America's Money: Not What it Seems

Try this: hold a U.S. $10 bill in your hand. Now ask yourself: am I holding $10?

The answer is: no, you're not holding $10. You're holding a piece of paper. That piece of paper merely represents $10. It's like an I.O.U. note. (And by the way, America's money isn't U.S. government money. It's Federal Reserve money that is printed by the U.S. government) [1].

There is a vast amount of difference between actually holding $10 in your hand, and holding a piece of paper in your hand. Think of a small nugget of gold vs. a piece of paper: one has actual, physical worth, but the other doesn't.

However, if the $10 bill-in-question was backed 100% by gold, then you would indeed be holding "real" money. You would be holding $10 [2].

Because America's money is no longer backed by any precious metal (gold, silver, etc.), it is known as "fiat" money. Fiat money is not the same as America's older, so-called "representative" paper money because it cannot be exchanged for, say, silver, as in a silver certificate, which looks like regular cash but says "silver certificate" at the top of it.

So why is America's cash valuable if it isn't backed by anything of value? The answer is: because most people have reasonable faith in American money still being "good" next week or next month. That confidence is the sole reason for the value of American money today.

Fiat money can be dangerous under certain circumstances - in addition to it already being inflationary [3]. For example, if a natural disaster ever strikes America and ruins our economy, our fiat money will be nearly worthless in a couple of different ways: 1) the personal savings of the average citizen will be wiped out due to massive inflation, e.g., if a citizen has $20,000 in a bank, it will no longer be worth that amount (whereas $20,000 worth of gold would retain its value; in fact, gold is basically inflation-proof); 2) America will not be able to buy necessary goods from other countries with cash, since, again, our cash isn't backed by anything valuable and would therefore be more-or-less worthless to other countries. So fiat money is not a very good idea. It only benefits powerful people and powerful institutions.

Of course, we Americans can thank the Jewish money-magicians for our current inflationary, fiat money system [4].








[1] the Federal Reserve is a private-but-regulated entity

[2] for example, if $75 billion dollars worth of gold was in a U.S. government vault, and then the government recalled all of the current Federal Reserve notes, and then, government mints only printed $75 billion dollars worth of new, "gold certificate," U.S. government cash, and then the Federal Reserve only distributed that new, gold certificate cash, then a $10 bill would be 100% backed by gold and would therefore be worth $10. Just as if it were a small, gold nugget, it would have "real" worth. And, of course, it would not be Federal Reserve money but instead U.S. government money

[3] Here

[4] Here

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