Posted on 09/09/2009 4:22:29 AM PDT by decimon
In December 1921, the American industrialist Henry Ford and the inventor Thomas Edison visited the Muscle Shoals nitrate and water power projects near Florence, Alabama. They used the opportunity to articulate at length upon their alternative money theories, which were published in 2 reports which appeared in The New York Times on December 4, 1921 and December 6, 1921.
Objecting to the fact that the Government planned, as usual, to raise the money by issuing bonds which would be bought by the banking and non-banking sector -- which would then have to be paid back with money raised from taxes, and with interest added -- they proposed instead that the Government simply create the currency it required and spend it into society through this public project.
This is also the Prosperity proposal.
Thomas Edison made it plain in the following excerpt from The New York Times, December 6, 1921 issue ("Ford Sees Wealth In Muscle Shoals").
You can download the archived article at this link which opens as a pdf http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=3&res=9C04E0D7103EEE3ABC4E53DFB467838A639EDE
Here, the reporter is quoting Edison:
"That is to say, under the old way any time we wish to add to the national wealth we are compelled to add to the national debt.
"Now, that is what Henry Ford wants to prevent. He thinks it is stupid, and so do I, that for the loan of $30,000,000 of their own money the people of the United States should be compelled to pay $66,000,000 -- that is what it amounts to, with interest. People who will not turn a shovelful of dirt nor contribute a pound of material will collect more money from the United States than will the people who supply the material and do the work. That is the terrible thing about interest. In all our great bond issues the interest is always greater than the principal. All of the great public works cost more than twice the actual cost, on that account. Under the present system of doing business we simply add 120 to 150 per cent, to the stated cost.
"But here is the point: If our nation can issue a dollar bond, it can issue a dollar bill. The element that makes the bond good makes the bill good. The difference between the bond and the bill is that the bond lets the money brokers collect twice the amount of the bond and an additional 20 per cent, whereas the currency pays nobody but those who directly contribute to Muscle Shoals in some useful way.
" ... if the Government issues currency, it provides itself with enough money to increase the national wealth at Muscles Shoals without disturbing the business of the rest of the country. And in doing this it increases its income without adding a penny to its debt.
"It is absurd to say that our country can issue $30,000,000 in bonds and not $30,000,000 in currency. Both are promises to pay; but one promise fattens the usurer, and the other helps the people. If the currency issued by the Government were no good, then the bonds issued would be no good either. It is a terrible situation when the Government, to increase the national wealth, must go into debt and submit to ruinous interest charges at the hands of men who control the fictitious values of gold.
"Look at it another way. If the Government issues bonds, the brokers will sell them. The bonds will be negotiable; they will be considered as gilt edged paper. Why? Because the government is behind them, but who is behind the Government? The people. Therefore it is the people who constitute the basis of Government credit. Why then cannot the people have the benefit of their own gilt-edged credit by receiving non-interest bearing currency on Muscle Shoals, instead of the bankers receiving the benefit of the people's credit in interest-bearing bonds?"
Please print out, photocopy and distribute these articles. Also copy and paste them to emails, and circulate widely, and please include all the essential contact information below. Thank you.
Essential Further Reading: PROSPERITY: Freedom from Debt Slavery is a 4-page quarterly Journal which campaigns for publicly-created debt-free money. PROSPERITY is edited and published by Alistair McConnachie and a 4-issue subscription is available for £10 payable to PROSPERITY at 268 Bath Street, Glasgow, Scotland, UK, G2 4JR. Tel: 0141 332 2214; Fax: 0141 353 6900, Email: contactus AT ProsperityUK DOT com http://www.ProsperityUK.com All back-issues are still available. The 40-page Report, Clarifying our Money Reform Proposals, launched at the 2006 Bromsgrove Conference, is available for £10 payable to PROSPERITY and is essential reading for beginners.
The Grip of Death: A study of modern money, debt slavery and destructive economics by Michael Rowbotham, [Jon Carpenter Publishing, 1998] and Goodbye America! Globalisation, debt and the dollar empire by Michael Rowbotham, [Jon Carpenter Publishing, 2000] and Creating New Money: A monetary reform for the information age by Joseph Huber and James Robertson [New Economics Foundation, 2000] are all available from PROSPERITY.
The NYT article from 1921 is a PDF: Edison.
Edison, so smart in some things, so stupid in others.
Below is from George Washington’s Farewell Address!
Warns against the party system.
“It serves to distract the Public Councils, and
enfeeble the Public Administration..agitates the
Community with ill-founded jealousies and false
alarms; kindles the animosity of one..against another.
it opens the door to foreign influence and corruption.
thus the policy and the will of one country are
subjected to the policy and will of another.”
Stresses the importance of religion and morality.
“Where is the security for property, for reputation,
for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert
the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation
in Courts of Justice?”
On stable public credit.
“...cherish public credit.
One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly
as possible..avoiding likewise the accumulation of
debt..it is essential that you...bear in mind, that
towards the payments of debts there must be Revenue,
that to have Revenue there must be taxes; that no
taxes can be devised, which are not...inconvenient
and unpleasant...”
Warns against permanent foreign alliances.
“It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent
alliances with any portion of the foreign world...”
Is this stupid? The issuance of additional currency or the issuance of additional debt increases the money supply. The latter more increases the money supply.
Both are by fiat.
I am not a learned man to the degree I can say I know all that the founders of this nation have said but every time I read something like this it becomes apparent that they really knew what they were talking about.
actual money by fiat is better than debt by fiat...why is that so hard to see?
Better yet would have been Ford, with a little help from his friends, fronting the money himself.
I caught a bit of Hannity's show yesterday. He was talking about a new idea being floating in the House now where the IRS would issue gubmint savings bonds instead of cash for income tax refunds. I'm pretty sure I heard this right. Has anyone else heard of this "plan"?
Printing money is inflationary. Selling bonds isn’t unless the bonds are monitized.
Edison wasn’t really all that smart. He thought that alternating current would confuse the electrons. Tesla was the smarts of his operation. Tesla gave us the whole electric grid concept, as well as the AC motor.
Debt is money.
no, debt is debt that needs paid back with outrageous interest to banks that are not run by the u.s. government and answer to no one.
If debt were money, it would be called money.
if debt were money, why do folks go bankrupt for incurring too much debt?
Not if it's paid for through taxes.
Fiat = decree and especially by legal authority (government). Fiat money is money brought into being by decree. How that decreed money is brought into being is irrelevant.
Why do you now less respect Edison?
Printing money to “raise funds” is foolish, inflationary and devalues the currency. Now that I think of it, it’s consistent with Edison’s other actions which suggest that the ends justify the means.
Government debt is the same.
New debt is created. From nothing but that debt, monies are paid for a project. That's new money. That's expanding the money supply (printing money).
Yup. One being a bad idea doesn’t make the other one good.
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