Can I Buy That Ten Dollar Bill With This One Dollar Bill?

by Jackie Tse

Congress has made many reasonable and respectable decisions in the past, shaping the American economy as it is today. Decisions such as passing the Sixteenth Amendment in 1913 as part of the U.S Constitution allowed a better balance of power in the relationship between the government and the people who are ruled by the government. (1)

Unfortunately today there is a financial conflict within the U.S, which in reality impacts the entire world. The world’s reserve money, the dollar, is losing its value. The degradation was said to be inevitable. Times have changed and wars have passed. The degrading or devaluation of the dollar has caused a dramatic increase of unemployment within the U.S over the past decades, hence a change in the American economy for the worse.

Who is to blame? Congress realizes the long term effects of printing more currency yet, no immediate action is taken by congressmen. Since the Bush Campaign reigned over U.S, 1.5 million people have become unemployed within the U.S. (2) Bush continued devaluating the dollar after he took office as President in 2001. Since then, the dollar has fallen 35% in comparison to the Euro and 24% in comparison to the Yen. (3) Congress in general is to blame for the disappearing value of the dollar, but specifically, the Federal policy of allowing local banks to print money for maintaining corporate values has posed a threat to the American economy for decades.

The reason for the necessity of printing more money is to replace lost bills or to repay foreign debts with haste. On a larger scale, printing more money will manipulate the general public that they’re pampered by the government, fixing the mistakes of taking advantage of paper currency. The general public does not realize that destroying, writing on, crumbling a dollar bill harms the economy. In fact the general public of U.S should mind how they use their money. Many U.S citizens treat the dollar bills they have as note taking material. This contributes to the slow yet harmful effects of erosion. Congress’s share of help should be based on creating a stable policy of restricting dollar printing. For example, the policy should state the time period of when currency can be printed and by whom.

The dollar is disappearing and it’s unfortunate how little the general public know of this affair.

#1 The 16th Amendment gave Congress the power to tax individuals’ incomes without regard to the national census. Cornell Law School. The Unite States Constitution http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.amendmentxvi.html
#2 Christy Harvey. “The American Progress Action Fund”. The Progress Report. 2005
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=308856
#3 “The Economist”. The Disappearing Dollar. 2006.