You can't touch your Money

These picture have nothing to do with this post . I put them here for personal reasons.

....................................My daughter Glenda..................................

..........................My son Paul and my Grandson Ryan....................  

Money does not exist as a thing. It is only an entry in a Bank account.  If you have a Bank account that credits you with $100 and you ask them to give it to you, they can't. There is no real thing that is money.


  Instead They will give you a  Federal Reserve Note and erase $100 from your account    That means that now the Federal Reserve Bank owes you $100.  The Note says that the Treasury of the United States has ordered that this Note 
[Reserve Bank Debt|] can be used as Legal Tender to pay "for all Debts, public and private.


You then go to Big Box Market and buy some stuff.  The Big Box Market says you owe them a $100. Since you don't have $100 you give Big Box Market the Federal Reserve Note. Now the Federal Reserve Bank owes the Big Box Market $100   Big Box Market takes the Federal Reserve Note to the Bank and the Bank puts it in their vault and credits the account of the Big Box Store with $100 in money.


The reason these notes exist is because their are people who do not want to move their money from their account to another by electronic transfer or by writing a person check that orders the Bank to do this.  In stead they want to use a Universal IOU and that is what a Federal Reserve Note is.  


The Banks buy them from the Federal Reserve Banks who bought them from the Treasury who printed them , just as Treasury make coins and sell them to the Federal Reserve Bank. The Fed pays face value for the Coins and the Government earns a profit. The Federal Reserve only pays cost of printing for the Notes and the Fed Banks make a profit when they sell them to Corporate Banks.  The Corporate Banks use them as a service to customers.. It represents only a tiny fraction of the money that is written into the Banks Accounts.


The final question must be, why do people use them if the Banks can never give them Money. Remember, money does not exist as a thing.  The reason is that Government has the constitutional right to create money.  It also has the right to charge you taxes. If you owe the Government $100 in taxes, you cannot pay it with labor or chickens or corn or gold. You can only pay it with money.


 If you refuse to pay your taxes you will go to prison.  If you don't want to go to prison you had better trade your labor or chickens or corn or gold for money.  Only money has any value when you owe the government a tax debt.  Now you know why all money is just a way to pay debt.  Money = Debt


This was first written as a Note in my Facebook community page
Pax Village Voice 
 http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pax-Village-Voice/15299
8464720656?ref=mf




Copyright © William Hodge 2012

Simple machines can build a Village

Our World does not have to be complex. We cannot live without machines, but they do not have to dominate our lives. We can make them  serve our needs to live a simpler but a more permanently productive life.  Machines can multiply our efforts without mastering our lives. Machines can help us build a Village.  


The Village can nurture our sense of each other and the knowledge that we do not live alone. It will not replace the global world but it will give those who wish it the power to live with the world without being a slave in the world. It takes the Village to make a human community.

The Earth cannot be owned.

William Hodge  -   -  Public

We do not tax to spend. We tax to be sure that those who gain profit from the Commons of the Nation pay an equitable share to the common people of the Nation. Common people are more than just wage slaves to the Wealthy.

This is a post I received in a discussion group that I participate in.
I wanted to share it with you.

Richard Tyson

to public-banking

There are a few things that are essential to existence. Land, food, water, air. Without just one of these no human can live. To be taxed on the use of any of these, when the usage is for basic survival, is antithetical to the most basic of human rights. Every person, has in theory, equal right to that which is essential for survival, ie a minimum usage of land, food, water, and air.

When usage exceeds that which is essential then it is fair that those who enjoy excess are taxed. When an oil company drills they're doing it for profit at the expense of those who would rather enjoy a walk through unspoilt nature. One entity is taking away from the other and it would be only right for a certain level of compensation to occur. If they're paying from profits or paying a land tax, they're essentially paying because of their use of the land. At the basic level, it doesn't matter what the basis of the tax is, as long as compensation paid is equitable and results in benefit to all of society.

As to taxing income being punitive. Grrrrrr. Tell me again how one person is worth millions times more than another? ( A garbage collector is probably more important than a doctor because he stops disease before it can occur) Again, there are minimum levels of income that are to be taken into account. A certain minimum allows one to barely survive, another level allows a modicum of comfort, another level is just plain greed. No one should should be taxed when they attain a modicum of comfort. Anything above that should be taxed until the "take home" pay is the same as the tax cut off limit. If the super wealthy were to pay land tax rather than income tax they would never come close to paying what they should. Far from being punitive, tax on excessive income is the right thing to do to even the standard of living for everyone.

