Page:David Atkins - The Economics of Freedom (1924).pdf/350

 to put an end to the blundering confiscation that-now goes on, and by this act throw off all restrictions on effort, on genius and on organization.

We cannot remedy the past; and are forced to admit sadly that a large part of the old dollar of 1900 and of the diminished dollar of 1910 have already been confiscated by taxation and inflation. What we are guarding against now is the paltry dollar of 1930 and the termination in abject poverty of a life of effort and thrift. Those who saved in the past have now drifted beyond our help; but we may be able to step in at the present juncture and protect some of the more simple citizens who are insuring their lives, saving money, and buying bonds for long term investment, which are at the best only title to a diminishing dollar. They may appear to be titles to gold dollars, but this is the myth under whose shadow we stumble. If there were gold enough to pay off all our certificates of value, then gold itself would diminish tragically in economic value when the date arrived for redemption. As it is, the trusting citizen holds the vast promises: quite others hold the meagre gold with its portentous value of domination. Those who have the gold may keep it: those who have the certificates of value should have them tied to something real. All that is proposed is to put an end to the confiscation that arises from bad-tempered taxation and the use of internationally-owned gold as a focal point of national value, since both these are as neat and reprehensible devices for ensuring confiscation as could well be imagined.