Guys, I am increasingly of the belief that the government doesn’t serve the people. The government prints our money that constantly loses its value. The government bailed out the banks because they were too big to fail. And you have very little control over it.
Why not 500 year mortgages?
Or maybe send some of that printed money to Ukraine?
The government should provide security for citizens and businesses?
And now imagine if people could create their own money (Bitcoin?) and provide security for themselves and their belongings without the government interfering?
Maybe that’s why the EU tries to regulate agriculture, and energy, tries to control the money with a single currency. Food was the main concern for governments in the ancient world. Just read plaques in cuneiform to get the idea.
Energy was for the most history slave labor and horse power, only the Industrial Revolution introduced new forms of energy such as hydrocarbons and electricity. Bitcoin is based on energy. Production requires energy. Modern society requires energy. Light go out, civilization goes out.
Money is the medium of exchange, pricing and money supply are important for the exchange of goods. BRICS wants its own exchanges, its own financial system. The Russians and Chinese are both on it.
Somehow countries (not all countries) became conscious of these important components of civilization. Russia for instance became a net exporter of food in 2016. The West is finally coming around the fact they need to build nuclear, ☢️ renewables are not going to cut it in the brave new world of AI and electric everything.
In opposition to doomspending there is checking out… and neither is ideal but one leads to savings and investments…
It seems like some of my fellow millennials and zoomers have this FOMO, maybe influenced by shyster influencers online wish turns them into mindless consoomers. You hear individuals saying they cannot live with $40k and shit. Yeah, the inflation is hitting hard but guess what, you can always eat slop and live in the ghetto… Until you actually make some money.
Did I tell you I actually won hundreds of thousands of pounds? I did not buy cars or go on fancy holidays, I bought real estate and created a source of rental income. I am chronically underemployed, and need this income. I was not kicking it in London, and so I moved with my elderly divorced mother to a house in the Czech Republic. I am making the same kind of cash I would be making in London in my current job in Czechia, and in many respects my current job is far better to what I was doing in London. Since the real estate keeps me fed and pays the bills, I can invest almost the entire salary into an index fund. Granted, I would have to save far more than I did until now to follow the 4% rule and extract some decent income from it. At present I can pay the car insurance with it. I have converted the basement into an airBnB and that has created a nice CZK reserve, with I periodically invest in index ETFs.
I barely go out, I am one of those unfortunate people that work on weekends and on holidays. Most of my childhood friends have families and I failed in this department, so I am not going to ask to go clubbing. Besides, there aren’t any club nights here on Monday or Tuesday, you get such shit only in metropolitan areas. I don’t lack friends, I know shit loads of people around here but I keep contact with only one guy, who supplies me with weed. I don’t find a space for someone else. I might visit a gallery with another acquaintance from time to time but that’s about it. My budgets for these activities are laughably small. Same shit with eating out, most local restaurants are tourist traps serving overpriced slop, locals don’t go there.
So, while my life might be missing. Maybe some bitch to ride my dick and milk my balls but I am certainly not missing money. The money is good…
PS: I have made some corrections and additions to this post.
So, I see a lot of anxiety about the phasing out of cash. People rightly fear the government will get much more control over transactions people make, and would be able to tax transactions, or tell people what they can or cannot buy. Currently, transactions in cash over €3,000 are banned in the EU. This right to cash is often taken up by the politicians.
But why are we defending papers and coins issued by a central bank? This is just fiat that they can produce at any amounts and while it appears to be a great medium of exchange because it is the accepted legal tender, it does not hold value…
I have been curious about the very question of what is money. Basically, I found my old crypto wallet and began buying crypto, and this naturally led me to this very fundamental question. I realized that cash as a medium is sorely lacking in many qualities. Not only is it prone to manipulation by forces that are outside your control but also it could be faked.
Crypto like Bitcoin has a limited supply, there will be 21 million Bitcoins at the end and the supply cannot be increased. Other cryptocurrencies work differently, Ethereum has a burning mechanism that controls the inflation, in which some tokens are burned by the system and that controls the supply. Cryptocurrencies like Monero allow anonymity in transactions. In my opinion the cryptocurrency world is a developing medium that could supplant fiat money in due time or become a parallel and competing way of exchange.
The above video shows that all kinds of shit was used as money historically… If you want to keep central bank issued fiat cash because you think it will maintain anonymity of transactions, you are simply not being thinking creatively. We can have those payments digitally if the government doesn’t get involved.
Crypto adoption in the West, where the fiat system is relatively stable is very low but in places like Africa or Latin America the adoption among people is much higher. Was crypto ever to become a popular medium of exchange in the West, the governments would likely try to ban it by saying it is used by criminals and terrorists. Currently, there are already attempt under way to roll out digital currencies issued by central banks.
Insomniac Resurrected 