A Rock, A Hard Place and An Elephant In A Room
August 30, 2019 4:00 am Leave your thoughts
Government & politics. A government is sort of like a virus in a way, it just grows until it falls under its own weight. When it comes down to it, in the current day pretty much any politician that gets into office is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Raise taxes or print more dollars. Governance in and of it self is the regulation of how we interact with each other as human beings and one of the largest aspects of this is how we transact.
History is littered with examples of governments that have collapsed, civilizations that have been birthed, peaked and died off:
The Mayan Empire
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Greece
Ancient Rome
The English empire managed to hold on and still be around to this day (despite the fact that they have lost much of the control they once had over the world) which gave rise to the American Empire and here we are today. So here we are, in the current day? Many economist argue that we are at the peak of western civilization, and for many reasons. It could be a long, slow and painful decent from here, if we don’t wake up.
2020
2020 is gearing up to be an interesting time in the financial sector, as the traditional markets are not looking so healthy. However on the surface (if you live in the west) everything “looks” fine. When you go outside of your door, there are people going on about life as if everything is perfectly fine, there is no war at your doorstep and in many cases (unless you look behind the curtain) everything seems to be a-ok.
The reality of the situation that we are all in is not so peachy however. The USA is 22 Trillion dollars in debt, which many economists are estimating to be more along the lines of 70 or so trillion when we take into account other forms of debt that are not included in the official reports. Also, most “westernized” countries are in more debt than their national GDP’s.
We have already seen the likes of Venezuela go into hyper inflation and Argentina’s MERVAL take a nose dive. Like dominoes, one by one, the house of cards appears to be falling. Which one will be next to go?
The difference between the days of old and today is the fact that, in this day of technological advancement and connectedness of the world, we all rely on each other to some degree in trade. The old empires did trade but they were nowhere near as connected as we are today in terms of global trade. Politically, in the current day things are also very different. To put it simply, if the US economy begins to fail, so will the worlds economy. If all the smaller economies fail, again it could tank the global economy as well.
Inverted Yield Curves
As Aug 2019 rolled in, we have finally went into the inverted yield curve, this has always been an indicator of a recession in every case in history.
And it is not only the USA that is in an inverted yield curve.
Market Indexes
In 2019 the S&P 500 index fell to hit the 200 moving average in a sort of flash dip (which we called). Personally the main issue I have with the American traditional markets, is the corruption involved in it. When these dips happen and it looks like the house of cards may begin to fall, calls are made, money is printed and shares are bought. It’s the snake that eats its own tail. Like the bank bail outs, how long can it last?
Unrest
Another factor in the fundamentals is the fact that the world seems to be in unrest. There are protests the world over, over many issues, most of which if you follow the rabbit hole leads to money and control.
Venezuela
Civil unrest in Venezuela due to hyper inflation.
Their money is worthless, so much so that the streets are littered with money.
And people are using Bolivar’s to make hand bags and art.
Hong Kong
Protests in Hong Kong as the Communist China government wants to fast track past agreements to keep Hong Kong a democracy until 2047.
France
The yellow Vest Protests in France for the rising prices of fuel, which has spiraled into protests to confront various issues, such as taxes, over regulation, laws and other issues.
Which has then spiraled off into other countries, pressing many issues.
Trade Wars
We have trade wars going on between the USA and China. As much as there have been articles claiming that China is ready to talk. However, as per Hu Xijin’s (Chief editor at the Global Times), the Chinese Government is not ready to cut any deals with the United States government.
Housing Bubble
Housing markets in some of the biggest cities have already skyrocketed as every one of these cities is in a housing bubble.
Homelessness & Disease
In many cities this has caused a widening in the gap between the haves and the have not’s. Places like Los Angeles is seeing an increase of homelessness, tent cities, addiction, mental illness and many other issues that these conditions bring. Ancient illnesses such as Typhus and the Black Plague are making a comeback as the streets in areas like this are riddled with rodents, feces and unsanitary used needles. You may also attribute things like the ban on plastic bags for the increase of feces in the streets, as these homeless people used those plastic bags to dispose of their waste. Now that there are bans on them it is left in the streets.
