Individuals issuing their own currencies is a recipe for disaster. It means that there would be little to no stability in our economy, and little ability for the government to tame bubbles or mitigate recessions. The economic problems in Greece are a good example of what happens when a nation can't control its own monetary policy. Greece badly needs to devalue its currency, but it doesn't have one, so it will be stuck in a recession for years.
Bubbles, recessions, inflation, are largely symptomatic of fiat currency. This does not happen as easily with commodity backed currencies.
You'd think we'd have learned our lesson the first time...
The United States Constitution does not mention paper money by that name. Nor does it refer to paper currency or fiat money in those words. There is only one direct reference to the origins of what we, and they, usually call paper money. It is in the limitations on the power of the states in Article I, Section 10. It reads, “No State shall . . . emit Bills of Credit . . . .” Paper that was intended to circulate as money but was not redeemable in gold and silver was technically described as bills of credit at that time. The description was (and is) apt. Such paper is a device for expanding the credit of the issuer. There is also an indirect reference to the practice in the same section of the Constitution. It reads, “No State shall . . . make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts . . . .” Legal tender laws, in practice, are an essential expedient for making unredeemable paper circulate as money. Except for the one direct and one indirect reference to the origin and means for circulating paper money, the Constitution is silent on the question.
The Constitution And Paper Money – Tenth Amendment Center
This is an awesome read... I encourage all to spend the time.
Individuals issuing their own currency is definitely not a good idea on so many levels. However, paper to facilitate trade among peoples I don't have much of a problem with, and in many respects, encourage.
Most of these systems are designed not so much to undermine our worthless debt based fiat currency, but to send a clear message to congress that they have abdicated their constitutional duty to issue money based on gold and silver only.
This talk of anti-governmental terrorism is extremely dangerous to We the People, and very telling of the shift from gov't being servants of the People, and the We the People become subjects of the gov't. It is our right and our duty to undermine, dismantle or replace our gov't if it ever ceases to be a servant of the People and wholly disregards it's duty to keep the Public Trust they have been given.
Not only do I think it's wrong for individuals to issue paper money, it's even more wrong for our government to do so. That's the bottom line.
All this talk of destabilizing our monetary system is a joke... our monetary system is fiat, a ghost, not real, based on belief in value, rooted in debt not wealth. Owning more "dollars", merely means owning more of the collective debt owed the Federal Reserve by We the People, spent by our elected public servants. It's not wealth.
Tell me... if the Fed creates every dollar (paper at a cost of about $0.07 a bill, electronically essentially free) and then charges interest on the money it creates and loans to us for use... where does the money come from to pay that interest back? The Fed then prints more money...
Each dollar in circulation has about 2-3% of it's original value when the Federal Reserve System was enacted. How much longer do you think it can hold on before a complete devaluation?
Read the article... the founders knew what they were doing... and tried to warn us.