Oddbean

Consumerism is a value of the fiat system. It is both literally a value, since we measure economic health in large part by measuring consumption, and also an ingrained mode of behavior. By disincentivizing mindless, reflexive consumption and incentivizing a lower time preference, #Bitcoin, if it continues to grow in adoption, offers the promise of a cultural foregrounding of deeper things, like fulfilling pursuits, relationships, creativity, contribution to community, presence, etc. #Bitcoin is money that, through its soundness, will hopefully allow us to actually get past thinking about money all the time so that we can make room for life’s important things - which tend to get lost, neglected, and/or sacrificed in consumption and the systemically coerced pursuit of more and more money. We spend so much time thinking about money (how to get it, how to get more of it, how to make it grow, how to keep up with inflation, how to invest it, how to spend it, what to spend it on, how to get rich quick, how to pay the bills, etc). And to a certain extent this will always be true. But when money does not hold its value, when it is continuously debased, when the sovereign debt is so massive it must be inflated away, and when the economic health of a country is measured by how much it consumes, it creates an environment in which money is practically all we think about. Looking forward to a world in which this is no longer the case.

That idea you put forth is so important: Due to the continuous debasement of out money we are on the hamster wheel (invest, work harder, take on risk etc) thus are unable to focus on life itself. Bravo 👏

You just made me think of this Neruda stanza too: “If we were not so single-minded about keeping our lives moving, and for once could do nothing, perhaps a huge silence might interrupt this sadness of never understanding ourselves and of threatening ourselves with death.”

Well said Logan. I agree about the potentials for cultural innovation and revitalization on a Bitcoin standard. It's one of the most inspiring dimensions of hard money - when we no longer need to think about money and inflation and can focus on more important matters of culture. I was curious some time ago to explore how much of our savings are lost due to inflation. As I went ahead and wrote a short program, I found that at 2% yearly inflation and zero taxes, we experience a ~35% loss of purchasing power on our accumulated savings over a 45 year career. Since we are aware that the CPI figures are politically cherrypicked and don't measure the actual cost of living, a ~7% yearly inflation will better matche the expansion of the money supply (M2) and the value increase of the stock market. At 7% yearly inflation and zero taxes, we lose ~71% of purchasing power on savings over a 45 year career. Add taxes and we lose more than 80% of our purchasing power on savings during a normal career. Below are four different examples of cumulative inflation visualized on a year-by-year basis. By showing the data I hope to visualize the problems of inflation with some additional clarity. When we have ~3% left of our savings from 45 years ago, we enter mindboggling territory of theft. https://image.nostr.build/5d5a6d70d01d34df73297e4ae75196ce39a3f3a64560a1939ea7ea2f69880df2.jpg https://image.nostr.build/1d81d64c1986bf407a521e0dcf9e088618a4df59df263292936efbad331c7c9a.jpg https://image.nostr.build/0902852ae0f7e4977115bda795a64bc9075962e7c7701cd20596d6e9c9594972.jpg https://image.nostr.build/29e105b5087f3106e6d507f77721cd326a57276beadf7529ce815821cf1f7207.jpg #Inflation

This is why when we're on a global Bitcoin standard I believe people will be financially free after only 10 - 15 years of time in the workforce, instead of the current 40 - 50. Imagine how much better life would be if everyone worked only as much as they wanted to, because everything was affordable. This is what Bitcoin truly gives us, our lives back.

This is the way. Bitcoin will open up a world where people have the option to retire early or move on to chase their passions at 30-50, instead of waiting indefinitely. This will free up vacant spots for the young generation and young adults will find matching jobs more easily, allowing them to start family building at a younger age. Next piece in the puzzle is developing cheap and abundant energy, which could happen within 10-70 years, with new physics such as QI by Mike McCulloch.

Yep! 💯 Bitcoin's mining network accelerates the development and deployment of ever more efficient renewable energy technology, by providing a huge incentive to create cheap and abundant energy which increases the profitability of the mining equipment. This future of abundance is accelerating towards us and will arrive much more quickly than people expect. The world isn't ready and doesn't expect it, but they're going to be forced to be freed by this abundance whether they like Bitcoin or not. 😆

It's a constant struggle yes, 2 steps forward and 1 step back, but humanity has come this far and we will never stop finding ways to improve. I am sometimes pessimistic as well, but I prefer optimism generally. Makes me feel better if nothing else.