From Bernie To Bitcoin: Fix The Money

Healing symptoms of wide societal issues without fixing the underlying origin volition pb to much of the aforesaid and doesn’t really lick anything.

Logan Bolinger is simply a lawyer and the writer of a escaped play newsletter astir the intersection of Bitcoin, macroeconomics, geopolitics and law.

Part Two: The Big “This” That Bitcoin Fixes

“Politics is the creation of looking for trouble, uncovering it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the incorrect remedies.” – Groucho Marx

In Part One of this series, I wrote astir the archetypal large breakthrough for maine connected my travel from being a fervent Bernie Sanders protagonist to a committed Bitcoiner, which progressive confronting the thought of spot successful authorities and wondering however Bitcoin’s trustlessness could beryllium leveraged toward a affirmative governmental extremity via its imaginable to constrain lawmakers.

Now I privation to speech astir the 2nd large breakthrough I experienced connected this journey. I privation to commencement by suggesting thing that is going to sound, astatine archetypal blush, plainly antithetical to immoderate successful the Bitcoin community, but which I deliberation mightiness resonate with those who person emigrated to oregon person arrived astatine a content successful Bitcoin from a much left-leaning governmental starting spot (like, say, the Bernie Sanders/progressive orbit oregon the wide arts ecosystem): Progressives and Bitcoiners some place and admit a akin slate of problems with the presumption quo.

Progressives would item and stress wealthiness inequality, unequal fiscal access, monopolies, an overpowerful cadre of tech companies, excess firm power, exploitative (and discriminatory) large banks and, mostly speaking, excessively overmuch power being wielded by a tiny radical of individuals and corporations arsenic large issues. This database is evidently non-exhaustive, but I deliberation it’s a just practice of large concerns.

The bulk of Bitcoiners would hold with most, if not all, of these criticisms, and would astir apt adhd the pursuit of GDP (gross home product) maturation astatine each costs and ubiquitous malinvestment, some of which are necessitated and sustained by the existent fiat system, to the list.

(Source)

Progressives and Bitcoiners disagree radically, however, connected the nonstop determination of the source of these problems, arsenic good arsenic connected the due solutions to these problems.

These divergent views are analogous to 2 doctors examining a diligent and agreeing upon the symptoms, but disagreeing connected the cure. I privation to tug connected this medical/corporeal metaphor a small much to gully retired immoderate further points due to the fact that it’s illustrative of Bitcoin’s unsocial and transformative promise.

Imagine our monetary strategy arsenic a body. This assemblage lives hard and accelerated and begins to grounds symptoms of sick health. Two doctors analyse this assemblage and suggest 2 starkly antithetic remedies. Doctor A suggests giving the diligent immoderate medicine, which is to accidental a targeted pharmacological intervention, and sending her connected her way. Then Doctor B suggests that the basal origin of the symptoms are deeper and recommends cardinal manner changes. This doc endorses regular exercise, cleanable eating, drinking little alcohol, spending much clip extracurricular and the like. The diligent opts for the casual prescriptions of Doctor A.

It doesn’t instrumentality agelong for the diligent to instrumentality to spot these 2 doctors with caller and worsening symptoms. It turns retired the medicine has had broadside effects, which present request to beryllium addressed. Doctor A suggests further pills to code these broadside effects, portion Doctor B continues to urge wholesale manner changes to fundamentally code the basal origin of the patient’s condition.

You tin spot wherever this is going. Reactively addressing symptoms without ever treating the underlying contented oregon worse, misdiagnosing/mislocating the underlying issue, results successful a sicker diligent with much problems.

Bringing it backmost to Bitcoiners and progressives, Bitcoiners find the root of galore problems astatine the monetary level. The wealth is nary longer dependable and this is the provenance of galore of the consequent societal symptoms. Bitcoiners tin hint this occupation to a precise constituent successful time, 1971, the constituent astatine which wealth efficaciously became indebtedness and currency formally became unbacked. From there, problems emerged, multiplied and compounded. For this reason, Bitcoiners suggest fixing the wealth successful bid to statesman healing the litany of consequent societal maladies.

On the different hand, progressives coalesce astir antithetic causal narratives. Sometimes it’s the billionaires, sometimes it’s capitalism itself, sometimes it’s corporations, sometimes it’s Mark Zuckerberg, etc. Sometimes the communicative conscionable devolves oregon settles into an amorphous, all-encompassing oppressor/oppressed model successful which each quality narration oregon sphere of quality enactment tin beryllium (and is) categorized by and via this binary. In this environment, scoring rhetorical points excessively often takes precedence implicit formulating thoughtful, considerate solutions. Instead, projected solutions astir ever impact shoveling much dollars astatine assorted parties.

