Lessons
Lessons from the Two-Dollar Bill
.
How keeping a $2 bill in your wallet can help to save the USA!
What’s two dollars these days? Not much, most would say. It’s just a soft drink at the drive through, or it’s that meaningless change that collects on top of your dresser or in the console of your car.
But that’s not true of every two dollars! Sometimes, two dollars is priceless. Sometimes it isn’t just money, but a powerful symbol and a daily reminder of a priceless thing that’s more important than money: Our freedom! Let me explain how keeping a $2 bill in my wallet has made me a better patriot, saved me loads of money, and how it could help to save our troubled nation if everybody else did the same thing.
Look on the back of any $2 bill printed since 1976 and you’ll see the famous portrait of the presentation of the Declaration of Independence to the Continental Congress in the year 1776. That was the daring document that put King George III on notice that the Americans were no longer interested in giving up their rights as free people just so that the king and his rich darlings could continue to profit from ruling over America. After that brave Declaration was made and the Revolutionary War was fought to back it up, America would become the most prosperous and free nation the world had ever seen. So for starters, remember this first lesson from the $2 bill:
1. Freedom paves the way for prosperity!
.
My friends, America has forgotten this simple lesson, and oh, how we have fallen from the freedoms and prosperity they enjoyed in the beginning! We are now burdened by more taxation and regulation and government spending than our forefathers ever endured under Britain, but unlike our forefathers, we don’t seem to notice. Each year we give up more and more in taxation and surrendered liberties, and get this: we do it for less and less in return from the government! Yes, they promise more and more, and if we let them have their way on everything, we’d come to believe that no free person could possibly take care of himself without the government’s involvement, oversight, and regulation!
And whose money is the government spending to promote this sort of message? Ours, of course! We’re paying through the nose under this heavy government, but it won’t get any better without some effort on our part. And that brings me to the second lesson from the $2 bill:
2. Freedom is Costly!
.
When the patriots in the portrait signed the Declaration, they knew it would likely cost them a great deal to attain and to maintain their freedom. They succeeded because they were willing to suffer for a short time, knowing that it would pay off in the end. Now here’s where the Two Dollar Bill Project gets really good. Here’s how it works:
a. Put a $2 bill in your wallet.
b. Never spend it. Ever!
.
That’s right. Don’t spend it. Don’t lend it. Don’t even “borrow” it, promising yourself that you’ll replace it with another later. And don’t give it away to anybody else. Ever. No matter what you have to give up to keep that symbol of independence and liberty in your wallet, give it up and let it go! See how you “toughen up” with some practice. It’ll change who you are! Indeed, having this special money in my wallet has taught me to say “no” a thousand times over to the mindless spending that’s so typical of us Americans!
See, some things are just not for spending or lending or giving away. If this nation gives away its freedom, rights, and independence, we become way more bankrupt than if we just gave away our last two dollars. So the way I see it, the $2 bill in my wallet is my way of helping to hold on to our independence. Sure, I could spend it and then get another, but for me, it’s become a matter of principle; nobody’s getting my $2 bill, no matter what they’re selling!
And that brings me to the third lesson from the Two Dollar bill:
3. Freedom Takes Teamwork!
.
Fifty-six patriots rallied together to stake our claim to independence, and then the whole nation had to back up that claim when Britain refused to honor it. This is why I believe that every American adult and teen needs to have a $2 bill in his or her wallet. We all need the constant reminder of what’s really important. Can you imagine how America would vote, and how our government would behave if every American shared this same paradigm of fiscal self-control?!
I came up with this idea about 5 years ago, and I’ve kept the same $2 bill all this time. And believe me, there were plenty of times when I really needed $2 to spend! But every time I see that portrait of the Founders signing the Declaration, it makes me stop and think about what’s really important. It makes me realize that I can indeed be in control of my own spending. And every time it’s the only bill remaining in my wallet, I think about how I’d be “broke” as a person without my freedom…and how much less of it we have now than they had in the beginning!
That’s why I want every adult and teen in America to read this short page and to have a $2 bill in his or her wallet.
Please join with me in this important, common-sense message—to return our nation to fiscal responsibility and to the full freedoms our forefathers strove to provide for us! Get a $2 bill from your bank and put it in your wallet today! And get a few extras for your friends and family. They’re great for gifts, too!
Thanks for visiting my website. While you’re here, please consider reading the poem and taking the challenge!
.
