An allegory that most people are familiar with is Dorathy of the Wizard's Oz. It is a story that will be known as an epic of its time. The story is learned in childhood and forever fancied by us. Yet even though we are cognizant of it in its entirety, we miss a little but all important fact: Dorathy's slippers were silver.
What does this tell us about Baum, and the story of a young adolescent who has been caste onto a place without experience? Baum's play, one that is considered for children, focused on economic policy more than anything else. The story starts and begins with depictions of assets; first silver and later a great emerald balloon (this after the townsfolk were to always wear green tinted goggles). Add the yellow brick road, and how it takes the silver slippers to the den of lies, and it can be understood what the story means.
Baum wrote in a time when governments had begun to mess with real monie. Institutions were using FIAT after ripping the silver standard away from the exchanges. Banks were consolidated into large corporations, and these new entities began to rule the roost. They took over policy and government with it. Oz was Baum's attempt to put history in its place.
Today silver is being bought as a store of value with an effort not seen for some time. It is rightfully retaking its place as a store of value, and as a medium of exchange (if only being traded for FIAT). Oz and Co may end up escaping in the emerald bubble, where they will go is anyone's guess, but Dorathy would only have Kansas, and in Kansas monie is in silver. Take the yellow brick road if you must, but with the click of your heels, you are home.
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