Gold

In the first place, most tangible physical goods are traded in terms of weight. Weight is the distinctive unit of a tangible commodity, and so trading takes place in terms of units like tons, pounds, ounces, grains, grams, etc. Gold is no exception. Gold, like other commodities, will be traded in units of weight.

— Murray Rothbard; What Has Government Done to Our Money?

In a purely free market, gold would simply be exchanged directly as “grams,” grains, or ounces, and such confusing names as dollars, francs, etc., would be superfluous.

— Murray Rothbard; What Has Government Done to Our Money?

It became clear to governments that they could not afford to allow people to own and keep their gold. Government could never cement its power over a nation’s currency, if the people, when in need, could repudiate the fiat paper and turn to gold for their money. Accordingly, governments have outlawed gold holding by their citizens. Gold, except for a negligible amount permitted for industrial and ornamental purposes, has generally been nationalized. To ask for return of the public’s confiscated property is now considered hopelessly backward and old-fashioned.

— Murray Rothbard; What Has Government Done to Our Money?

In short gold is no longer the world’s money; it is now the governments’ money, used in payments to one another.

— Murray Rothbard; What Has Government Done to Our Money?

The far higher gold price is an indication of the calamitous deterioration of the dollar since “modern” economists had their way and all gold backing was removed.

— Murray Rothbard; What Has Government Done to Our Money?

I found out that regardless of where I was in the world, the price of gold was the same.

— Robert Kiyosaki; Rich Dad's Conspiracy of The Rich

Roosevelt asked the American public to turn in their gold in 1933, for which they were paid $20.22 per ounce in paper money. He then raised the price of gold to $35 an ounce. In other words, for every $20.22 in gold that was turned in, the public was cheated out of about $15, a 58 percent heist. If anyone was caught holding gold coins, the punishment was a $10,000 fine and ten years in jail. One reason for doing this was to get the public used to paper money as the sole currency of the world. Another reason was to cover up the fact that the U.S. government had printed too many paper dollars and did not have enough gold in reserve to back them—in other words the U.S. government was broke.

In 1975, President Gerald Ford allowed the American public to own physical gold once again—only after Nixon had permanently severed the link between the dollar and gold. Who cared about gold when those who controlled our government and our banks could now print money at will?

Today, most people are only used to paper money. Most Americans have no idea where to buy gold and silver coins, or even why they should be buying gold and silver coins. All they can see are jobs disappearing, their home values declining, and their retirement savings going down with the stock market. Many desperately want government bailout money, which probably means they are unknowingly choosing hyperinflation over deflation.

— Robert Kiyosaki; Rich Dad's Conspiracy of The Rich