Posted on 12/01/2019 3:22:12 AM PST by Openurmind
A bill filed in advance of the next legislative session would make gold and silver legal tender again in the state of South Carolina.
State Representative Stewart O. Jones submitted legislation that would restore gold and silver to their status as legal tender in his state.
In an op-ed written in October, Representative Jones set out the sound economic principles that support his proposed statute:
To understand the full extent of the debt and the destruction of the dollar, its essential to realize that paper money has a history of being printed as bills of credit to finance runaway government. In 1775, the founders attempted to use paper money without gold or silver backing, and they found that the inflation robbed them of any value. In 1788, Thomas Jefferson wrote: Paper is poverty. It is only the ghost of money, and not money itself.
The Coinage Act of 1792 then set specific ratios for gold and silver coinage, placing gold and silver in control rather than a central bank. This lasted until the passage of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, which allowed for the formation of the Federal Reserve System just two decades before Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt started to come after private ownership of gold and silver in the 1930s. In 1944, the Bretton Woods system made the US dollar the reserve currency of the world, when it was still partially backed by gold and silver.
Finally, in 1971, the Nixon Administration suspended wages, issued price controls, and canceled dollar-to-gold convertibility, completing the final step in ending the gold standard. This gave the central government planners and the federal reserve the power to print money without restraint. This is how the national debt has been able to reach the levels that it has. The only thing backing the US dollar today is public debt.
Apparently economic literacy is not a prerequisite for public office. However this gentleman should familiarize himself with the constitution. Article I Section VIII gives this power exclusively to Congress not some state legislature.
Those folks in South Carolina have always been an adventuresome sort.
The U.S. Constitution does not prohibit states from setting up parallel monetary structures does it?
No it doesn’t, and a couple other states have already done this from what I understand. They are not “coining” they are only recognizing it as a valid form of currency. And it already is in reality, so they are just formally recognizing it.
Yes, that’s my understanding as well. Here in Texas, we have our own gold depository.
https://www.texasbulliondepository.gov/
Of course, they are only legal tender for face value, and since Congress has the exclusive authority to "coin money and regulate the value thereof", these state legal tender laws are unconstitutional, to the extent that they assign a value to gold coins other than the value set by Congress.
But if you want to pay a $50 fine with $1500 worth of gold, you can do so right now anywhere in the US.
Louisiana , Utah, Texas, Az, Wyoming, Kansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Tennessee, Indiana, South Carolina...
I think the main reason is for taxes...
“The actual laws being passed by these states are very simple. They recognize gold and silver as currency and therefore it is free from taxation. So when a citizen buys precious metals and over time they appreciate in value against the dollar, it is not viewed as a capital gain and is therefore not taxed.
The inflation tax on every person holding “fiat money” whittles away at his or her savings and the future purchasing power of their assets. While the dollar (The Federal Reserve Note) has lost more than 97% of its purchasing power since the Federal Reserve System was created in 1913, gold and silver have acted as a much better store of value, rising 60 and 20-fold, respectively, in their dollar-denominated price.
Devaluation of fiat money is no accident. Even John Maynard Keynes, the economist who developed today’s economic playbook for central planning through monetary policy, confessed: “By a continuing process of inflation, government can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.”
With an ever increasing number of states choosing to accept gold as legal tender they are signaling that the financial structure of the current system may be weakening and are preparing an alternative for their citizens if that structure falters or fails.”
To print and coin its own currency. Silver and gold are recognized world wide as legal tender.
If you want to use a silver dollar to buy $1 worth of goods I believe you are already free to do that.
Sure, and there is no law against a vendor offering spot melt value, or just under spot melt value worth of goods for that silver dollar if they like as an exchange rate against the U.S. Dollar.
If you'd like to be on or off the South Carolina ping list, just click Private Reply below and drop me a FReepmail.
The United States Constitution states in Article I, Section 10, “No state shall...make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts.”
But it IS illegal to then not pay sales tax on that transaction, or income tax on the profit on the goods sold.
A gold eagle is US currency as is a silver dollar.
Exactly.
Thanks Openurmind. Better than expending political capital on something more important.
“Apparently economic literacy is not a prerequisite for public office. However this gentleman should familiarize himself with the constitution. Article I Section VIII gives this power exclusively to Congress not some state legislature.”
Actually, maybe YOU should read the US Constitution.
“Section 10.
No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; “
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.