County Currency As Strategic Liberty

[jabowery]

Definition:

county currency: a currency issued by a county government that it accepts in payment of taxes.

The county currency plank currently before the Iowa GOP Platform Committee:

Transactions conducted in county currencies shall not be subject to Federal or State taxes.

Preliminary legislative statement of resolve:

WHEREAS freedom is founded on independence, and

WHEREAS independence is founded on self-sufficiency, and

WHEREAS self-sufficiency is vital to security, and

WHEREAS global interdependence has proven to be a threat to national security,

Discussion

"Main street" is facing a crisis in underutilization of local assets, including human labor. The price of these assets is being propped up from the top, while financial resources to purchase them remains unavailable to "main street".

The Federal Reserve is making low interest rates unavailable to "main street" while allowing an inflated money supply to "trickle down" from global financial elites who enjoy those low interest rates. With this borrowed money the global financial elites enjoy uninflated prices as they buy up inflation-resistant assets that are underutilized due to economic malaise. This hoarding of inflation-resistant assets with an inflated money supply, happens as that inflated money supply then trickles down to "main street" by which time price inflation has rendered those assets out of reach. Moreover, this is a global phenomena affecting global supply chains, including supplies of capital ultimately producing sovereign debt crises such as that emerging in Europe and is likely to emerge in the United States -- particularly if Ron Paul is not elected President and, on his coat-tails, a Congress that honors their oaths to the Constitution.

It is, therefore only prudent to prepare for disruption of global supply chains in the not-too-distant future. This can be thought of as buying insurance against such disruption. Moreover, there is an immediate need to address local economic distress -- particularly as it pertains to underutilization of human capital and provision of basic human needs as is evidenced, for example, by the explosion in dependence on federally funded food assistance programs.

Local production of basic human needs by underutilized local human capital is an obvious remedy to such dependence on federal programs.
Barter is one obvious option, eg: volunteering labor to food producers in exchange for food. However, housing costs are less amenable to such barter, and those costs exceed the cost of food for a typical person. Then there are utility bills, etc. Clearly mortgage lenders dependent on the Federal Reserve for "liquidity" cannot engage in barter for housing -- nor can land lords who live outside the locale. Even local land lords would have difficulty properly utilizing the labor of their tenants, so bartering labor for housing is not practical, even for land lords living in the community.

What is needed is local money that local land lords will value. If local land lords value it, local food producers will value it. If local land lords and food producers value it, the economic foundation for local utilization of underutilized assets will exist.

What do local land lords value? Money that can pay property taxes. That means the county government must accept the local money (as well as federal money) in payment of county taxes. Moreover, this means the county government will tend to demand control over the issuance of the local money. Hence, "county currency".

Strategically, this is far more than a mere palliative to a crisis:

As described in the statement of resolve, increasing localization of critical dependencies also increases liberty.

If even one State passes this legislation and unburdens its county governments of only State taxes on sales and income in county currencies, it will revolutionize political economics by example.

[Travlyr]

Who gets to be in charge of printing it? I will do it if nobody else has already offered.

[jabowery]

Who gets to be in charge of printing it? I will do it if nobody else has already offered.

As stated in the article:

county currency: a currency issued by a county government that it accepts in payment of taxes.

and

Moreover, this means the county government will tend to demand control over the issuance of the local money. Hence, "county currency".

Thanks for responding.

PS: My interpretation of your obvious snark and reckless reading of my article is you have contempt for the idea because you believe that no one should be allowed to issue money that isn't tied to some commodity. You are far more likely to convince your county government to back its currency with gold than you are the Federal government. Moreover, if the county in which you reside decides to be irresponsible with its local monetary authority, you currently cannot be stopped from moving to a county that either supports commodity-backed county currency, or continues to rely on Federal Reserve notes exclusively.

[Travlyr]

As stated in the article:

county currency: a currency issued by a county government that it accepts in payment of taxes.

and

Moreover, this means the county government will tend to demand control over the issuance of the local money. Hence, "county currency".

Thanks for responding.

Do you see how that empowers the county at the expense of the people? And it is unconstitutional.

[Travlyr]

As stated in the article:

county currency: a currency issued by a county government that it accepts in payment of taxes.

and

Moreover, this means the county government will tend to demand control over the issuance of the local money. Hence, "county currency".

Thanks for responding.

