WTF happened in 1971?

[Daniil]

The first SSRI zimelidine was patented in 1971.

 

[Mauritio]

 

[Peatness]

1971: The Year That Changed Everything |

The year 1971 saw the trajectories of nearly every major trend relative to our way of life shift massively. This week's guest experts, Ben Prentice and Collin, founders of <a href="https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/">WTFHappenedIn1971.com</a>, explain how virtually all of these changes are a direct...

www.peakprosperity.com

 

[Peatness]

Snowden and Dorsey: What Happened in 1971

The US became a fiat currency system, where legal tender is backed not by gold, silver or some other commodity, but by government decree.

catalyst.independent.org

 

[IROM]

The Rockefellers Mobilized ALOT in 1971.

 

[Sam321]

If you haven't seen this website, its very interesting.

WTF Happened In 1971?

"I don't believe we shall ever have a good money again before we take the thing out of the hands of government, that is, we can't take it violently out of the hands of government, all we can do is by some sly roundabout way introduce something that they can't stop." - F.A. Hayek 1984

wtfhappenedin1971.com

Its just a collection of charts showing some trends occuring since 1971. Here are a few:

Capitalism and war.

 

[Risingfire]

Between ending the gold standard, normalizing relations with China, and his mismanagement of Vietnam, Nixon was easily the worst president in American history.

Nixon is arguably the reason that all of us are here, on this forum, trying to reinvent the wheel of human nutrition. He brought in Earl Butz to conceal rising food prices by creating those infamous USDA dietary guidelines

Sure getting a run for his money right now

 

[stressless]

The effects of the Second Vatican Council were in full swing, contributing to a steep decline in morals and values

 

[Surfari]

What I remember from the early 70's was my dad getting tested for cholesterol and triglycerides. His numbers were 'high' and he was told if he didn't loose weight he'd have a heart attack. Our refrigerator went from butter to margarine, regular milk to non-fat and sour cream to IMO (whatever the hell that is). He lost weight and had a heart attack.
And my belief that the white coats can't be trusted was born.

 

[Donttreadonme]

We went off the gold standard.
We opened China
We allowed mass immigration
We didn't produce our own oil
We began offshoring of our jobs
DB Cooper happened
All things you see happening now only supercharged... except for hijackings
1971 was a very bad year. Then Reagan came 10 years later and righted what he could. Then the following presidents dismantled Reagan's policies

 

[tankasnowgod]

Nixon eliminated the gold standard in 1971

Between ending the gold standard, normalizing relations with China, and his mismanagement of Vietnam, Nixon was easily the worst president in American history.

We went off the gold standard.

It would have been some trick indeed if Nixon had "eliminated" or "taken us off" the gold standard, considering the UNITED STATES wasn't on the gold standard at any time after 1933.

What Nixon did was end the Bretton Woods Agreement. It wasn't a true gold standard, certainly not for US Citizens, since The Gold Reserve Act prohibited them from redeeming "dollars" in gold from the treasury, and really owning gold. While the government couldn't forbid private Americans from owning gold, most people didn't understand this from the 1930s onward. Private Americans and "US Citizens" are two different things.

The case of "United States vs. One Solid Gold Object In Form of a Rooster" demonstrates that The Gold Reserve Act was still active and enforced in the 1960s-

United States v. One Solid Gold Object in Form of a Rooster, 208 F. Supp. 99 - Dist. Court, D. Nevada 1962 - Google Scholar

scholar.google.com

The only entities that could redeem dollars for gold were foreign countries. This effectively transferred what little gold the Treasury may have had from 1933-1971 to foriegn hands.

Plus, "Federal Reserve Notes" were never in their history backed by gold. They were always promissory notes, debt instruments. They circulated side by side with real gold certificates from 1914-1933, and have pretty much been the only form of money since. I've heard the claim that people don't understand the difference between debt and gold, and the conditions in those 20 years seem to back it up.

All money after 1933 had zero gold backing, and according to the Congressional Record, March 9, 1933 on HR 1491 p. 83. -

"Under the new law the money is issued to the banks in return for government obligations, bills of exchange, drafts, notes, trade acceptances, and bankers acceptances. The money will be worth 100 cents on the dollar, because it is backed by the credit of the nation. It will represent a mortgage on all the homes, and other property of all the people of the nation."

When it came to ending "Bretton Woods," Nixon probably didn't have any choice. The country was already bankrupt, everything was already mortgaged in some way or other, and the gold was all gone, given away to the money kings and foreign governments. The President doesn't have the power to coin money, congress does, and they seem to have "outsourced" that power to the private entity, the Federal Reserve.

Since US Citizens couldn't redeem dollars for gold from the treasury anyway, this move have little effect on them. If anything, it might have been slightly positive. Enforcement on the Gold Reserve Act was greatly relaxed, and by the mid 70s, people could trade gold more or less freely, and any remaining gold in the treasury that hadn't been plundered wouldn't just be handed over to foreign states.