiat currency was confiscation of the merchants&#039; goods. This wrecked the R.I. economy and was probably the main reason why R.I. did not attend the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and only reluctantly ratified the new Constitution (which removed from the individual states the power to issue a paper currency)in 1790 and only after the US said it would treat R.I. as a foreign country if it did not ratify. Our whole monetary system is based on a house of cards, a willingness to accept the belief, some would say suspend reason, that paper is as valuable as tangible goods. And it is getting worse. Our &quot;money&quot; is rapidly being converted to digital bits with the ability of financial institutions (and government) to render it valueless with the press of a keystroke. Anyone who collects paper currency knows from the hundreds of varieties of obsolete notes, of collapsed currencies, of notes reneged on and repudiated by their issuing governments that putting faith in fiat currency is like putting faith in the promises of political leaders to keep their word (like debt ceilings). The possession of objects with tangible and useful elements, precious metals, precious stones, and some other, more controversial objects, render individuals independent of the state for their well being. The state hates this independence and will do whatever it needs to dispossess its citizens from these objects by making it seem foolish and &quot;old fashioned&quot; to want a currency based on anything but faith and credit. Fiat currency renders to the state an enormous reservoir of power. You think not? Those of you reading this post who are young enough will see it in your lifetime.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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