It was 198 years ago President Thomas Jefferson penned the following words. 198 years and the ideas still rings true, if not truer today than when written.
"The system of banking we have both equally and ever reprobated. I contemplate it as a blot left in all our constitutions, which, if not covered, will end in their destruction, which is already hit by the gamblers in corruption, and is sweeping away in its progress the fortunes and morals of our citizens."
-Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, June 20th, 1816
"Funding I consider as limited, rightfully to a redemption of the debt within the lives of a majority of the generation contracting it; every generation coming equally, by the laws of the Creator of the world, to the free possession of the earth he made for their subsistence, unencumbered by their predecessors, who, like them, were but tenants for life."
-Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, June 20th, 1816
Regardless of political, social, or religious viewpoint, Jefferson was right. I read a post earlier today by Nestor and Katerina Gasset pointing out the lack of punishment for banks credited to the crash of the housing industry in 2008. Many were bailed out at the expense of the taxpayers; an act which has continuously been debated for justification and will surely still be for years to come. The important part is: those debts will not be paid by the generation which entered into them, they will be carried down the ancestral line until the due is satisfied. It was not our childrens' doing, and it was certainly not our grandchildrens' doing that lead us here; those who still today walk within the banking world did, and their "blot" has still not been adequately "covered," as Jefferson said.
Take a few moments to digest these priceless words, you will find that today's banking industry bears a striking resemblance to that which existed exactly 198 years ago today. Read Thomas Jefferson's entire letter to John Taylor and more here.
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