Through the 20th century, the United States federal government ceased to act foremost as a service provider to its citizenry and transitioned its **primary function** to global financial hegemon and centrally-controlled ledger.

It did this without the consent from (or awareness on the part of) its citizens through outright purchasing power theft.

In 1933 the federal government issued an executive order requiring citizens to turn in their gold or face up to a decade in jail.

In 1934 the Gold Reserve Act redefined a dollar from 1/20th oz of gold to 1/35th oz of gold _and_ citizens could no longer redeem their dollars for gold. **International creditors could still do so**.

This was an outright default towards the public _in order to finance an international monetary system._ They quite literally stole the people's purchasing power in order to set up a unilaterally-manipulable ledger that could make a killing with the rest of the world as its customers.