As we expected, the Utah law that allows the use of gold and silver coins has not produced a lot of growth in the use of sound money. There's some good reasons why these state initiatives cannot result in a return to sound money, but the latest news shows how futile the attempts are.

Rep. Brad Galvez, R-West Haven, sponsored legislation last year to recognize gold and silver as legal tender in the state, but doing business with the metals remains impractical.

Galvez’s resolution would encourage the adoption of a legal and commercial system to make gold and silver more functional as currency.

The resolution, which was approved by an 8-3 vote by the House Public Utilities and Technology Committee, is nonbinding.

But Galvez is also sponsoring HB157, aimed at making it easier for Utahns to pay taxes in gold and silver and stating that Utah laws and rules could not create impediments to using gold and silver in private transactions or favor paper dollars over the metals.

From the Salt Lake Tribune

They passed a law supposedly making it legal to use coins produced by the federal government, and they expected people to use them? Those coins are all too bulky and have a face value that has to be ignored in some cases but must be used in others. Supporters could carry around a few, but will almost never carry around a significant number, meaning cashiers will see them so infrequently that it will remain a mystery as to how to handle them.

So because they couldn't get it right the first time they now want to use the bully pulpit to try to get people to use these undesirable government goofs, and when that fails they'll be trying to change the regulations again to make it more palatable. They just don't get it.

We're not going to see a successful return to sound money through government. Politics and perverse incentives will always steer policy away from sound money, even if temporarily forced towards it by circumstances. Only a separation of money and state, with freely floating competing currencies will allow a sound monetary system to survive and thrive.