PS: My interpretation of your obvious snark and reckless reading of my article is you have contempt for the idea because you believe that no one should be allowed to issue money that isn't tied to some commodity. You are far more likely to convince your county government to back its currency with gold than you are the Federal government. Moreover, if the county in which you reside decides to be irresponsible with its local monetary authority, you currently cannot be stopped from moving to a county that either supports commodity-backed county currency, or continues to rely on Federal Reserve notes exclusively.

100% redeemable commodity money is the only incorruptible money. Giving any government counterfeiting privileges always ends poorly.

The point I was making is that whoever gets control over the money supply controls the people. If you are fine with your county leaders controlling your life, then it is fine with me because I don't live in your county and I wouldn't. What you can expect is for your county leaders to get rich at the expense of the citizens of the county. That's the way control over the money supply always works.

"Since the paper tickets—dollars, francs, pounds sterling, or what have you—are issued by the government, the government can issue any amount it arbitrarily chooses. Counterfeiting is built into the system, and hence so is inflation and eventual destruction of the currency." - Murray N. Rothbard

[WilliamC]

More local control versus Federal control is good, when it comes to whatever laws we are talking about.

While I am not passing judgement on this particular issue without thinking about it more, I'd far rather have the strongest government I interact with be my County government rather than the State or Federal or (heaven forbid) some Global government.

Ultimately the goal is some sort of pure voluntarianism but I see that requiring the same kind of change in human nature that communism does, so I have a hard time imagining peaceful anarchy. With that said the concept of Federalism, and of divided government in general, is more appealing than the monolithic Federal government we have today.

If a county wanted to do all it's business in chickens and corn whiskey doesn't matter so long as it's a County law and the State government itself deals in gold and silver as currently required by the US Constitution.

But the County should not be allowed to set the rate of exchange of chicken and corn whiskey to that of gold and silver, that is the proper role of the free market. If there were arbitrage opportunities to be found then enterprising individuals would rapidly do so.

[jabowery]

Do you see how that empowers the county at the expense of the people? And it is unconstitutional.

What I see is that it empowers counties at the expense of the Federal Reserve and global financial elites. This is a lot closer to empowering the people than the present state of affairs. Moreover a county government can choose a commodity, like gold, as its county currency under this legislation.

And it is constitutional. There is nothing in the US Constitution that bars any county from issuing county currency under any backing it likes. To read the restriction on the States to only gold and silver as applying its Counties is an over-reach similar to other over-reaching interpretations of the US Constitution that centralize power.

[jabowery]

But the County should not be allowed to set the rate of exchange of chicken and corn whiskey to that of gold and silver, that is the proper role of the free market. If there were arbitrage opportunities to be found then enterprising individuals would rapidly do so.

The County is bound to set a market exchange rate between its currency and federal currency due to the fact that federal currency is declared "valid for all debts public and private". In other words, if a county's tax laws were stated in terms of its county currency, it would be required by federal law to declare a monetary exchange whose rate would determine the value of federal dollars in terms of county currency.

[WilliamC]

100% redeemable commodity money is the only incorruptible money. Giving any government counterfeiting privileges always ends poorly.

The point I was making is that whoever gets control over the money supply controls the people. If you are fine with your county leaders controlling your life, then it is fine with me because I don't live in your county and I wouldn't. What you can expect is for your county leaders to get rich at the expense of the citizens of the county. That's the way control over the money supply always works.

This is only true if the Counties are allowed to print currency not backed by some commodity, such as the land they control. Yes this leads to Georgist ideas but again so long as we are talking about Counties and (to a lessor extent States) then a large amount of experimentation should be tolerated and even encouraged.

People will vote with their feet, and those Counties (and States to a lessor extent) that somehow manage to have the 'best' taxation system will attract more people, while those that have 'worse' tax systems will lose people.

Obviously there is just as much possibility of corruption at the State and County level of government as at the Federal level, but to me a great start would be empowering the State governments at the expense of the Federal government as a way to reducing the total amount of government.

Ultimately, the 'people' will be better able to get the kind of taxation and services 'they' desire, so long as the costs are not nationalized or globalized or redistributed.

[WilliamC]

The County is bound to set a market exchange rate between its currency and federal currency due to the fact that federal currency is declared as for "all debts public and private". In other words, if a county's tax laws were stated in terms of its county currency, it would be required by federal law to declare a monetary exchange whose rate would determine the value of federal dollars in terms of county currency.

So long as the Federal government enforces legal tender laws that will be true, but what about the hypothetical situation where there are no legal tender laws and the Federal government merely enforces measures and weights and coinage laws?

Passing the buck as it were, or the legal authority to enact a fiat currency, would be no better at the County level than the Federal level, especially if every County did this.