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Down We Go, Into the Hole, Follow the White Rabbit (Part 3)

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@mercadomaestro
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Following Part 1 and Part 2, here is the long-awaited third and final part conclusion to my series on mental perception and its effect on how we view money and value.

Sorry for the delay, it's been quite the week. Down we go!

Parts 1 and 2 were primarily focused on general, broad ideas. With the conclusion to this series, I wanted to focus on where it all leads us, and what we can do to change our own perceptions, for the better.

As children, we are heavily-influenced by our environments, our families, our communities. Depending on where you come from, you might not have ever been taught anything about money or value. For the purposes of this exercise, we will use the United States as the reference point.

In the United States, the entire system of financialization has put a price tag on life, itself. In order to live, you have to capital to spend on necessities, such as food, water, electricity, rent/mortgage. If we are taught as children that money is scarce, and paper IOUs have value, then we assume that collecting a lot of those paper IOUs is the key to financial independence and success as an individual. That couldn't be further from the truth.

Money isn't scarce, value is. Value is what you make of it, but, generally, having something tangible and concrete, that you can hold in your hands and see with your eyes helps you discern what the value of something might be. For over a century, Americans have been brainwashed into believing that diamonds are a precious gemstone, worthy of paying thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars to obtain. The lies pushed by the DeBeers global diamond monopoly actually convinced several generations of people that they HAD to buy a diamond engagement ring for their significant others. Compressed carbon has no redeemable value on its own.

Diamonds are an illusion, because they do not have intrinsic value on their own. That's not to say that there aren't industrial uses for diamonds, because of course there are, lasers and equipment materials (diamond-edge blades, anyone?). However, most people aren't buying diamond-edge tools, especially if they aren't in the construction industry.

In 1971, Richard Nixon declared that the US Dollar was no longer pegged to any amount of physical gold, vaulted and segregated in any vault, globally. This not only ushered in the worst era of inflation the US had seen in decades, but, it also removed all the intrinsic value from paper US Dollar cash. Without gold backing it, and silver being removed years before, the US Dollar notes became mere IOUs for a debt owed to the holder, and nothing more.

For 51 years, we have lived within this peg-less, standard-less fiat financial debt-based system, devoid of intrinsic value. Everyone borrows money for one reason or another, whether through using a credit card or taking out a bank loan, there is always a way for a fiat bank to make money. Our perception has been impacted by how our parents and grandparents have lived since 1971. Because they lived in a time where the US Dollar had no redeemable value in gold, we were led to believe that there cannot be any connection between paper and physical.

In the past couple decades, monopolies like BlackRock have put out offerings for ETFs that enable any investor to "purchase" the right to receive delivery of physical gold and silver. These ETFs are paper derivatives, nothing more. If there were to be a true bankrun, and every holder of ETF units demanded physical delivery, whether of gold or silver, there would be no way for BlackRock to honor the redemptions, because there isn't a physical supply capable of 1:1.

Value is what you derive from something. Not what someone else TELLS YOU!

Posted Using LeoFinance Beta