Ron Paul devotee Rep. Dan Kaiser (R-3/Aberdeen) ran his first big nutty Libertarian/end-times bill up the committee pole yesterday. He told House Commerce and Energy to pass his House Bill 1100, a proposal to require the state to let Kaiser and Glenn Beck listeners trundle down to the courthouse with their wheelbarrows of gold and silver coins to pay their taxes. David Wiest of the Department of Revenue testified to say please, no. The committee listened and shot down this unrealistic, impractical idea that serves more to flog the religion of Ron Paul.
Libertarians like Rep. Kaiser use this gold and silver foolishness as a front for making their hopes for the collapse of the American government a self-fulfilling prophecy. How better to undermine confidence in the U.S. dollar (and drive up the value of that gold Glenn Beck told you to buy) than to force the government to create a new market for all that metal you have sitting in your bunker?
Freshman legislator Kaiser tells reporter David Montgomery that he's "going to focus on researching the issue to better address criticism next year." Don't waste your time, Dan: real research will only make it harder for you to defend your Ron Paul agenda. You might as well call my cousin Aaron and come back next year with a bill to require full-reserve banking.
Hmm... I wonder if U2 are Libertarians....
Me thinks you have this a little backworded Cory. How about wheelbarrows of worthless cash to pay taxes. At 30-50/silver and 1600-1800 gold it hardly takes wheelbarrows to do anything with metals.
Maybe next year he can come up with a bill that will let me pay my taxes in corn,coffee beans, salt or some other commodity. What a nightmare for the courthouses!!
Les, if things go south and we're living on Cormac McCarthy's Road, a wheelbarrow of paper dollars will be just as meaningful as a wheelbarrow of gold. Neither would stop the dudes with the big truck from shooting you to take your food.
You know, Barry, I would think it would make more sense to pay taxes with corn. The courthouse (and you and I) can at least use corn.
Libertarians need to admit that currency and government in general work.
Mercer almost gets it:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/news/aan-advocates-argue-marijuana-is-a-medical-necessity-20130131,0,2444046.story
The Road if taken seriously might be a good reason for an armed populace Cory. Believing as I do most humans are intrinsically good, you would be eating the bad, just to whet your appetite a bit.
There is a saying, deliver an equal share to all of society and the same folks holding all the cash will hold it again. You might want your children to inherit a few precious coins for food or to buy their way out of that which toilet paper won't buy.
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I think Mercer gets it as do many more than are publicly supporting the issue. Its a spine issue, or lack there of.
The Road seems to contend that our inherent goodness will give way to our inherent hunger in a world without a social contract. Survivalism is a waste of energy better spent on shoring up civil society. But if I'm expending any effort on prepping for the Hobbesian state of nature, I stockpile guns and knives (big knives) long before I stockpile gold and silver.
"But if I'm expending any effort on prepping for the Hobbesian state of nature, I stockpile guns and knives (big knives) long before I stockpile gold and silver."
Don't forget the bicycle parts
Libertarians make such a small percentage of the population, I really don't understand why you would wish change on them Corey. I believe all currencies have failed at this point. Our dollar went from a gold/silver standard, to a value at the end of a gun barrel. It appears the currency failures of history and in the making have little value in your mindset while you invoke fiction.
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Does this then explain why Germany cannot happen again due to our higher moral ground, better education and the heart for "freedom" Americans possess?
...and bike parts! (That's right: I can fight or flee! Keep those tools available!)
"All currencies have failed at this point"? My $10 worked fine last night. How do you pay your employees, in chickens?
Any currency can collapse. Our society could fall apart à la McCarthy or Kunstler. But again, why make policy to prepare for that collapse instead of working to prevent it from happening?
Gold's value is as illusory as that of the paper in my billfold or of my credit cards. It's more historically/culturally ingrained illusion ("ooo, pretty!") but it's still an illusion. So is most of the political "philosophy" of Libertarians, on whom I wish a change toward reality-based politics.
I hope you're not teaching the same twist on French you use with the English language Corey.
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This started with a wheel barrow full of gold and now has you talking about chickens from a previous comment or two on fiction.
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Ask grandma if she still lives, how her cash savings account is holding its purchasing power together.
Les, when I teach French, I freely mix metaphors. The crazier the comparison, the more chance someone will remember. Ask my kids about sheep verbs and the lady butcher being light as air.
I know a dollar isn't worth as much as it used to be. But do you really want to revert to an economy where wealth is tied to the metal we have in our pocket? Would that really make our lives better? Why don't you pay your employees in gold and silver?
LOL. I'm no wonder of perfection with the language as you can see. Lets eat grandma.