4 ms·

One point of comparison that's a hell of a point in favor of fiat currencies, is the that because fiat is just based on a really nebulous 'general consensus' ra

by Jetrel 6y ago

One point of comparison that's a hell of a point in favor of fiat currencies, is the that because fiat is just based on a really nebulous 'general consensus' rather than any sort of 'hard store of value', the same thing that's a bogeyman (of authorities deciding to cancel out all of your assets by executive decision) can work in reverse. Most of our forms of fraud protection, like identity theft, bank robbery, etc, basically boil down to the government looking at you and going "boy, that's not fair what happened to you. Even though the closest thing we have to a hard store of value's been taken from you, we're just going to literally rewrite the books and set you back to the state where you had your money." It literally treats storage of money like a database restore. The beauty of that is they can do that without losing anything (besides slightly inflating the system) - with hard currency (whether gold or BTC), they have to actually deplete their reserve of stored value. --- The most extreme example of this historically, was the national debt crisis britain had during the south sea bubble, where most of the country got wrapped up in a giant stock-buying scheme for a company that ended up having no value. This ponzi-scheme crashed, and it briefly looked like something like half the country was going to go bankrupt. What was amazing about it was that the government realized they had absolute executive power, and just forcibly reset the economy. They just decreed that all of the debts related to it were cancelled, and dictated that individual assets which had been collateral for the debt (like people's houses) had to be returned to them. Many instances of "stores of currency value" got wiped out, but the important thing the government provided was a floor - you might have all the money you earned on south sea speculation deleted, but they guaranteed the average person didn't end up in poverty.

louwrentius 6y ago
Thank you for sharing this. I think many people may not know/understand this aspect /feature of our existing banking system and the role of government. Or they deliberately try to ignore the entire safety mechanism because it goes against their narrative that government control is bad, it collides with this libertarian spiel. All to keep the grift going. When not understanding or misunderstanding things makes you more money (let’s you recruit new ‘suckers’) a honest discussion will start to become impossible.
- blindgeek 6y ago
  It is really telling that the people who complain most bitterly about fiat currency fall into a few different camps, most of which want to destroy any kind of government social safety net. On the one hand we have the right-libertarians / "anarcho"-capitalists promoting bitcoin etc. On the other hand, elements of the wacko/fringe right in the US have been attacking "fiat" currency and Keynesian economics for decades, loudly calling for a return to the gold standard. By wacko right, I mean organizations like the John Birch Society, Liberty Lobby, and similar, and ideological descendants thereof. These seemingly disparate camps -- fringe right and "anarcho"-capitalist -- share a fundamentally anti-democratic philosophy. For example, one of the seminal texts of "anarcho"-capitalism is Hans-Hermann Hoppe's _Democracy: the God that Failed_. If you look through my posting history, you'll find a quote from Tim May, an "anarcho"-capitalist and leader of the cypherpunk movement, wherein his anti-democratic sensibilities are on full display. I'll end with a quote: Begin quote. More than that; we can tell them that they will search the pages of history in vain to find a single instance where the common people of any land have ever declared themselves in favor of the gold standard. They can find where the holders of fixed investments have declared for a gold standard, but not where the masses have. End quote, from William Jennings Bryan's "Cross of Gold" speech. I'm totally in favor of a cryptocurrency ban; we will not be crucified on a cross of bitcoin.
  - louwrentius 6y ago
    Thank you. Your observation that cryptocurrencies are also embraced for nefarious - democracy undermining - purposes seems an additional aspect that justify a ban. It’s just such a shit show, I hope the music stops soon, in order for a lot of people to lose their ‘faith’ in this ‘currency’. There is a finite supply of suckers.

by Jetrel 6y ago

louwrentius 6y ago

Thank you for sharing this. I think many people may not know/understand this aspect /feature of our existing banking system and the role of government. Or they deliberately try to ignore the entire safety mechanism because it goes against their narrative that government control is bad, it collides with this libertarian spiel. All to keep the grift going. When not understanding or misunderstanding things makes you more money (let’s you recruit new ‘suckers’) a honest discussion will start to become impossible.

blindgeek 6y ago
It is really telling that the people who complain most bitterly about fiat currency fall into a few different camps, most of which want to destroy any kind of government social safety net. On the one hand we have the right-libertarians / "anarcho"-capitalists promoting bitcoin etc. On the other hand, elements of the wacko/fringe right in the US have been attacking "fiat" currency and Keynesian economics for decades, loudly calling for a return to the gold standard. By wacko right, I mean organizations like the John Birch Society, Liberty Lobby, and similar, and ideological descendants thereof. These seemingly disparate camps -- fringe right and "anarcho"-capitalist -- share a fundamentally anti-democratic philosophy. For example, one of the seminal texts of "anarcho"-capitalism is Hans-Hermann Hoppe's _Democracy: the God that Failed_. If you look through my posting history, you'll find a quote from Tim May, an "anarcho"-capitalist and leader of the cypherpunk movement, wherein his anti-democratic sensibilities are on full display. I'll end with a quote: Begin quote. More than that; we can tell them that they will search the pages of history in vain to find a single instance where the common people of any land have ever declared themselves in favor of the gold standard. They can find where the holders of fixed investments have declared for a gold standard, but not where the masses have. End quote, from William Jennings Bryan's "Cross of Gold" speech. I'm totally in favor of a cryptocurrency ban; we will not be crucified on a cross of bitcoin.
- louwrentius 6y ago
  Thank you. Your observation that cryptocurrencies are also embraced for nefarious - democracy undermining - purposes seems an additional aspect that justify a ban. It’s just such a shit show, I hope the music stops soon, in order for a lot of people to lose their ‘faith’ in this ‘currency’. There is a finite supply of suckers.