Note to Self: Where Does the Use of "Takers" as in "Makers and Takers" and "A Nation of Takers" Come From?: It appears to come from right-wing loon and goldbug Edmund Contoski:
Edmund Contoski (1997): Makers and Takers: How Wealth and Progress Are Made and How They Are Taken Away or Prevented: "Makers and Takers shows how the free market works--and why government intervention doesn't...
...It examines various forms of economic intervention (taxation, regulation, monetary policy) and their effects on consumer products and services, the health and lives of Americans, and the nation's economic well-being. The book also explores a broad range of environmental issues. Scientific subjects such as pollution, acid rain, and global warming are explained in clear, non technical language--including some surprising facts that discredit current government policies. Finally, the author explains the development of the original American system and how that system fostered an unprecedented society of "makers"--the greatest production of wealth and scientific advancement in history. He points out the subtle alterations in our political orientation that now favor the taking of wealth rather than the making of it. We have even taken it from our children and grandchildren in the form of a multi-trillion dollar national debt, which they are going to have to pay. Here is a book that explains what made America great, what went wrong, and what needs to be done for the future.
Edmund Contoski (2012): The Impending Monetary Revolution, the Dollar and Gold: "The crisis began in a small country, Greece...
...but it led to revelations of international financial vulnerabilities that are overturning the world's monetary system. For years the Greek government spent beyond its means and borrowed to make up the difference. Just like the U.S. government. The U.S. has not yet suffered the dire economic consequences of Greece because of the dollar's status as the world's reserve currency. That means it is the only country in the world that can pay its debts by simply printing more of its own money. Those days will end.
American and European banks have gotten into trouble because of unsound underwriting practices that would not have been possible under a gold standard. And governments are on the verge of bankruptcy because there is no restraint—which a gold standard would provide—on their spending and manipulation of credit.
American politicians have debauched the currency for agendas contrary to our Constitution and to buy voter support for their elections. And the Federal Reserve has provided a means of financing uneconomic political agendas and pushing the costs onto future generations. But debt and credit cannot expand forever—as America's housing/mortgage bubble demonstrated. When the credit bubble bursts, hard times must follow.
Gold is the ultimate money because of its intrinsic characteristics and because no government has an unlimited supply of it to support unlimited government spending. In the absence of a sound money, alternative currencies may serve for awhile, but they will not be a permanent substitute for gold. If the U.S. doesn't return to a gold standard, some other country will. Then not only the dollar but America will lose its primacy in the world. It will lose that primacy as much for the neglect of its original constitutional principles as for the fate of the dollar. In fact, it was the neglect of those principles that led to the frightening expansion of government and the demise of the dollar.
