George Washington once said "To ensure both prosperity and SECURITY, look to public debt" (emphasis added)
What does debt have to do with security? Well, think about it for a moment-when people, or governments, buy government debt they are investing in the government, and are looking at the government as a cash cow. Treasury bonds offer interest-money that comes from taxes-on the debt bought by individuals and governments. OK, well then, what does that have to do with security? Obviously governments who have invested in other governments don't have an interest in the government they invested in failing-meaning that China is at least a little less likely to nuke Denver on a whim. But that's not all.
The most dangerous segment of any society to a government is the wealthy-they are the one's that can afford to finance insurrections, set up counter governments, or otherwise challenge the legitimacy of the government. Well, what do you do about it? Wealthy people like to remain wealthy, and potentially expand their wealth-and the government is in a unique position to offer the wealthy an extraordinarily secure investment(since it is secured by the taxes extracted from the peons at the point of guns paid for with the investment of the wealthy),that will not only permit the government to spend surreptitiously, but gives the people who might have the means( and egos) to challenge governmental authority a reason to behave beyond mystical patriotism. Bonds, especially municipal bonds, have tax benefits for investors, to make the deal even sweeter.
Before you think this is one of those things to be relegated to history, remember Osama bin Laden is a billionaire who choose not to behave(though I bet he held US debt up until 9/11) And think of the trouble people like Bill Gates, or Warren Buffet could cause if they decided to oppose the US government-they won't, however, because the government gives them a portion of your paycheck in the form of interest. Talk about transferring wealth!
Here's Jefferson on the subject- "The mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God."
And Alan Greenspan before he sold out to the State "In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. ... This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists' tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the statists' antagonism toward the gold standard."
They called this feudalism, and the state of most people serfdom, back in the "dark" ages-at least they were honest.
I thought this was worth a mention-I can tell you from personal experience that if you can get a liberal or even a conservative to understand that their taxes go in large part to the wealthy holders of public debt, you have a convert to liberty. It's one of those things-once you see it, you are never the same-securing private investment through force is the best proof of the evil inherent in the State that I know.
Mike