When this is done the incentive to speculate is removed and the result will be a far safer, more secure and happier society. Anything else results in the crap we currently experience.

While we have the opportunity to gain at the expense of another no economic system can work in the best interests of all. Tax is one way of leveling the playing field, and how taxes are instituted are not nearly as important as who and in what amounts they come from and how they're distributed.

There is never a Shortage of Money.

Here we are in the middle of an unemployment Depression and Radical Republicans and some semi- intelligent Democrats are telling us we must destroy Government Service to people because there is not enough money.  They say we must stop borrowing because the interest will Bankrupt our Grandchildren.  POPPYCOCK.  

It is possible for the Treasury Department to borrow enough money from the Federal Reserve Banks at 0% interest to finance the entire National Debt.  Only the Congress prevents this from happening by allowing only a special group of appointed Corporate Bankers to bid at the Primary Auction for Treasury Debt. 

The only role the Fed is allowed by law to play is to buy up debt on the secondary auction in order to control interest and money supply. But even in that role the Fed has keep interest rates at almost zero. and the Treasury debt it buys becomes interest free because the interest it Fed earns is returned to the Treasury as profit.
 http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/other/20120110a.htm

Now we know that money is unlimited and is scarce only because your friendly Wealthy elected Congressmen have made it scarce by law to aid their own  SPECIAL INTEREST.  the question becomes when is it possible to spend this unlimited money in a way that helps the purposes of the Nation and does no harm

The argument that is used most often is that if you spend this magic money it will cause inflation. When can you spend money without causing inflation?  First you must understand what money does when you spend it. The Nation already has all the money it needs whenever need it.

Having money is like having gas to power your vehicle.  It is like having enough gas to power all the vehicles we will ever have for a million years.  So what do you need to use gas wisely. You need a driver [skilled labor].   You need a truck [productive capacity]. You need a load [resources].  If you have a road to travel and a destination you can fill up the truck with gas and get moving. In the middle of a recession you have the all three available. That is the best time to use your the unlimited supply of gas. 

If on the other hand  all the drivers, trucks, and loads are in use, then pumping more new gas will just spill on the ground and cause a fire [inflation].  A good thing to do then is stop pumping.  Your problem is now training new drivers [education] and building more trucks [capitol investment] and building roads [infrastructure]. 

This ain't Rocket Science Folks. It is no shortage of money ever.  It is POLITICAL, pure and simple.  I  suggest you elect a new Congressman who understands Money.



Copyright © William Hodge 2012

Time for Public Owned Banks has Come

I received the following forwarded message from Ellen Brown of the 

http://www.publicbankinginstitute.org/ in a discussion group about public Banking

I believe that Public Banking is the answer to removing the hands of Internationale Corporate Banking from the throats of taxpayers on the National, State, and Local levels. I wanted to share it with you on my Blog.  It is time to stop paying the Bankers for doing what we can do for ourselves. 

William Hodge

from:		Ellen Brown ellenhbrown@gmail.com
reply-to:		public-banking@googlegroups.com

                                                                                                                         

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: James Stivers <jwstivers1@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Feb 25, 2012 at 12:20 PM
Subject: the circus has come to town

My latest article: http://jamesstivers.com/circus.pdf

The website has been updated in general to reflect my change in political affiliation.

