
Debt and inflation are almost synonymous. All inflation is a form of dishonest debt. Basically, inflation is an expansion of the money supply by the state.
When a state “creates” money without backing it up with any real, tangible asset (such as gold, or land), is it a sin? Even worse, is it a sin which forces all of the state’s citizens to be involved in it whether they like it or not — simply because they have to use the fiat money?
The average American yawns at inflation because he or she does not understand its meaning nor its insidious purpose to enslave a free republic. “John Q” Citizen thinks inflation is a phenomenon that “just happens,” and politicians do what they can to fight it.
“A wagonload of money will scarcely purchase a wagonload of provisions,” George Washington complained in April 1779. A crumbling economy and the devastating impact of inflation, he believed, was a greater threat to the infant nation than British armies.
The Federal Reserve Bank (FRB) began operating in 1914. Since then the purchasing power of the dollar has decreased by 98%. This debauching of our monetary unit was the result of planned inflationary monetary policy; it was not a chance happening. Can we learn from history to protect the welfare of our families in the future?
I met R.J. Rushdoony at a 1962 summer conference sponsored by the Intercollegiate Society of Individualists (I.S.I.), which is now called the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.
Inflation is inevitable. At least, that is what politicians tell us. They do their best to fight inflation. When they fail, it is because inflation is apparently beyond their control. But what is this economic phenomenon that has plagued all countries around the world for the better part of this century?
Every modern civil government has three ways to raise funds. A government can tax, borrow, or print money. The last two are really extensions of the first.