Money means gold. So instead of possessing gold, you are possessing some paper, written there, "hundred dollars." And you are such a fool, you are satisfied. You are being cheated.

The cheating goes on as long as you accept to be cheated

Abolish the false standard of money

HARIKESA: So actually this money doesn't even exist in Vedic society—money.

PRABHUPADA: Money is not required. You require things. Just like instead of money, you are getting papers. Money means gold. Where is gold? You are cheated. Money means gold. So instead of possessing gold, you are possessing some paper, written there, "hundred dollars." And you are such a fool, you are satisfied. You are being cheated. Bank's check and currency notes, you keep it in your..., "Oh, here is my money." Is that money? Just see.

DEVOTEE: They only do that to make it easier for them, because they've got so much money that they can't carry it...

PRABHUPADA: That's all right, but actually it is not money. You are befooled. You are such a fool that you accept a piece of paper as money. Therefore I say you are rascal. That is my business. If I say "Government, give me gold," and government has passed law, "No, you cannot possess gold," that means cheating. How I shall keep gold, that is my business. First of all you give me gold. It is due to me. But you are giving me paper. That means cheating is begun from you. HARIKESA: How will the government decide what my gold is and what his gold is? How does the gold get distributed?

PRABHUPADA: Gold coins. Formerly there was gold coins. We have seen in our childhood gold coins, silver coins. There was no paper.

HARIKESA: But you have to do something to get it.

PRABHUPADA: Yes. I will have to do something. That is another thing. But why you are cheating me? Instead of gold, you are giving me paper. Formerly... You have seen in KRSNA book that one fruit man came, and Krishna was taking some grain. It was falling down. So that was the... A fruit man come, and you give him a packet of grain. Then whatever exchange is possible, the fruit man gives you fruit. That's all.

PUSTA KRSNA: That is called bartering.

PRABHUPADA: Bartering. So there is no need of money. Similarly, you go to another shop. You get. So you produce your food, and in exchange, in barter, you get all things, other things. Somebody is producing something, somebody is producing something. But it can be done. Suppose I am a blacksmith. You want some work from me. So you say that "I'll make this instrument for me." So I say, "You give me one kg paddy." So you give me one kg, I prepare you, so your necessity is fulfilled. Now I have got so much paddy. Now, I may go to purchase something else because I am blacksmith, so grains will be used for my eating, and for, say for ghee, I take the same grain somewhere. So where is the money need of?

HARIKESA: It's very difficult to cheat in that system. It's very difficult to cheat.

PRABHUPADA: Cheat?

HARIKESA: In a system of bartering it's very hard to cheat.

PRABHUPADA: Yes. There is no cheating. Everyone is simply simple, honest. And here the government begins cheating. He is engaging you to hard work day and night and paying you a piece of paper, where it is written "one hundred dollars." That's all. This is your society, cheating and cheater. That's all.

HARIKESA: People have a hard time understanding that point, because with a hundred dollar note you can buy things.

PRABHUPADA: Therefore I say you are all rascals. You do not know. If I say, the government may arrest me that I am infusing people in a different way. But that is the fact.

HARIKESA: So a government's duty would be to abolish this false standard of money, and then automatically...

PRABHUPADA: Yes. Government's only duty is that government gives me land and I pay tax: "Whatever I produce, take one fourth." Finish. All taxes. If I don't produce, there is no tax. That's all. That is the business between the government and the public. That's all.