... a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom.
-- Thomas Paine in his preface to Common Sense
![[House of Cards]](cards-s.gif)
Is your children's future
a house of cards?
Remarkable Remedy
Jean Carpenter
I The Question
WE AMERICANS HAVE A RICH national heritage. We have plentiful natural resources. We are industrious freedom-loving people. We have a system of law based upon the unchangeable truths listed in the Declaration of Independence. This nation has suffered no prolonged or widespread famine. There is no natural reason why we should not have peace, prosperity, and freedom to enjoy our lawful pursuits without undue interference.
Yet our way of life is deteriorating -- economically, socially, morally, and politically. The question is: Why? What happened? Where and how did we go wrong? How is it that government officials, who are supposed to be instruments by which we -- the people, the ruling class -- govern ourselves, have themselves become the ruling class, to which the citizen is now subservient? What can be done?
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Only a Few of Many Signs of Deterioration
Within a few years our nation fell from creditor status to that of greatest debtor.
Harry Figgie, Jr., is one of many predicting the end of the United States as we now know it. He was a member of the Grace Commission. He authored the book, Bankruptcy 1995: The Coming Collapse of America and How to Stop It.
Parents in their 30's are now in far greater debt than their parents were at the same age. They fear even greater debt for their children. Bankruptcies, foreclosures, and bank failures are occuring in record numbers. Small farms are being devoured by agribusiness. Unemployment persists. Inflation erodes our buying power. Businesses are strangled by regulations. And our cities have large pockets of decay.
Many still enjoy a measure of prosperity. But, for how long? No one can safely say, "I'm OK. It wonÕt touch me." It will touch us all Ñ unless we radically alter course quickly.
How did we get off course? And how can we get back on?
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Three Events
A search for answers led to a single year in this century's second decade. Three events in that year radically altered the course of history of this nation for the ensuing more than 80 years.
Single events in two subsequent decades set our country on a collision course with disaster. These are discussed in Chapter V and, at greater length, in the "Loophole" essays in The Treasury.
But Remarkable Remedy is primarily concerned with the first three events, their vast consequences, and a specific proven remedy.
The first event authorized -- or seemed to authorize -- what has proved to be an agent of oppression.
The second event underhandedly deprived the states of power and authority.
The third event will ultimately cause the most devastation -- the more insidious, because more hidden and less understood.
Documentation (End Notes, referenced by circled numbers in margins) is found in the back of the full edition of this book, where sources are also listed. Armed with facts, you can draw your own conclusions.
Many have seen all along many of the pieces to this jigsaw puzzle. What has not been obvious to most of us is how they fit together and what picture they make.
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The Good News
The good news is that something can be done. And we don't have to re-invent the wheel. We don't have to experiment with new law and hope it works.
Our predicament is not unique to this century. It is the symptom of an ancient malady, devastator of many empires throughout the ages, which almost destroyed this nation in its first decade. But, it was rescued by a remarkable remedy, and the United States became one of the greatest in world history.
This remedy was not difficult. It required no great individual sacrifice. It was specific. And it was effective. Though it has fallen into disuse, that same proven remedy is available to us today and can again be applied.
But first: the three events and how they affect us. They forged the links in a constricting chain of debt and oppression.
The year was 1913...
To continue: II First Event: The Sixteenth Amendment