Faith in Money

A church pastor recently spoke of the foolishness of having faith in faith itself, as though a belief in something–in anything–is admirable. Instead, he said, we need to be certain of the object of our faith.

So, naturally, my mind wandered to the subject of money. In an article published in the November 23, 2015 issue of Forbes, Steve Forbes reiterates his long-held belief that the United States should once again tie the dollar to gold. The so-called “gold standard” was suspended in the early 1970’s, and only Ted Cruz and Rand Paul have voiced recent support for a return to “sound” money.  At the moment, the money of the United States is, well, faithless— that is, the value of the dollar is based on nothing. That the government can simply print more “money” any time it wishes should be of concern to anyone who understands that there is a serious moral case to be made for the consistency of weights and measures. As Forbes properly observes, imagine the idiocy of adjusting the clock whenever a little more time is needed, or, when running short of fuel, to redefine one gallon as two. I’m reminded of a riddle attributed to Abraham Lincoln–
Q: How many legs would a dog have, if you count its tail as a leg?
A: Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.

So, sure, it matters what we have faith in. As in, the “full faith and credit” of the United States government. Too bad the US government can’t print more faith.