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0 pointsstevesearer3y ago0 comments

The Atlantic article mentioned the necessity to abandon gold standard temporarily in order to fund WW1, however the American people did not want to enter the war and were unwilling to fund it directly.

An alternate telling would be that abandoning the gold standard allowed the government to circumvent the will of the people and enter a war there was no appetite to get involved in.

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throw0101a3y ago

> […] circumvent the will of the people and enter a war there was no appetite to get involved in.

You may wish to re-examine that claim:

> Germany also made a secret offer to help Mexico regain territories lost in the Mexican–American War in an encoded telegram known as the Zimmermann Telegram, which was intercepted by British intelligence. Publication of that communique outraged Americans just as German submarines started sinking American merchant ships in the North Atlantic. Wilson then asked Congress for "a war to end all wars" that would "make the world safe for democracy", and Congress voted to declare war on Germany on April 6, 1917.[4] U.S. troops began major combat operations on the Western Front under General John J. Pershing in the summer of 1918.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_entry_into_World_War_...

The declaration passed 82-6 in the US Senate, and 373–50 in HoR:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_declaration_of_w...

Sound like a fairly popular action.

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