Fiat unbacked money is socialism. Plain and simple. It is collectivism. Such a society must unavoidably self-destruct, because it eviscerates all productive forces of the society. The only sure foundation to build upon are the
true principles of liberty (which demand this amendment).
Let's clear that one up as well. It is collectivism, and of the most insidious kind, but it is NOT socialism. Socialism is a DREAM compared to what this is, because at the very least socialism just redistributes wealth from the rich to the poor - or so it intends. That is not what this system does (although it pretends to do that as well). This system SIPHONS wealth and redistributes it to the poor and the unproductive from the left, but MOSTLY to the hyper-rich on the right. Who is left out? COMPLETELY? The middle class.
What this system really does is DIVIDE the rich from the poor, and with an ever-widening gap. DELIBERATELY.
I used to hate the old mantra, "Yeah, the rich get richer while the poor get poorer", just about as much as I still HATE the mantra about "the wealthiest 1%" (and any other blithering way you want to put it) - because, once again, THESE MORONS are pointing to effects, not causal factors. Pointing at the effects leaves us batting against leaves and fruits, bickering and whining about things like "greed" and ulterior motives, while leaving the root "causes", which mechanisms take place without regard to motives, COMPLETELY UNEXAMINED.
There is no such thing as socialism - not here OR in China. China is neither communist nor is it socialist. Socialism is nothing more than a sentiment - a statement of intent. China is now nothing more than oligarchical control of a now capital driven economy with "socialist ideals". One fundamental difference is that
it actually encourages and rewards savings!
And what the HELL ARE WE? Don't say democracy, or even Democratic Republic, as if that meant anything at all - that is a shell game of the highest order, and absolutely meaningless. And don't say land of the free and home of the brave either. We are, at the core, a BANKER'S economy, which has deliberately pit one ideological faction against the other, by facilitating "FREE MARKET" competition between corporatist AND socialist ideals - all of it collectivist, as they all slop from the same collective debt trough.
So you could say "follow the money", but to do that you must realize that the actual money trail is divided into two extremely compromised branches
which now very much depend upon one another, and the system as devised, for survival.
Oh, and I don't look a commercial bankers as anything but branches of evil. NOT the roots. So I ignore them, and none of my anger is directed toward them, because it really is a needless distraction. They don't make the rules - they only profit from them. Otherwise, by extension, anybody who has ever had credit is culpable - they're the twigs and leaves hanging from those branches. That leaves only those who are not allowed to participate (the non-credit worthy) with clean hands - but the poorest of these flank the other side - the socialist side of the equation. If fractional reserve lending was criminalized, that branch which causes the greatest amount of inflation to the money supply would wither and die. Likewise, if there were no legal tender laws, and hard specie was not taxed, we would not all be force-channeled artificially into DEBT as the only means for economic activity. Savings would mean something, and privately accumulated capital would compete head-to-head, and ultimately STOMP debt-based capital into its natural proper place.
So I focus on the root cause only - not those who profit therefrom.
Ron Paul is unique because he is one of the very, VERY few who actually champions the middle class in all of this. The rest fall primarily on whichever side of the Ponzi scheme is most effectual for the advancement of their Macroeconomic Causes - without regard to the scores of millions of casualties in the middle.