The dollar's troubled past

Just to illustrate what the existence of the Federal Reserve and our system of fractional banking, let me do some math for you.

In 1913 the Federal Reserve Act was signed, and our money became bound to the will of the bankers. A single dollar in 1913 is the equivalent of $21.54 based on the national average inflation since then. That's a 95.4% reduction in purchasing power. To put that in perspective: my annual salary would have been $3115.31 before the government went on its money printing binge. I would be paying $27.86 in 1913 for my apartment. I don't think I really need to continue. This is just sad to watch. Rome collapsed because of their system of artificially expanding the money supply, as did numerous American colonies before they shifted back to gold (little known fact: the colonies experimented with fiat money numerous times, always to find that it ruined their economies and they promptly switched back to gold).

Scary times, indeed.