What’s
Wrong Today:
Lawmakers
in 13 states are trying to pass
legislation
that would allow their state government to issue their own currency as an
alternative to the US dollar. Unlike individual communities, which are allowed
to create their own currency, the Constitution
bans states from printing their own paper money or issuing their own currency. It
does allow the states to make “gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of
Debts.” To state legislators who are proposing state-issued
currencies, this clause means gold and silver are fair game as the basis of an
alternative currency.
And since
gold has grown more valuable relative to the U.S. dollar, the notion has appeal
to some state lawmakers who worry that the Federal Reserve has the U.S. dollar
on the brink of collapse. The states considering currency legislation include Minnesota,
Tennessee, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, South and North Carolina, Washington, Virginia
and Georgia. The legislatures in all
but one of these states (Washington) are controlled by the Republican Party.
Three years ago, only three states had similar proposals in the works.
These
proposals have been gaining steam among Tea Partiers and Republicans, some of
whom also endorse a nationwide return to the gold standard, which would
require the U.S. dollar to be backed by gold reserves. For example, Ron Paul is
sponsoring “The
Free Competition in Currency Act” which would allow states to
introduce their own currencies, while Newt Gingrich has called for a
commission
to look at how the country can get back to the gold standard.
Utah
became the first state to introduce its
own alternative currency when Governor Gary Herbert signed a bill into law last
March that recognized gold and silver coins issued by the U.S. Mint as an
acceptable form of payment.
So,
What’s Wrong?
These
people are trying to repeal both the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and that
portion of the Constitution that allows states to control the issuance of currency.
There have been times in our
history when we had no national bank and no national currency. They brought
about repeated periods of economic boom and bust.
Bad
enough, but this effort is a symptom of something much bigger. We’re
not dealing simply with a return to the gold standard or the repeal of the
Federal Reserve.
We’re dealing with the whole
perception of who we are as a nation, our place in the world, and how
we live. We’re looking at the end of trust as we know it. We are describing
the first steps in the reaction to a spreading loss of faith in institutions!
Consider this nice chart: We all know
that faith and trust in our institutions have been weakened. Where it shows up
most acutely is in institutions that have
authority over us and over which we feel we have little sway.
Polls like these show that we are
witnessing a massive de-legitimization of both our government AND our way of
life. For parallels, one would have to look at the nation during the “disruption
of democracy” between 1853 and 1860 or, during the great depression from
1929 to 1937.
This distrust,
ironically, plays into the hands of the powerful, since people need to have enough faith in each other to organize successfully
against vested interests to get their needs met.
Americans’ relationships
with organizations have always been tenuous. The relationship that we want to
be the most stable, our employment, is rapidly becoming quite fragile and in
too many cases, short.
Today, the most damaged lynchpin in American
life is our belief in the ability of America’s elected leaders to solve the
biggest problems facing the country. Government at all levels is paralyzed by
partisanship and ideology.
Both
parties are no longer responsive to public opinion that, in the past, would have
spurred them to achieve consensus. But, Congress hasn’t passed a budget,
arguably it’s most fundamental job, in three years and seems unlikely to do so
before the 2012 elections.
In the
past, America’s leaders could draw the nation together to solve problems. At another
moment of gaping income inequality, when the country was transitioning from a
farm economy to a manufacturing economy, President Theodore Roosevelt reminded
Americans in his 1905 inaugural address:
“…the tremendous
changes wrought by the extraordinary industrial development of the last half
century are felt in every fiber of our social and political being. Never before
have men tried so vast and formidable an experiment as that of administering
the affairs of a continent under the forms of a Democratic republic….To us, as
a people, it has been granted to lay the foundations of our national life…There
is no good reason why we should fear the future, but there is every reason why
we should face it seriously.” (emphasis by the
Wrongologist)
But, American politics in 2012 does not
encourage serious conversation. In particular,
how do we rebuild a sense of trust in our institutions, in ourselves
as a nation?
Do either the
sitting President, or the turnaround expert who pretends to that position possess
the skills and character to help us reverse course and move rapidly to restore
trust in our institutions and each other?
Do the American
people still have what it takes to engage in this serious conversation?
Mother, should I build the wall?
Mother, should I run for president?
Mother, should I trust the government?
“Mother”
The Wall – Pink Floyd