The Circus has come to Town

As of this writing (February 21, 2012), Idaho has joined the nation in Presidential politics. For many years, Idaho's primary system decided its partisan races at the end of May, including that of Presidential nominees. Usually, that made Idaho's 32 Republican delegates irrelevant because, by then, the nominee had already been decided for all practical purposes.
This year, with changes to a caucus nominating process to be held in March, Idaho joins the madness of "Super Tuesday" and the flurry of candidates flying in and out of the state wooing voters. It is a spectacle that folks in the back country are not used to seeing.
Unfortunately, it is also distracting citizens from state business. Idaho has a citizens legislature that meets during the winter months. The March 6th Presidential event comes in the middle of the session and competes for the attention that voters should be giving to consider important legislation.
One such proposed legislation is Rep. Brian Cronin's (D - Boise) bill to study a state bank (HCR030). This bill proposes to form a commission to study the state bank of North Dakota and see if the idea would work here in Idaho.
When I ran for the state senate in 2010, I made an Idaho State Bank the centerpiece of my campaign. I believe there is no more important legislation than this one for the future of Idaho.
Regrettably, Republicans have not shown interest in this idea. In some respects, they have been hostile to it. During my campaign, I suffered attacks from my Republican colleagues for flirting with socialism. The general consensus was that state government should not be in the banking business. Ron Paul Republicans who have now come to dominate the Party in the state evidenced even greater hostility.
In spite of the fact that the state Republican Platform calls for monetary reform and eliminating the Federal Reserve System, somehow, Ron Paul Republicans fail to see how an Idaho State Bank would be an important step toward that goal. Nature hates a vacuum and so does money and the notion that we can abolish the Federal Reserve and not end up with a de facto substitute is immensely naive. Government entities need places to put their tax receipts. As soon as they put them into a private bank, a new system will be created by default. Wouldn't the citizens of this state be better served if that bank was owned and controlled by the people rather than stockholders out to make a profit?
Actually, many Ron Paul Republicans do support the state bank concept. I discovered that when I polled the members of the Campaign for Liberty in 2009. It is really a vocal minority within the party that uses scare tactics and name-calling to discredit the proposal. Unfortunately, that vocal minority has control of the party and there seems to be no hope in sight. It appears that no faction within the Republican Party will come to the aid of this bill.
Now that the Idaho Bankers Association has begun organizing an opposition to this bill, it appears stalled in committee. Ron Paul Republicans are mesmerized by the election process; not a single discussion on state legislation has appeared on their Internet forum groups. I tried to bring this bill up for discussion and got token nods from a handful of old friends.
In contrast, Idaho Democrats have embraced the state bank proposition and are pushing forward with it. Ironically, it was the liberal Democrats in Congress who included Ron Paul's "Audit the Fed" bill into their larger package of banking reform - and then passed it. It appears that Idaho Democrats would follow the same course were it not that there are so few of them. Democrats comprise a mere 15% of the legislature.
The Republicans have complete control of the state and all they seem to be concerned about is contraception, evicting Occupy Boise and other inanities. I suppose if we want a state bank in Idaho, forward-thinking Republicans and Independents will have to switch to the Democrat Party and change the representation in the Legislature.
That is what I am doing.
-- James Stivers

Taxes and Basic Income

"Why is it fair that I should be paying a higher percentage of taxes than anyone else?" - Sheldon Adelson, net worth $21.5 billion USD (2011) 

There is no good reason why anyone should pay
a higher Tax Rate than others. After the Community has provided every person with sufficient food, serviceable shelter,  medical care, and free access to education that teach all skills necessary to prepare a person according to his ability and desire to express his contribution to living, a flat tax rate will be fair to all.

If the essentials of life are not guaranteed, it is necessary to make sure that we do not create a Social division of wealth so great that we end up with a society of Noblemen and Serfs. That is the major reason for progressive taxes. 

In the age Debt Currency, taxes are not levied to fund the activities of Government. They only serve to control the amount of currency in circulation to prevent an imbalance between enough to operate the economy at maximum efficiency and too much that will lead to inflation. 

The operations are actually funded by creating money through borrowing and spending it into the economy to achieve the Public Good that is mandated for Government to do. That is the real reason that we have had a growing debt for most of the Nations history. As the Economy needs more money to function it is created by debt. Money = Debt. Taxes remove money that is not needed.

The problem is that we have done it poorly. Banks control Debt and they find it useful to expand rapidly and then contract rapidly in order to create opportunity to convert Monetary wealth accumulated through interest into real wealthy by foreclosing on Debt collateral. We need to remove Debt creation from Banks and place it in the hands of Government.

Copyright © William Hodge 2012 

GOVERNMENT CAN NEVER HAVE A MONEY SHORTAGE

Pax Village Voice

GOVERNMENT CAN NEVER HAVE A MONEY SHORTAGE

Marriner S. Eccles and the Federal Reserve Policy, 1934-1951

Eccles believed that the only institution that would be capable
of turning the [economic] cycle around was the government. In particular, he argued that only the federal government had the capacity to increase debt without going bankrupt. In his own words:

“If a man owed to himself he could not be bankrupt, and neither can a
nation. We have got all the wealth and resources we ever had, and we
do not have the sense, the financial and political leadership to know
how to use them.

We are trying to apply a theory of economy as
obsolete as the Ark. (…) If the Government in order to finance the
War [World War I] could spend billions of dollars in order to give
protection to life and property, and not have a single thing to show for
it when it is over but the destruction of the flower of the youth of the
nation, then certainly the Government is justified in supplying
sufficient credit or money to take care of the unemployed through
public works, or an unemployment wage or a combination of both”
(Marriner S. Eccles Papers, Box 74, Folder 2).

I first wrote this essay for my  Facebook Community page  -   Pax Village Voice.