Gresham's Law and men of fine mettle

From the opening of the final chapter of Ron Paul's excellent new book, End the Fed:

I'll tell you what I think about the way
This city treats her soundest men today:
By a coincidence more sad than funny,
It's very like the way we treat our money.

The noble silver drachma that of old we were
So proud of, and the recent gold coins that
Rang true, clean-stamped and worth their weight
Throughout the world, have ceased to circulate.

Instead, the purses of Athenian shoppers
Are full of shoddy silver-plated coppers
Just so, when men are needed by the nation,
The best have been withdrawn from circulation.

(From The Frogs by Aristophanes, about 400 B. C.)

Dr. Ron Paul's Rx for health insurance and more

Ron Paul on NPR: Leave Government Out of Insurance Plan (length of audio segment 8:26)

And the transcript is here.

This provides an extremely important and valuable perspective for Christians. We need to be stimulating CHURCH involvement in welfare, not STATE.

Trouble is, most people today -- including most Christians, I'm afraid -- are incapable of taking God at his word and instead feel that we must look to the State to be the vehicle for salvation in this world. This ties right into the other, even larger issue taken up in the second part of the NPR interview; namely, the evil Federal Reserve System that Ron Paul wants to see eliminated.

The vast majority of the Octopus State's tentacles would shrivel up and disappear if the Federal Reserve System was eliminated and free competition in the realm of money was restored. Gresham's Law is succinctly explained in the first sentence of this article: Bad money drives out good under legal tender laws. The corollary, of course is that when legal tender laws are eliminated and people have the freedom to enter into contracts using any method of settlement that they like, good money drives out bad. Anyone who really wants to strike at the root of the Welfare-Warfare State needs to push for the end of the Fed.

That the Fed is going to end seems almost a certainty, but the question is whether it will be ended as an act of political willpower driven by angry Tea Partyers* -- in which case perhaps the United States itself will survive -- or whether its end will coincide more or less with the split-up of the United States. Regardless of which direction things go in, Christians will need to take a larger role in the provision of welfare through works of charity, so we had better prepare for that day by redoubling our involvement with works of charity now. (Rev. Wilson's recent sermon is highly recommended in this context.)

* I am convinced that the Tea Partyers represent much more of an independent, emerging third party than they represent the interests of the Republican Party establishment. They are far more Libertarian, Conservative and Populist than Republican. Obama is feeling their heat but they're not nostalgic for Bush by any means.