"You're a hypocrite, Jim. You ask for fiat current as donations. That's not honest. It makes you just as bad and guilty as any statist."
Have you ever heard the tragedy of Darth Plagueis?
...I mean the crime of '73?
Well, during the mid to waning years of Reconstruction, after the War of Federal Aggression ended in 1865, the greenback notes issued by Union President Lincoln were being taken out of circulation. There were some inflation issues to say the least. This promoted much debate nationally, regionally, and locally considering the destructive events of two large political organizations; one fighting to control another and the other fighting for its freedom, despite the visual horrors of African slavery and the unseen parallels of an aggressive Union slave master.
The next elected succeeding president, Grant, thought it a good idea to demonetize silver too! For years as it was, people still used their greenbacks. They did so until they could trade them for other forms of currency useful for tax payments and private payments alike.
So when Grant decided to stop accepting silver as legal tender, people were forced into an immediate poverty spiral. This hit some harder than others. But it made a horrendous impact on the general economic situation at the time none-the-less. People had the economic freedom to utilize three different kinds of currency or money. Minted gold coins, minted silver coins, and printed Greenback notes. That was amazing considering the fact that many coins used were of international acquisition; meaning that Spanish, English, and French coins were also accepted.
Had people been able to slowly phase out silver, as they did the greenbacks, they would have had an easier transition. Instead, the brains of Emerald City in Washington D.C. didn't seem to care much. More importantly, there were multiple kinds of money available far more widespread then than today. And the key is that these were useful in the payment of settling imposed tax debts. That’s the key idea here.
The Emerald City powers at the time needed to fight the inflation, so they said. What they didn't realize was the violence they introduced into otherwise peaceful transactions. Because they and their subjects knew violence through law enforcement would be used to collect, people sometimes struggled to earn in order to satisfy such demands in order to remain comfortable or even free.
The common theme here is that the less government intervenes, the calmer life is and reason will encourage trade again. And when people feel secure in their ability to trade they will; thus they will transition to whatever is socially or economically acceptable to trade. Sometimes this can mean one or two kinds of money or a multitude of different monies and credits and goods.
My point is that I am not the problem for accepting what others accept. For ten years after the decommissioning of greenbacks people used them. So people around the world will still use Federal Reserve notes too! If Federal Reserve notes are decommissioned, in ten years they will still be in use in some capacity for trade; and certainly collection for barter the same as old Confederate and Greenback notes are today.
Maybe the trouble is the violence and hasty judgments interjected into situations placing blame on others. Maybe the responsibility is on those who judge and share their criticisms without full context and reasonable solutions. Maybe people shouldn’t judge, opting instead to observe and seek different perspectives?
Until the grip on what is easiest to use is absolved, my ability to trade the refinement of my time, intellect, and labor freely without some government advocate spying on me for a cheap trinket reward, there is nothing wrong with using what is available. But by all means, if you’re going to complain and not offer me Bitcoin or some alternative and the time to help enlighten me to something superior, be mindful of such criticisms.
-JLD
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Sources for historical research.
While much of the information in the piece I wrote was pulled from memory and years of going through state and local archives around the United States, these sources also confirm through other credible contributors the information I relayed.
The Secret of Oz by Bill Still
The Civil War and greenbacks
http://www.thegoldstandardnow.org/the-civil-war-and-greenbacks
Chicago Tribune July 20, 1891
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1891/07/20/page/4/article/the-silver-demonetization-act-of-1873
The History of the GREENBACK DOLLAR
http://www.vcalc.net/Currency-Greenbacks.pdf