I have been researching and studying about the origin of money and ended up wondering about the real value of a US dollar and the answer is that in actuality it is worth nothing. Let me explain further. The U.S. took away the government backing of the dollar with an actual gold supply known as leaving the gold standard in 1971. So now days there is no backing on our Dollars and the only reason why it still has value is because everybody thinks it has value.
Video on the Federal Reserve Bank and the US Goverment.
Most of us know that the Federal Reserve Bank prints the “money”. If I was to ask you who owns the FRB the shocking answer is “NOT THE US GOVERNMENT.”
The Federal Reserve Bank Board is composed of twelve representatives of the banking industry. Not goverment workers.
(Data below from the Federal Reserve Web Site)
Federal Advisory Council |
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G. Kennedy Thompson, President |
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James C. Smith, First District |
William Downe, Seventh District |
James E. Annable, Secretary |
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A Really good lesson on the history of Money
42:00 minutes long.
So here is the full circle of money in a few transactions:
- The delivery boy takes 5 dollars to the store to buy a case of soda.
- The owner of the stores accepts the piece of paper with a 5 stamped on it because...
- The store owner takes the 5 dollars to the newspaper stand to buy a magazine and...
- The owner of the newpaper stand accepts because he pays the delivery boy with those 5 dollars
- The delivery boy takes 5 dollars to the store...
There you have it. The full circle of this piece of paper of ficticious value with hard to copy pictures and designs that we call money.