The Prohibition Joke

I read this joke somewhere and found it pretty funny.

Two men are walking down the street. One has a gold coin in his pocket and the other has a bottle of whiskey. In 1932, the man with the gold coin is an upstanding citizen and the other is a criminal. A year later, the man with the gold coin is a criminal and the man with the whiskey is an upstanding citizen.

Background: In 1933, President Roosevelt outlawed gold ownership by private citizens. They were ordered to turn in their gold for paper money. The US was still nominally on a gold standard, but US citizens couldn't redeem their money for gold. Only international banks could redeem dollars for gold. President Roosevelt had to outlaw private ownership of gold. Otherwise, people would have started using gold as money and abandoned worthless paper money.

Also in 1933, Prohibition ended and it was legal to own alcohol again.

In 2007, at least it's legal to own both the gold coin and the whiskey, although the gold coin no longer has status as legal money.