Originally Published at Money Metals Exchange

Do young Americans today know anything about economics?
No, they don’t, according to a study during the 2016 presidential primary season, which says lots of other Americans don’t either.
The survey found 58% of millennials favor government-run socialism (statistically 6 out of 10), while a nearly identical number (64%) don’t want government interference in free markets.
The incompatible findings make no sense, unless… Americans aged 18-24 simply don’t understand the real meanings of either concept.
Sadly, the study says that’s true of one-third of all Americans. Not a clue. The evidence is the large following behind avowed socialist Bernie Sanders during his presidential campaign.
This lack of understanding is concerning, as the implications for individual lives and the nation’s future are significant. Witness the latest failure of socialism in Venezuela, where millions are rebelling against the government-controlled economy driving their lives into the dirt.
We know one answer. The thrust of government influenced, politically correct education for many decades has been to rewrite history and literature, aimed at growing government power while diminishing individual liberties. It starts with childhood.

The very first word anyone ever saw on a circulating United States coin was the word “LIBERTY.”
From half-cents to silver dollars, each featured the likeness of an unnamed woman. The images varied, thanks to different engravers, but together they became recognized as Lady Liberty.
Many, maybe most, of young America’s citizens were illiterate. “Liberty” may have been the first word they ever learned to read.
If not, they surely knew her face. The Revolutionary War for them was not ancient history.

The Founding Fathers knew all gold, silver, and copper is sound money and didn’t mind that American coinage circulated alongside colonial and foreign coins depicting kings and queens.
But Lady Liberty alone belonged to the United States. Her anonymous image spoke plainly to a cornerstone of human freedom – private wealth – in your hands, belonging to you, no counter-party strings attached.
After all, her picture was right there on the money!
Her looks would change with the fashions and the times, as she graced most gold and silver American coins for 154 years. She was variously adorned with the arrows of war, the shield of readiness, or the garlands of commerce and trade.
Then, almost unnoticed over just a few years, Lady Liberty began to vanish.
The U.S.