Before I discovered Bitcoin, I was a devoted advocator of spending nevertheless overmuch wealth was indispensable to “fix” problems similar wealthiness inequality, excess firm power, inequitable entree to services, etc. This, I came to learn, lone temporarily relieves the pain, portion leaving intact the monetary strategy that causes the symptom successful the archetypal place. We tin spot this contiguous with inflation. We pumped the system afloat of liquidity and handed retired stimulus checks. Sounds great, right? Almost 2 years aboriginal and, wouldn’t you cognize it, that wealth did person to travel from determination aft all. And by expanding the wealth proviso truthful dramatically to undertake these (largely) well-intentioned interventions, we ensured the ostentation we are present experiencing. The brunt of which is borne by the aforesaid wage-earning savers for whom the stimulus was meant to aid.

IMF; M2 data; Central Banks (Source)

Furthermore, the Federal Reserve Board is present successful the presumption of raising rates successful a slowing maturation situation successful bid to curb this inflation, which volition itself apt origin a recession — continuing to harm wage-earning savers. When the symptom reaches a tipping point, the Fed volition measurement backmost successful again with a caller painkiller of liquidity, devalue the currency adjacent more, further enriching the affluent plus holders, portion further punishing the wage-earning savers. We volition proceed this vicious cycle, failing to lick immoderate of the problems we were seeking to address. Fiat solutions cannot lick fundamentally fiat problems. 

Jim Bianco / Bianco Research (Source)

In different words, we’ll conscionable proceed to dainty the symptoms until they go excessively galore and ultimately, terminal.

As an aside, I find it absorbing that the Western world, with its globally unsocial conception of symptom and its painkiller aesculapian civilization (as opposed to a much holistic Eastern attack of locating and addressing the root of pain) opts to dainty its monetary strategy the aforesaid way. The authorities treats the wealth the mode Big Pharma treats wellness and gets akin results.

But anyway, treating the symptoms of a diseased monetary strategy without addressing the origin has the perverse effect of simply delaying much terrible and perchance terminal aboriginal symptoms, portion exacerbating the existing symptoms successful the meantime.

If I had not recovered Bitcoin, I’m not definite I ever would person understood this. And I fishy there’s a crushed for that. Learning astir Bitcoin incentivizes fiscal and economical literacy, which is neither wide taught nor wide distributed. I don’t deliberation it strains credulity to suggest that galore of the folks successful Congress charged with making these important decisions astir fiscal spending, the budget, and authorities indebtedness are likewise underinformed astir the downstream consequences of fashionable interventional ideas, a concern that is compounded by an overarching involvement successful winning re-election. Promising to manus retired much money, careless of wherever that wealth comes from and careless of immoderate sedate aboriginal consequences it whitethorn produce, is simply a overmuch easier governmental merchantability to constituents than the pursuit of fiscal discipline. The erstwhile is simply a painkiller that temporarily masks its basal causes. The second is simply a achy withdrawal that, erstwhile undertaken and completed, offers anticipation for much lasting semipermanent health.

I was a Bernie protagonist due to the fact that I wanted to code a litany of societal problems. I americium present a Bitcoiner due to the fact that I cognize that deca-billionaires, ascendant corporations, “late-stage capitalism” and Mark Zuckerberg — though surely objectionable — are not the causes of these problems. They are the symptoms of a breached money. And attempting to lick for these discrete symptoms volition lone effect successful systemic contortions that let different symptoms to metastasize. It’s whack-a-mole problem-solving.

Put simply, Bitcoin made maine recognize that it is intolerable to lick the problems caused by fiat wealth wrong the fiat framework. It is, successful fact, intolerable to person a fiat strategy successful which these problems tin beryllium avoided. Which is wherefore existent solutions, the “big structural changes” that progressives similar Elizabeth Warren tout and demand, necessitate a rebuilding of the strategy itself upon a amended foundation, which means fixing the money.

Bitcoin’s committedness is the imaginable of fixing this. And anyone who is superior astir addressing each the issues progressives and Bitcoiners hold upon indispensable face the basal origin of a wholly, irreparably breached wealth astatine the basal furniture of society.

This is simply a impermanent station by Logan Bolinger. Opinions expressed are wholly their ain and bash not needfully bespeak those of BTC Inc. oregon Bitcoin Magazine.