I’m sure a minority of folks in the US would be unhappy about such an event, but the 2012 election indicates the majority would care or wouldn’t be affected.
Forget overt theft. They’ve been at it for decades through intentional inflation. Sure, they leave your money in the account, but they run off with its purchasing power.
The gold confiscation was a bit trickier than that.
The Act of April 2, A.D. 1792 of the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, Section 9 defined the dollar as a unit of pure silver weighing 371 4/16th grains (24.057 grams).
Even after Roosevelt’s gold confiscation, dollar holders could readily exchange a federal reserve note or a silver certificate for a 90% silver dollar that weighed 26.73 grams. That is, a dollar holder could exchange paper currency for a coin with a dollar’s worth of silver, 24.057 grams pure silver.
Americans had less reason to distrust the government back in the 1930’s. The government claimed that gold had to be nationalized to overcome the Depression. Since they still could get a dollar’s worth of silver for a dollar, they were comfortable about exchanging gold for currency.
The real ripoff happened in the 1960s, when the government quit redeeming dollars for silver.
Nixon finally capped the dollar when he formally quit even pretending that it was worth anything in particular.
The average idiot doesn’t care.
When this happens here it will be framed as protecting the poor against the evil 1%.
The people who worked hard and honestly will be hurt. 0bama’s voters will benefit.
Back in the last post-Nixon gold run up, there was a story about that confiscation. It seems that two brothers were either tipped off or could see the handwriting and converted $20,000 worth of Gold Notes into coin. Weeks after Roosevelt's announcement, the Feds tracked the brothers down and make 'em turn in the gold for paper money. They took it all the way to the Supreme Court, who said there was nothing wrong with that since they got $20,000 in paper for the $20,000 in gold. Justice Roberts must have had an ancestor in that court.
Anyone who has a savings account in this country has been and continues to be “fleeced” by near-zero interest rates. The U.S. government’s strategy is different from the Cyprus model but the result is the same.