Saturday, March 1, 2014

Whose picture should be on our currency?

Our currency in the U.S. (often known in the black community as "Dead Presidents") honors people who won wars.  Andrew Jackson killed a lot of Indians.  General Grant killed a lot of Confederates.  Franklin Roosevelt killed the economy. 

We should commemorate people who spread liberty and freedom. 

Don Boudreaux (who should be on a commemorative penny, at least) has come up with a list of people who we should honor on our Federal Reserve Notes and our debased coinage

Here's his list.  It's greatness.... !

$1 bill: George Washington.  For all of his flaws, Washington was not as mad for power as is the typical politician.  That character trait was enormously beneficial to the early American republic.

Ok.  Agreed.  They wanted him to be king, and he declined.  Although I sometimes think we would be better off with some hereditary despots who relied on promoting freed, as opposed to the current system of beauty contests. 

$2 bill: Henry Ford, for being such a pioneering and innovative producer.

I dunno.  Towards the end of his life, he became increasingly anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic, and anti-liquor, 3 concepts that I like a lot. 

$5 bill: John D. Rockefeller, Sr., for being such a pioneering and innovative producer.

He added hundreds of hours of light (via kerosene) at increasingly lower prices to the common man.  You could make the argument that Rockefeller saved the whales !!

$10 bill: Gustavus Swift, for being such a pioneering and innovative producer.

Ok.  Good choice. 

$20 bill: Norman Borlaug, for saving countless millions of people from starvation.

Excellent choice.  He developed new strains of wheat (and was harshly criticized by many on the left, because it would increase population!) and probably saved a billion (with a "b") lives. 

$50 bill: Sam Walton, for being such a pioneering and innovative retailer.

Wouldn't that make the Statists go just absolutely batshit crazy?  Sam Walton helped bring one million people per month out of bone-grinding poverty in China.  He did more than anyone in history to hold down inflation in the era of the Fed.  He's the reason the jeans I'm wearing now cost less than they did in 1977.  Here's why he deserved a Nobel !!

$100 bill: Benjamin Franklin, for his scientific achievements and his bourgeois wisdom.

Meh.  Interesting guy, but I'd rather see Calvin Coolidge (greatest president) get a spot. 

One-cent coin: Richard Sears, for being such a pioneering and innovative retailer.

Ok.  He changed the world. 

Five-cent coin: Steve Jobs, for being such a pioneering and innovative producer.

Well, he did more good than Roosevelt. 

10-cent coin: John Bogle, for inventing the indexed mutual fund.

Ok. 

25-cent coin: Milton Friedman, for teaching not only the general public, but fellow economists, economics.

HELL TO THE YES.  YES, YES, YES!!

50-cent coin: Gail Borden, for being such a pioneering and innovative producer.

Ok. 

$1 coin: Andrew Mellon, a productive financial genius

And the opposite side of the Andrew Mellon coin should show Franklin Roosevelt burning in hell.  Read Amity Shlaes great account of The Roosevelt-induced Depression "The Forgotten Man" for details of how FDR persecuted this great man. 

That's Don Boudreaux's list.  You probably have your own. 

3 comments:

MingoV said...

Why do we need portraits on our money? It's bad enough to have them on postage stamps.

My preference is to eliminate paper money and coins and go to an electronic system where you put money on something like a USB flash drive.

If we're going to retain paper money and coins, then I propose decorating them with flowers, animals, and scenery. I visited Costa Rica a few years ago, and much of their money has such decorations.

Fester said...

I don't like humans on money.

The Sanity Inspector said...

"George Washington. For all of his flaws..."

Deracinated moderns have no sensory organ with which to perceive Washington's greatness.

If there are spots in his character, they are like the spots
in the sun, only discernable by the magnifying powers of a telescope. Had he lived in the days of idolatry, he had been worshipped as a god.
-- anon. in _Pennsylvania Journal_, 1777