Resistance to taxation persists in pockets, yet the quiet acceptance of counterfeiting—a more subtle economic siphon—largely escapes scrutiny.  When money is printed, the supply of real goods remains unchanged.  This freshly conjured currency funnels wealth to the early recipients while diluting the purchasing power of everyone else.  Taxation, with all its limitations, can only be raised to a point.  Beyond that, revenue begins to dwindle as the burden stifles productivity.  To sustain spending beyond this limit, states resort to printing or borrowing.  These funds come through the banks, who ensure repayment schemes are feasible, while a well-oiled machine of experts and propagandists rationalize the practice as necessary and sound.

To maintain this façade, a monopoly over the issuance of currency is vital.  Without it, competing institutions would expose the hollow reserves backing demand deposits, triggering mass doubt.  This is why the state enforces a banking cartel.  Another issue that arises is the inherent cost of gold—mining it is expensive.  To escape this constraint, gold was gradually supplanted with paper, dramatically reducing the production cost of money.  This mirrors the scene in Goethe’s Faust, where Mephistopheles seduces the emperor into printing paper money.  Unlike the play, our reality has accepted this fiction without the self-awareness of satire.

What’s more, this new money, backed only by the state’s decree, can be exchanged for tangible goods.  A privilege of counterfeiting rests solely with central authorities, leading to an obvious motive for monopolizing monetary control.  The ease of printing money is matched only by the difficulty in understanding why such a system was embraced and remains so entrenched.  One might think that, upon its inception, the public would resist a scheme so clearly disadvantageous.  Yet, history shows otherwise.  Since 1913, the year the Federal Reserve was established, resistance has been minimal.  It’s a testament to how public ignorance, rather than awareness, has fueled acquiescence.

The passage of the Federal Reserve Act was swift and bolstered by rhetoric cloaked in intellectual elitism.  Phrases like “backwards,” “primitive,” and “barbarous relic” were flung at dissenters.  The most sophisticated argument was that money under a gold standard wasn’t “elastic” enough—essentially a euphemism for the system’s inability to print money on demand.  Wrapped in layers of jargon, this was promoted as a scientific imperative, meant to be understood and managed by an exclusive few.  Yet, this was no argument; it was a rationale for enabling sanctioned counterfeiting.

The alchemists of old pursued the dream of transmuting base metals into gold.  Modern financial architects have exceeded them, turning mere paper into economic power.  That this legalized counterfeiting has persisted for so long is astonishing.  While dissenting voices occasionally pierce through the noise, they’re often buried under the weight of institutional propaganda and state-centric education.  It’s as if society has been spellbound, with a system so cunning that even Mephistopheles himself would admire its ingenuity.

References

Hans-Hermann Hoppe; The Great Fiction

Murray Rothbard; What Has The Government Done to Our Money

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; Faust – Parts I&II