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A gold standard would force the United States to reduce its military and defense spending and could prevent unnecessary wars.

According to Ron Paul, MD, former US Representative (R-TX) “fiat money enable[s] government to maintain an easy war policy… To be truly opposed to preemptive and unnecessary wars one must advocate sound money to prevent the promoters of war from financing their imperialism.” [125]

The government’s ability to limitlessly print fiat paper money allows it to fund a massive global defense establishment, an estimated 800 bases in 80 or more countries and an operational ground troop presence in at least 15 countries. [127] [128] The US defense budget was $738 billion for 2020. [129] In 2019, defense spending was $732 billion, or about 38% of global defense spending, and almost as much as the next 10 countries’ defense spending combined. [130]

This level of spending would not be possible if the United States returned to a full gold standard.

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