Imagine waking up to a world where some faceless bureaucrat in Canberra or Washington doesn't dictate the cash in your pocket.
No more endless money printing, no more inflation robbing you blind while politicians promise the moon.
A monetary system run on sound principles, like a decentralised cryptocurrency or gold standard, free from government meddling, would flip the script on everything we know.
And let me tell you, the elites in power would hate every minute of it.
For individuals, this is liberation pure and simple. Your savings would actually hold value. No more watching your superannuation evaporate as the Reserve Bank pumps out dollars to bail out their cronies.
You'd earn, save, and spend with confidence, knowing inflation isn't a hidden tax eating 5-10% of your wealth annually.
Hard-working Aussies, tradies, mums and dads, small investors, could plan for the future without fearing the next "stimulus" package that lines the pockets of the connected.
Peer-to-peer transactions would bypass banks entirely, cutting out the middlemen who skim their cut. Freedom to transact globally, instantly, without Big Brother peering over your shoulder.
Businesses would thrive like never before.
No more begging for government grants or navigating red tape for cheap loans. Entrepreneurs could borrow from real savers at market rates, not artificially low ones that breed malinvestment and boom-bust cycles.
Innovation would explode, think Tesla on steroids, without subsidies propping up green fantasies.
Prices would stabilise, supply chains shorten, and competition sharpen. No currency wars or competitive devaluations to wreck your exports. Australian manufacturers could compete on merit, not manipulated exchange rates.
The result? Jobs, growth, and prosperity for the productive, not the parasitic.
But here's the real kicker: governments would be neutered. Their golden goose, the ability to print money at will, would be gone. No more deficit spending without consequence.
Want to fund endless wars, welfare bloat, or climate boondoggles?
You'd have to tax people directly or convince them to lend voluntarily. Imagine the uproar if politicians had to justify every dollar instead of hiding it in inflation.
The loss of coercive power is the death knell for the modern state.
Governments rely on seigniorage, the profit from creating money out of thin air, to fund 10-20% of their budgets without voter approval. Strip that away, and their enforcement arm weakens. Police, regulators, and armies don't pay themselves.
Without the printing press, bloated bureaucracies shrink.
No more QE infinity to prop up failing banks or buy elections. Politicians couldn't inflate away debt; they'd face default or austerity; real choices, not illusions.
The deep state would scream "chaos!" but history proves otherwise. Under gold standards pre-1914, economies boomed with minimal wars and low inflation.
Bitcoin's fixed supply is already showing the way; nations like El Salvador are adopting it to escape IMF shackles. Governments would be forced to live within means, slashing waste and corruption.
Power would shift back to the people, where it belongs.
Sure, transitions would be bumpy, bank runs, debt restructurings, but the alternative is slow-motion collapse under fiat tyranny. A free money system ends the elites' free lunch.
Individuals flourish, businesses boom, and governments? They shrink to size; servants, not masters. That's not utopia; it's sanity.
Cory Bernardi is the author of seven books and has been a member of the Australian rowing team, a publican, an investment portfolio manager and spent nearly 14 years as an Australian Senator.
