LETTERS TO THE EDITOR — Crowning bullion king

Gold and silver prices may have hit rock bottom in a world with bills due and a designed shortage of paper cash, but “the bottom” is always followed by an upswing. For it to be a permanent upswing, people committed to gold and silver must strongly promote the virtue of “real cash” over “funny money” which has been forced on people so long that many have forgotten what money is.

Organize and push hard to make bullion king and kill the paper tiger. Implement a system of bullion accounts for everyday people: accounts yielding modest interest by charging borrowers modest interest on loans for cars to mortgages. This would take pressure off paper money (and normal interest rates) and give gold and silver a quasi-monetary role, even while paper funny money continues as the official standard.

This will require legal modifications. It will certainly require an end to the goods and services tax on the mere exchange of paper money and bullion: unfair since bullion is intrinsic money. The slight tax lost would be more than offset by increased demand for gold and silver, pushing up their paper prices, generating more mining and tax revenue on such real enterprise. In Alberta, perhaps the “Treasury Branches,” which perform banking functions, or our “Co-ops” could initiate such bullion accounts and loans. Do other provinces have such institutions?

The crucial arena for enlightenment is to reach youth by making them aware of monetary history, and the absurd nature of the existing paper system: money of no intrinsic value backed by debt that can never be paid. Let them know this crisis will only worsen as these youth age and baby boomers try to collect pensions and medical benefits. Maybe youth, largely underemployed, should overthrow the paper tiger now, rather than wait 20 years. Encourage youth to free themselves of the paper tiger, giving gold and silver the shine of youthful rebellion.

Bullionists must reach youth via outlets they absorb. Let rock stars and films spread distrust of paper cash and promote a sane alternative: gold and silver — with usury sharply defined and severely punished.

It will take cooperation by most precious metal producers to effectively liberate such a movement, but compressed energy for radical change has been building up in frustrated youth. The prize for constructively harnessing this force could be the best paydirt in history. Ironically, the solution to our paper money shortage is to ultimately wipe out paper money itself. Gary Semanision

Calgary