4 ms·

I think it starts with the financial system. The current system incentivizes bureaucracy, regulation and stagnation in part due to the cantillion effect but als

I think it starts with the financial system. The current system incentivizes bureaucracy, regulation and stagnation in part due to the cantillion effect but also indirectly because it destroys capital, increases debt and prevents a savings / capital asset accumulation desire in the populace. Say what you want about the gold standard but it did lead to the great industrial revolution in such a short period of time providing a -somewhat- playing level field for inventors and technologists to push forward while Kings and courtier, Parlamentarians and Senators had a very difficult time ‘controlling the markets’. I see the return to a non inflationary reserve currency as the first order problem to be solved.

seibelj 6y ago
Another benefit of a hard-money system (bitcoin would be better than gold nowadays) is that governments can only wage war by spending hard money. And they can only get hard money by extracting it from citizens. It puts a very strong limitation on the government’s ability to wage war, when they need to convince us all to pay for it rather than printing money. Another common trope is that deflation limits the economy. News flash - you can have a single dollar as long as it can be split to 10000 zeroes. We had a successful global economy for years before fiat took over.
- novalis78 6y ago
  Exactly. As it stands wealth is drained away from the people with skills to the people with quills. Thus we end up with mountains of strangulating regs and no bullet trains or hyperloops. I remember Germany, early 2000s, same story: they had their beautiful maglev train on a test track run in a circle for 11 years. They couldn’t build it anywhere. Environmental, political, regulatory ‘uncertainty’. Finally the Chinese invited Siemens on a joint project to build a real track for Shanghai. There is still no maglev train in Germany but several in China...
- mindslight 6y ago
  I generally agree with your viewpoint, but the argument against deflation isn't from needing to clerically split currency units, but rather that having currency itself appreciate delays purchases and causes the economy to stall. But deflation doesn't seem to have held computing back much. And when someone wants a loaf of bread, they're going to buy it regardless of being able to save if they wait a week. I do agree that it will generally slow the economy, and this is a good thing for sustainability and conserving natural resources. A good indicator that we're well past prudent investing into basically gambling is the SV bubble where equity is paying to flood cities with inexpensive e-scooters, hoping to create a culture of renting them so they can gain a future income stream. The physical goods are so meaningless to the financials that many end up destroyed or discarded. That's the kind of "investing" that the past two decades of artificially low interest rates have caused.
  - seibelj 6y ago
    It makes people prefer to buy what they truly need. And over time, things cost less. It incentivizes saving over consumption. And with private money, there can be alternatives to a single currency. The hardest money is saved, and the softer money is spent first.

seibelj 6y ago

Another benefit of a hard-money system (bitcoin would be better than gold nowadays) is that governments can only wage war by spending hard money. And they can only get hard money by extracting it from citizens. It puts a very strong limitation on the government’s ability to wage war, when they need to convince us all to pay for it rather than printing money. Another common trope is that deflation limits the economy. News flash - you can have a single dollar as long as it can be split to 10000 zeroes. We had a successful global economy for years before fiat took over.

novalis78 6y ago
Exactly. As it stands wealth is drained away from the people with skills to the people with quills. Thus we end up with mountains of strangulating regs and no bullet trains or hyperloops. I remember Germany, early 2000s, same story: they had their beautiful maglev train on a test track run in a circle for 11 years. They couldn’t build it anywhere. Environmental, political, regulatory ‘uncertainty’. Finally the Chinese invited Siemens on a joint project to build a real track for Shanghai. There is still no maglev train in Germany but several in China...
mindslight 6y ago
I generally agree with your viewpoint, but the argument against deflation isn't from needing to clerically split currency units, but rather that having currency itself appreciate delays purchases and causes the economy to stall. But deflation doesn't seem to have held computing back much. And when someone wants a loaf of bread, they're going to buy it regardless of being able to save if they wait a week. I do agree that it will generally slow the economy, and this is a good thing for sustainability and conserving natural resources. A good indicator that we're well past prudent investing into basically gambling is the SV bubble where equity is paying to flood cities with inexpensive e-scooters, hoping to create a culture of renting them so they can gain a future income stream. The physical goods are so meaningless to the financials that many end up destroyed or discarded. That's the kind of "investing" that the past two decades of artificially low interest rates have caused.
- seibelj 6y ago
  It makes people prefer to buy what they truly need. And over time, things cost less. It incentivizes saving over consumption. And with private money, there can be alternatives to a single currency. The hardest money is saved, and the softer money is spent first.