Just another example of how
“wise” the “common man” can be, showed itself in Switzerland on Nov. 30. After
a widespread petition garnered enough signatures to require a referendum, the
Swiss people voted upon the most amazing subject. They voted yes or no
upon whether to place the Swiss economy back upon the “gold standard”. The
specific point was to raise their gold reserves to 20% of central bank assets
from the current 7%. Switzerland had utilized gold as a major backer of their
currency right up until 1999. Then, (as virtually all other nations of the
world had so done several decades prior) they changed their system to become
more reliant upon the Euro as a major backer of their currency. They did not
adopt the Euro, keeping their Swiss Franc, but they abandoned gold as their
main money-value backer.
This story was
recently fully reported upon by USA’s Forbes Magazine, by the National Post,
and by other international media.
Many people in
Switzerland were apparently quite upset at their currency increasing in great
value against the value of the Euro. Their exports were assisted by this, but
their own currency became very expensive, allegedly cutting down tourism and
making imports very expensive; or at least that is what some held was the
reason for their economic troubles.
And so they had a
vote upon it. The vote was led, not by an individual, but by the efforts of one
of the smaller political parties, The Swiss People’s Party. Despite such interesting people as
former American presidential candidate, Ron Paul, supporting their position,
the vote was much against the idea, with 78 % voting in opposition. Prior to the vote, Paul had said, “The
Swiss people appreciate the work their forefathers put into building up large
gold reserves, a respected currency, and a strong, independent banking system.
They do not want to see centuries of struggle squandered by a central bank.”
However, most
financial experts of Switzerland were against placing the economy back on the
gold standard, declaring they still had more gold in reserve than most other
countries. These experts were also
of the opinion that not being within the gold standard was not the cause of any
economic troubles the Swiss may have had.
But the reasons
behind the vote are not, to this writer, what is so interesting. It is the
whole exercise. It is the permitting the “lowly citizen” to vote upon such a
complex issue. The fact that the vast majority went along with most of the financial
experts says a lot about “common-sense”. The people can be counted upon to vote
with sense. We in Canada (or Ontario, or within our municipalities) have “wise”
common people. Why cannot we vote when we want to, upon issues, via
referendums? Would not our commitment to democracy improve if we had more say
on some matters? Would not the apparent need for disruptive protests be
reduced? Think about it.