Political & Social Polarization
And in most of the west, we have political and social dogma plaguing both sides of the political spectrum. It’s getting to the point where both sides are becoming evermore polarized and unwilling to speak to each other, there are even speculations of civil war in the United States looming. There seems to also be an ever growing divide between the sexes. And to shake things up even more, new “sexes” are being added and forced into our vocabulary under the threat of hate speech laws. There are many accounts of family members even disowning each other and friends excommunicating each other based on political views and over all values. Political nuances and propaganda can be found in pretty much all of our media now, TV, movies and across the internet, most of which is coming out of the left. With that said, the internet itself is becoming more and more policed. If Google, Facebook, Twitter or any of the other big tech platforms do not like you, your speech, your think or even a joke in bad taste, you will be de-platformed or worse doxed.
A new paradigm
The signs are everywhere and they are all connected, we need a new way of thinking, we need a new way of doing business and a new paradigm, we need fresh ideas. Where does cryptocurrency tie into this? For one, it may just be a saving grace.
Printing Money
Because our monetary and banking system is corrupt. Full stop. It is ran by crooks who loan out money on a fractional reserve. Worse yet, loans are given to companies (on that fractional reserve) who then use that money to pump the price of their own stocks. Money is also printed at the will of the government and/or bankers These 3 points don’t even scratch the surface of the corruption in the monetary system. Think about it, no one should be able to print more money to dilute the supply. As a citizen this undermines everything you work for every day. If you printed money you would go to jail, yet politicians and banks can? Cryptocurrency cannot be printed, depending on the cryptocurrency it may have a fixed supply (like bitcoin) or many other formulas depending on the specific crypto. But with each one you know exactly what you are getting into.
Censorship
It is censorship resistant, meaning no big tech company can “shut you off” for wrong speak or wrong think. Heres the thing, the internet is a free and open place, there are many corners of the internet. But if you don’t like something, don’t look at it. There is no way we can police every corner of the internet, even if we try to. It’s a waste of resources to censor speech, it is also unconstitutional. there will always be a way around censorship, in most cases when sites get shut down they re appear on new domains on new servers or go underground to the dark web. Now don’t get me wrong, Im not talking about illegal things, in those cases it is up to the applicable law enforcement in the proper Jurisdiction to do its job. But policing free speech, something that is written into the constitution is a waste of our tax dollars.
Savings
Cryptocurrency cannot be taken from you. Such as in the case of Italy proposing to search deposit boxes and tax citizens on savings “hidden” in safety deposit boxes. Note the word “hidden”. This wording has been used for a reason and has the connotation that if you hold savings “under the mattress” you are now the evil bad person hiding funds. Your savings are yours and yours alone. As more and more countries get desperate, as they run out of everyone else’s money to spend, more of these kind of “proposals” will come out of the wood work.
Remittances
In this day of global connectedness, you can transact with anyone, anywhere in the world with no friction. Try to send money overseas, see how long it takes and how much hoops you will have to jump through. When it comes to remittances, cryptocurrency wins hands down. You can send funds to anyone world wide with a wallet in minuets. You essentially become your own bank.
Fight Poverty the RIGHT Way
It can help curve poverty. As anyone can participate, anyone can buy into the market, anyone can invest in new projects, anyone can participate in the ecosystem. Anyone can contribute and earn crypto, anyone can become a node, anyone can become a validator. You do not need to be an accredited investor to get in on the ground floor with venture capital style investing. Not to mention that that there are many cryptocurrencies that offer staking rewards and other systems that could help fight poverty. Also, by the nature in which cryptocurrency works, people can send aid without worrying about corruption, it generally saves money as the cost of sending money is cheaper and it is direct (P2P). It will also bank the unbanked as there are many people living in poverty who have no access to banking systems.
Fight Corruption in Voting
It can help curve corruption. Voting systems can be ran onchain. You could easily run a voting system on existing public blockchains. Seeing as every citizen can have a public and private key with KYC (know your customer) to ensure validity of each vote. Everything would be recorded on the block chain and can be verified. There could be no voter fraud or fake votes and all the results would be there for the public to verify.
Ready For the Challenges to Come
It provides us with an entire ecosystem and market, fit for the challenges of the future to come, IOT, machine to machine transactions and automation. The crypto market at large is an upgrade to the traditional markets and the tech is only getting faster and better with blockchains boasting upwards of 300,000 TX/s. Traditional systems of transaction simply cannot handle the amounts of transactions to come, we need something new.
The Most Important Issue, Decentralization
These are just a few points to consider in the coming times which may prove to be turbulent. The final point that we must consider is the fact that decentralization is of the utmost importance when it comes to adoption of blockchain. Decentralization means that anyone can participate, anyone can validate, anyone can contribute. This is paramount to preserve the freedom of humanity and to the world we leave behind for our children. One free of tyranny and control.
Categorised in: Politics
This post was written by BlockAdvisor