Money Wasn't Theirs: How the Dollar Became a Tool of Control

Before there were dollar bills, there was trade. Before trade, there was trust. Somewhere between trust and the green paper in your wallet, the government inserted itself like an unwanted subscription you forgot to cancel. The history of money is the history of power, of who gets to decide what counts as value, and who gets to control the flow of that value. The truth is that the government didn’t invent money. They simply perfected the art of owning it without owning it.

The World Before Money

Long before paper bills or metal coins, societies operated on barter. You had goats, I had wheat, and we made a trade. But barter had a fatal flaw: the coincidence of wants. If I didn’t want your goats today, your goats were worthless to me. People needed a common reference point for value, something that could stand in for any good or service at any time.

That’s where commodities came in. Across different cultures and eras, people began using items like salt, cattle, shells, and eventually precious metals to solve the problem. Gold and silver emerged as clear winners because they were durable, portable, divisible, and universally recognized. Nobody needed to explain why gold was valuable. You just knew.

Rulers Enter the Scene

Kings, emperors, and local warlords didn’t invent gold or silver, but they realized that if they controlled the issuance of coins, they could control trade, tax collection, and the economy itself. They began stamping coins with their faces, not to create value, but to standardize it and declare, “I own this system.”

Coinage made trade more efficient, reduced fraud, and centralized power in ways that benefitted rulers. But money was still anchored in something real. A coin contained actual metal, and that metal had intrinsic value. You didn’t need a royal decree to believe in its worth.

From Metal to Paper

The next big shift came from the East. In 7th century China, during the Tang dynasty, merchants began using promissory notes, an early form of paper money, to avoid carrying heavy coins. The idea spread slowly and reached Europe and the Americas centuries later.

In the early United States, private banks issued their own notes. These weren’t dollars in the modern sense. They were promises to pay the bearer a certain amount of gold or silver. The government’s role was minimal, and value was still tied directly to something tangible.

When the U.S. dollar was introduced, it was essentially a claim check for gold or silver. The government standardized the look and feel of the notes but acted as the gatekeeper rather than the creator of money.

The Great Hijack

The real turning point came in the 20th century.

1913: The Federal Reserve was established. This centralized currency issuance and gave a small group of unelected bankers control over the money supply. It was sold as a way to stabilize the economy but marked the end of decentralized money issuance.

1933: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6102, making it illegal for U.S. citizens to own most forms of gold. The government bought it at a fixed price, then revalued it higher, effectively stealing purchasing power from the people.

1971: President Richard Nixon suspended the convertibility of the dollar into gold. That “temporary” measure became permanent, and the U.S. dollar became a purely fiat currency backed only by government decree.

The Dollar as a Tool of Control

Once money was no longer tied to a finite resource, everything changed. The government, through the Federal Reserve, could create as many dollars as it wanted. Inflation became a tool. Every new dollar printed diluted the value of the dollars already in circulation. And the public was told this was part of a healthy economy.

By controlling the money supply, the government could fund wars without raising taxes, bail out failing corporations and banks, influence market winners and losers, and maintain dependency among the population. Controlling the medium of exchange meant controlling incentives, and controlling incentives meant controlling society.

The Illusion of Choice

Many people think they choose their form of money when they use the dollar, the euro, or the yen. In reality, they are choosing between different versions of the same system. Every modern fiat currency operates on the same principle: unlimited creation by a central authority backed by nothing but trust in the issuer.

This system benefits governments and banks but slowly drains everyone else. Your purchasing power erodes year after year, while you are told it is simply the cost of progress.

Bitcoin: Breaking the Cycle

Bitcoin is the first money in centuries that isn’t issued or controlled by a central authority. It’s digital, but it shares gold’s best qualities: it’s scarce, divisible, durable, and portable across borders in seconds.

Unlike fiat currency, Bitcoin is governed by code rather than policymakers. Its issuance schedule is fixed, and no one can arbitrarily inflate it. Every transaction is verified by a decentralized network, making it resistant to censorship and control.

Bitcoin doesn’t just offer a new form of money; it offers a way out of the control system. It restores money to its original purpose as a neutral protocol for value exchange.

Closing Thoughts

The government didn’t give us money. They took it, centralized it, and reshaped it into a tool of control. They turned a trust-based human invention into a mechanism for power consolidation. Every dollar in your pocket is a reminder of that transformation.

Bitcoin is the first real chance in generations to reverse the process. It isn’t about getting rich quick. It’s about restoring money to its rightful role as a tool for free people, not a leash for obedient citizens.

Money didn’t start as theirs, and it doesn’t have to end as theirs.

Tick tock, next block.