I know there is a “Fuck Texas” thread in the pit, but this is so political that I put it here.
Texans are to be allowed to pay with with gold and silver for everyday transactions after Governor Greg Abbottsigned House Bill 1056 into law. The law, which was championed by Republican state representative Mark Dorazio, designates the precious metals as legal tender in the state
And,
Critics, including industry groups and independent observers, warn of substantial costs, legal complexities, and potential consumer risks associated with managing gold- and silver-based transactions.
Of course. this is simply theater for the rubes. The idea is the State of Texas has a gold depository. Texans who transfer their gold an silver to the Texas Gold Depository will receive a debit card (Gold Card?). When used at a retailer, the US Dollar amount is converted to a gold or sliver equivalent weight and deduct that from the user’s account. The user can then replenish their account by depositing additional gold, silver, or cash.
To me, this simply opens an additional avenue for fraud and corruption. There really is no benefit for the average citizen. I can envision myriad regulations needed to address, but remember those who write the regulations are the ones behind the corruption, so the majority of users will lose a small “fee” while a few "highly compensated personnel"will make out.
They’ll be doing the same for bitcoin next. Man, these guys are destructive!
Sounds like another way to monetize the whole “gold bug” thing that goes on around with conservatives, and that often means you are just buying into a share or participation in a gold/silver trading account but you don’t actually get to lay hands on any gold. Bet that there have already incorporated on TX a whole bunch of middlemen who will purport to turn your regular dollars into bullion held by Texas, for a “modest” fee or commission, and to likewise “manage your account”, saving you from having to yourself directly replenish it.
And of course Texas will contract to some obviously respectable, safe, and totally objectively and impartially selected private entity to do the actual management of their side of the whole scheme.
ROFLMAO. So is someone in the central Texas gold depository actually going to cut little bits of gold off the bars and move them from safe to safe? Or is this just a really weird investment account?
No, it does change one thing: The dollar value of your account fluctuates wildly and randomly for reasons that you have no control over. But which someone, somewhere in the state government does have control over.
This feels almost like Texas creating its own gold backed currency. Can they really do that? If Texas wanted to create the Official Texas GoldBucks Currency, and treat that as legal tender in Texas, would that be cool with the feds?
No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.
If Texas GoldBucks are a distinct thing from real gold - and you make a good case for this being the case above - this would seem like a problem?
Except for minor short-term fluctuations when has the price of gold measured in dollars gone down? It’s far more likely that the Federal government will eventually have to devalue the dollar to avoid defaulting on the national debt, in which case the price of gold may be something like $150,000 an ounce.
Well, they reinvented the debit card, since it’s linked to how much gold you actually have on deposit. Of course, the buying power of that deposit will fluctuate from day to day as the price of gold fluctuates, so you’d better check the markets before going to the, well, markets. If gold is down, it’s generics for you!
Yeah, there have been a few laws like this, and as best as I can tell it’s mostly just gold fanboys declaring their little hobby to be Legal Tender, which has no bearing on anything. Legal tender is not a very important legal concept in either direction.
This law goes a little further by creating these silly accounts, which again just seem pointless.
I was wondering how people were going to make change for gold ingots and the like but I guess it’s answered. Hey, do these “goldbugs” trust the Texas government sufficiently to trust them with their gold?
As opposed to the people hiding physical gold under the beds or whatever. My in-laws are like that. There was a point where my late spouse and I cashed in a small gold ingot, and it was useful (we paid 2 months of rent and bought groceries with it, as I recall) but I wouldn’t call the process of covering to spendable money convenient or quick. I suppose the “repository” and “gold card” gets around some of that, but merchants will need to make conversions on at least a daily basis.
Sounds like a solution in search of a problem to me.
Oh, it absolutely is. It’s nothing more than pandering to a particularly small fringe group of Republican voters. It doesn’t really cost the GOP anything, as Texas will foot the bill for creating this system, and as discussed above, they can find several ways to grift off if it, but it secures the long-term loyalty of a group of crazy voters, so why not?
(d) A person may not be required to offer or accept gold and
silver specie or gold and silver currency as legal tender for the
payment of a debt, for deposit, or for any other purpose.