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I obviously put that statement out because I knew it would enrage about the majority of people reading it, yourself included, blame me for being contrarian. Bu

I obviously put that statement out because I knew it would enrage about the majority of people reading it, yourself included, blame me for being contrarian. But, let me continue. How do you store $100 million worth of value for 100 years in the current economy? You can't store it in dollars, it degrades exponentially with inflation. 100 years ago, a dollar was worth the equivalent of $13.90 today[1]. If that trend continues for the next 100 years that $100 million will be worth the equivalent of $10 million today roughly losing 90% of its value (wait that's almost 100%!). This is even before we factor in the fact that we only left the gold standard in 1971, and that the federal reserve have "discovered" new monetary stimulus strategies that promote inflationary practice. If you park your $100 million in dollars, you can almost expect the entirety of it will disappear in 100 years. So if putting your wealth in dollars doesn't maintain it, where are the smart people putting their wealth? Simple you can park it in a stable asset. I'll give you a good example of one of the most stable assets you can currently buy, which is real estate[2]. Which if you have ever bought a house or if you look at the markets you'll realize, this is where a lot of people park their wealth. Ever wonder why we could have so many homeless people when we have so much unoccupied real estate? Its not just because rich people are a-holes[3]. But to store $100 million in real estate, you need to construct that much market value in real estate. That's going to produce a lot of concrete, plaster, steel, glass, fiber glass, polysterene, polyisocyanurate, polyurethane, list goes on. Its going to burn a lot oil, a lot of coal, use up a ton of electricity. You think bitcoin is bad? Look at what the waste the construction process produces. If you want to see a climate catastrophe in the making, check out the ghost cities in china[4]. Now let's factor in the fact that even real estate value degrades. That is to say the house itself will have required repairs and the full economy will have added more houses so its value to the whole real estate economy has been diminished. And keep in mind most constructions are only built to last a set number of years. Keep in mind this is one of the best alternative stores of wealth that exists. You're not going to find very many asset classes that can keep its real value as well as real estate either[5]. And even if you do, they aren't going to be that much less polluting. Stocks in coca-cola is a production of corn to corn syrup to canned corn syrup. Stocks in nike is a production of nylon, rubber, and polyurethane. Gold has to mined and that has even more problems associated with it[6]. So people blame bitcoin for its energy expenditure because they want to point fingers, but you have to realize that when you start considering everything in the system, it is a far more efficient system overall than anything we're currently working with because its such a direct translation of energy into wealth. And if we're worried about pollution, we are free to swap out the energy creation for more sustainable alternatives as our society evolves, unlike concrete which is much harder to replace. People want to look at only a small section of things and point fingers because its easier, but when you start really pulling the thread to see what it looks like you start to realize how much of a hairball the whole thing has become. This post is already getting way to long so I'm going to stop it here. There isn't a single source to any of these, its just theories to how I see this world that has evolved over time. Sources provided, however, are true to the reality of the world we live in, which will not be changing from its capitalistic nature any time soon. Pretty sure I'm on my own island so please disagree with this post all you want. I'm just presenting why I believe other capitalist avenues for wealth acquisition and storage create significantly more inefficient systems. [1] https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1920?amount=1 https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1920?amount=1 [2] https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/01/real-estate-is-still-the-best-investment-you-can-make-today-millionaires-say.html https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/01/real-estate-is-still-the-bes... [3] https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/american-housing-has-gone-insane/605005/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/american-h... [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under-occupied_developments_in_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under-occupied_developments_in... [5] https://www.millionacres.com/real-estate-investing/articles/real-estate-vs-stocks-which-has-better-historical-returns/ https://www.millionacres.com/real-estate-investing/articles/... [6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_mining#Adverse_effects_and_responses https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_mining#Adverse_effects_an...

liamwestray 5y ago
Ok, so your solution to inflation is storing value in scarce forms of assets. Natural scarcity in the form of land, gold, etc., or unnatural scarcity in the form of crypto, water rights, futures, stocks. I find your arguments kind of silly about emissions and energy. Real estate in the form of teak farms are inherently 60+ year investments, fix carbon, and basically require no energy, and have nominal upkeep. Teak has been a steady supply of income for hundreds if not thousands of years. 99-year leases are also normal and allow you to retain land while letting others develop it or use it and puts the paying of taxes on them. Banks routinely finance mortgages on 60 and 99-year leased land for housing development. Crypto's only true benefit is the lack of minimum investment quantities. I can more easily store for 100 years $100m of cash today than I can $100. It also has the benefit of allowing people who don't know how to invest money to believe that somehow the flawed logic you just used is actually sensible.
- RedBeetDeadpool 5y ago
  > Crypto's only true benefit is the lack of minimum investment quantities. I can more easily store for 100 years $100m of cash today than I can $100. Hey thanks for the suggestion! That's also another benefit of crypto, you can store for 100 years $100 just as easily as you can $100m. Let's see you try to do that with teak farms. I would also love to hear how 60 and 99 year leases from banks are a simpler alternative to trading wealth. Seems awfully complicated to me. To be honest, if I wanted to send someone some crypto, I could do it in less than an hour whenever I want.

liamwestray 5y ago

Ok, so your solution to inflation is storing value in scarce forms of assets. Natural scarcity in the form of land, gold, etc., or unnatural scarcity in the form of crypto, water rights, futures, stocks. I find your arguments kind of silly about emissions and energy. Real estate in the form of teak farms are inherently 60+ year investments, fix carbon, and basically require no energy, and have nominal upkeep. Teak has been a steady supply of income for hundreds if not thousands of years. 99-year leases are also normal and allow you to retain land while letting others develop it or use it and puts the paying of taxes on them. Banks routinely finance mortgages on 60 and 99-year leased land for housing development. Crypto's only true benefit is the lack of minimum investment quantities. I can more easily store for 100 years $100m of cash today than I can $100. It also has the benefit of allowing people who don't know how to invest money to believe that somehow the flawed logic you just used is actually sensible.

RedBeetDeadpool 5y ago
> Crypto's only true benefit is the lack of minimum investment quantities. I can more easily store for 100 years $100m of cash today than I can $100. Hey thanks for the suggestion! That's also another benefit of crypto, you can store for 100 years $100 just as easily as you can $100m. Let's see you try to do that with teak farms. I would also love to hear how 60 and 99 year leases from banks are a simpler alternative to trading wealth. Seems awfully complicated to me. To be honest, if I wanted to send someone some crypto, I could do it in less than an hour whenever I want.