Just received the following e-mail that I thought was well worth posting to the group:
In December 1921, the American industrialist Henry Ford and the inventor
Thomas Edison visited the Muscle Shoals nitrate and water power projects
near Florence, Alabama. They used the opportunity to articulate at
length upon their alternative money theories, which were published in 2
reports which appeared in The New York Times on December 4, 1921 and
December 6, 1921.
Objecting to the fact that the Government planned, as usual, to raise
the money by issuing bonds which would be bought by the banking and
non-banking sector -- which would then have to be paid back with money
raised from taxes, and with interest added -- they proposed instead that
the Government simply create the currency it required and spend it into
society through this public project.
This is also the Prosperity proposal.
Thomas Edison made it plain in the following excerpt from The New York
Times, December 6, 1921 issue ("Ford Sees Wealth In Muscle Shoals").
Here, the reporter is quoting Edison:
"That is to say, under the old way any time we wish to add to the
national wealth we are compelled to add to the national debt.
"Now, that is what Henry Ford wants to prevent. He thinks it is stupid,
and so do I, that for the loan of $30,000,000 of their own money the
people of the United States should be compelled to pay $66,000,000 --
that is what it amounts to, with interest. People who will not turn a
shovelful of dirt nor contribute a pound of material will collect more
money from the United States than will the people who supply the
material and do the work. That is the terrible thing about interest.
In all our great bond issues the interest is always greater than the
principal. All of the great public works cost more than twice the actual
cost, on that account. Under the present system of doing business we
simply add 120 to 150 per cent, to the stated cost.
"But here is the point: If our nation can issue a dollar bond, it can
issue a dollar bill. The element that makes the bond good makes the bill
good. The difference between the bond and the bill is that the bond lets
the money brokers collect twice the amount of the bond and an additional
20 per cent, whereas the currency pays nobody but those who directly
contribute to Muscle Shoals in some useful way.
" ... if the Government issues currency, it provides itself with enough
money to increase the national wealth at Muscles Shoals without
disturbing the business of the rest of the country. And in doing this it
increases its income without adding a penny to its debt.
"It is absurd to say that our country can issue $30,000,000 in bonds and
not $30,000,000 in currency. Both are promises to pay; but one promise
fattens the usurer, and the other helps the people.
If the currency issued by the Government were no good, then the bonds
issued would be no good either.
It is a terrible situation when the Government, to increase the national
wealth, must go into debt and submit to ruinous interest charges at the
hands of men who control the fictitious values of gold.
"Look at it another way. If the Government issues bonds, the brokers
will sell them. The bonds will be negotiable; they will be considered as
gilt edged paper. Why? Because the government is behind them, but who is
behind the Government? The people. Therefore it is the people who
constitute the basis of Government credit.
Why then cannot the people have the benefit of their own gilt-edged credit
by receiving non-interest bearing currency on Muscle Shoals, instead of
the bankers receiving the benefit of the people's credit in
interest-bearing bonds?"
Essential Further Reading: PROSPERITY: Freedom from Debt Slavery is a
4-page quarterly Journal which campaigns for publicly-created debt-free
money.
PROSPERITY is edited and published by Alistair McConnachie and a
4-issue subscription is available for £10 payable to PROSPERITY at
268 Bath Street, Glasgow, Scotland, UK, G2 4JR.
Tel: 0141 332 2214;
Fax: 0141 353 6900,
Email: contactus AT ProsperityUK DOT com
http://www.ProsperityUK.com
All back-issues are still available.
<http://www.prosperityuk.com/prosperity/subs/subscribe.html>
The 40-page Report, Clarifying our Money Reform Proposals, launched at
the 2006 Bromsgrove Conference, is available for £10 payable to
PROSPERITY and is essential reading for beginners.
The Grip of Death: A study of modern money, debt slavery and destructive
economics by Michael Rowbotham, [Jon Carpenter Publishing, 1998] and
Goodbye America! Globalisation, debt and the dollar empire by Michael
Rowbotham, [Jon Carpenter Publishing, 2000] and Creating New Money: A
monetary reform for the information age by Joseph Huber and James
Robertson [New Economics Foundation, 2000] are all available from
PROSPERITY.
