"Our monetary system insidiously transfers wealth from the poor and the middle class to the privileged rich." - Ron Paul

Learning about the Federal Reserve and its history, and the fiat money system it perpetuates, is absolutely crucial to understanding what and who it is that we must fight (yes, Fight) to gain and hold fast our civil liberties. I didn't understand a lick about it until eight months ago, and now that I am learning about how it began and how it operates, a LOT of things going on in this world of ours make more sense. In this video dated 2/17/2007, which aired on C-SPAN, you will see Ron Paul who has been fighting the good fight in Congress as Representative of the 14th district of Texas for 11 straight years (and for a spell before that, too).

Transcription of an excerpt from this video clip: “The dollar today is worth only four cents compared to the dollar that the Federal Reserve started with in 1913. This has significant consequences on our economy and on our political stability. All paper currencies are vulnerable to collapse, and history is replete with examples of great suffering caused by these collapses, especially to the nations’ poor and the middle class. This can lead to political turmoil as well. Even before a currency collapses, the damage done by a fiat system is significant. Our monetary system insidiously transfers wealth from the poor and the middle class to the privileged rich. Wages never keep up with profits on Wall Street and the banks, thus sewing the seeds of class and discontent. When economic trouble hits, free markets and free trade are often blamed, while the harmful effects of a fiat money system are ignored.”

It is the welfare state that is destroying this nation, but probably not the kind of "welfare state" that most people think. It is not food stamps and Section 8 housing that are wrecking this nation, it is Corporate Welfare. And if it weren't for the corporate welfare machine (primarily in the form of the Federal Reserve) constantly vacuuming money from the pockets of the poor to the coffers of the rich, there would be many fewer who would even have the need for help with the basic necessities of life.

The Federal Reserve is unconstitutional, and ultimately...it's a SCAM. The national tradition of the United States began, in large part, as a collective action taken to escape inequitable taxation and usury. It's time to remember those Robber Barons, and put them back into their places once again. Their monopolization and constant string-pulling is leading the world down a path of no return. If you are not sure this is the case, I strongly encourage you watch or read just a little bit about the Federal Reserve (from whatever set of diverse resources seems reasonable to you), study whatever terms you don't understand, then just watch the news for a few days. What used to sound like droning economic mumbojumbo may very well start sounding like confessions of theft--because, that is exactly what they are doing. Please, investigate for yourself, and for all of us.