Chapter VIII
The Clew to Value
(A) Consideration of the obligations in which we are now definitely involved, namely, Public Debt and current taxation, with a view to ascertaining whether these are not based upon an inescapable estimate of potential basic value to which we have all assented, and which we cannot ignore without gravely affecting both lender and borrower. These obligations are probably our most valid point of contact between old arbitraries and possible equities, since they are the unconscious expression of basic economic value in terms of one of its vital components, namely, order, the cost of which is taxation.
It would appear that here, in all the confusion of fluctuating dollar values, we have arrived at an important clew. Our gold basis is purely imaginary: our wealth, in terms of so-called “gold” dollars, is a wavering projection into space: our per capita income is nearly twice what it was ten years ago in “gold” dollar value, yet about the same in purchasing power, which means, if stated coldly, that we have permitted a fifty per cent debasement of our unit of value and by this means have robbed the more innocent thrifty. But our obligations are what the gold-standard advocate calls real—the momentary reality of a nightmare! We have promised to meet them in ounces of gold. However rash the promises, we have all endorsed them, and they are expressed in terms of gold—so that they cannot be questioned even by the ritualist. This fact is as valid a material clew as the entrance fee to a spiritualistic séance, and is well worth consideration.
We are now under obligation to pay various public debts amounting approximately to the following:
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