Haven't shown the kids the gambling and porn side of bitcoin yet..  Did you plan on showing them the gambling & porn side of cash, too? |
|
|
|
Looking forward next year to using Rothbard's Conceived in Liberty to teach American History. The kids are going to hate me.
No kidding. My wife & I homeschool our kids too, but I wouldn't do that to them. |
|
|
|
|
OP, did you start a new forum account just to post this?
|
|
|
|
I normally love reading about economics although that was a little heavy, any recommendations for lighter reading?
lonelyminer mentioned Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson, but that is about the same level as Bastiat. No way. Hazlitt's work is way more readable than Bastiat. If, for no other reason, than Bastiat was translated from French. |
|
|
|
I thought the vast majority of bitcoins were used to buy dollars. Which were then used to buy bitcoins again. Sometimes at a profit (and sometimes not). Hopefully this situation will change as bitcoins become more widely accepted.
On quick look at bitcoinwatch.com tells me that the total volume of bitcoin in motion in the past 24 hours was 904,380.25 BTC while the volume on the exchanges presented on that same page total under 73,000. Granted, there could be a great deal of cash trading off of those markets and some of that first number is users moving BTC from one address to another. But it seems a bit silly to think that with a daily volume over 10% of the entire monetary base in current circulation, cash/bitcoin trades could make up anything near a majority of real economic trade volume. |
|
|
|
What legitimate purchases are currently being made with Bitcoin? My cynical outlook predicts the huge majority are only being used for purchasing illegal products/services on underground websites such as silkroad.
Contraband is, beyond doubt, a not insignificant portion of any economy. However, I seriously doubt that such business is anything near a majority of the Bitcoin economy. I've personally made dozens of purchases; from a handmade necklace on Etsy, to pretty quartz rocks, to Steam game licenses, to Internet services, to cell phone service (via a Virgin Mobile Top-up card #) to (most recently) candy. I've never bought anything that could be considered contraband where I live. |
|
|
|
For a more modern text, I suggest Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?.
I have heard from others also that that is a really great book. Is that available digitally? I just checked Amazon for a kindle version, and the answer appears to be no. |
|
|
|
2-Meter Radio, I believe can be bought on sight without tested licensing.
Pretty much any ham gear, but using it is going to get the feds on your tail, because hams aren't going to suffer you for long. It's a fine emergency communications plan, however, and an attack on the commercial Internet infrastructure might just qualify. In a true emergency, anyone has the right to transmit. True emergencies mean that life or property is in immediate danger, not that you can't read your email. To be honest, however; Marine VHF gear has been in use by unlicensed users for some time now. As long as you are using it far enough from the ocean, and yield to primary users, that you don't tick anyone off, then no one calls the FCC and thus no one really cares. |
|
|
|
A sticky topic in the lending section for defaulters would be a good idea.
I don't think that there's been a single case where it's mattered. If someone defaults, they almost always abandon the account. That's why it matters, because established members should have better credit. At least within this forum. |
|
|
|
Marxism , by it's own definition, seeks to establish a predominately communist society.
In the broadest sense, Marxism posits that a communist society will emerge regardless. But perhaps it is true that Marxism is not strictly relevant to the discussion at hand. I'm not sure what Brits would call their social welfare system. Technically it might be considered benevolent monarchism. But that doesn't seem accurate. Capitalism of course. Their social welfare system? Really? Yes really. Why - what would you call a system that is based on private enterprise? Britain's social welfare system is based upon taxation, not private enterprise. So I wouldn't call it that. I wouldn't call anything capitalism, because the term is as tainted as "communism", and so is the economic systems that people tend to refer to them with that term. There is no such thing as a free market in this modern world, so it's not accurate in an economic sense to call Britain (or the US) capitalist nations. |
|
|
|
Well, since everyone is reading antiquated economics... you might try Alfred Marshall, principles of economics (1890). Most modern economists say that it is only useful for the several page mathematical appendix at the end, but I would disagree. The main text provides a nice language-based introduction to microeconomics.
It doesn't really contain much ideology, though. This might make it less interesting to you folks.
There are plenty of modern economics books as well, this is mostly a discussion on the classics. For a more modern text, I suggest Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?. It's targeted for teens and younger, so you should be able to follow it okay, even as a Krugman fan. |
|
|
|
This would be a good opprotunity to see if bitcoin routes around the block. Do we have any forum members from Iran? Considering that access to this forum may be blocked later, I wonder if we could set up a means to test bitcoin penetration into Iran after the block. Say, perhaps, get the bitcoin address of a volunteer in Iran. After the block, other volunteers could send small bitcoin amounts to this address, and if the user in Iran can see those payments, return them to the senders. If one person sent a small amount each day, and the volunteer agreed to return those payments as quickly as reasonable, we could track the effectiveness of the block. |
|
|
|
Marxism , by it's own definition, seeks to establish a predominately communist society.
In the broadest sense, Marxism posits that a communist society will emerge regardless. But perhaps it is true that Marxism is not strictly relevant to the discussion at hand. I'm not sure what Brits would call their social welfare system. Technically it might be considered benevolent monarchism. But that doesn't seem accurate. Capitalism of course. Their social welfare system? Really? |
|
|
|
The default for private property rights is very similar to what exits, collectivist ideals of property rights require enforcement structures. Therefore, it's impossible for communism to function in the absence of central control of economic systems.
no, collectivist ideals does not require enforcement structures. Its not impossible for communism to function with out central control, all it requires is that people are not narcissistic assholes, and begins care about other persons well being. There is no need for central control. For any society larger than Dumbar's Number ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number) that is dependent upon members of that society treating each other with the kind of mutual respect that is required for a truly voluntary commune to exist, some form of social hiearchy with the capacity to impose it's will upon individuals is required. Otherwise it's unstable. This pretty much describes any group larger than a (relatively small) church business meeting. No town, city, county, state or nation can function otherwise; regardless of whether or not they are communist, libertarian or other. Even libertarian ideals require a common social order that can be enforced upon individual members; but ideally that common social order is minimalist in nature. Communism cannot be minimalist in this fashion. It's literally impossible. : Dunbar's number is a suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. Yes, because it's an educated guess on the average. You see, people vary and it's difficult to nail down such a number because we kinda can't do social experiements on human beings in order to refine the guess. |
|
|
|
If your goals are to create something for widespread popular use, I suggest creating a standard on top of 802.11 ad-hoc mode. This would give you:
My goal is to create a transaction broadcasting channel that other devices can listen to, but not compete with existing tech. Wifi can be used regardless. |
|
|
|
...snip...
Even libertarian ideals require a common social order that can be enforced upon individual members; but ideally that common social order is minimalist in nature.
...snip...
I'm guessing that its things like personal freedom and property rights that get enforced? So you have police, courts, taxes, etc. Yes, generally speaking. Libertarianism does not equal anarchism. To a lib, there are certain "natural" laws, which can be summed up with Maybury's two laws. 1) Do all that you have agreed to do and.. 2) Do not encroach upon another person or their property. Property is not defined here, because it's a difficult meme to plainly define. However, most of the time the simple, 2 year old type of 'possesion equals ownership' is somewhat accurate. As in the idea, the car in my driveway for which I alone have keys for belongs to me, because I paid for it. |
|
|
|
I bought the 2 volume Hardcover copy of his collected works. One of the few books I read over and over.
 Why? I have them all on Kindle, and it didn't cost me a dime. |
|
|
|
I think you're right with Marxism, but I believe OP didn't necessarily mean Marxist-Libertarian, but Social-Libertarian.
Maybe, but then I'd require a definition of "social-libertarian" to know if there were fundamental differences. |
|
|
|
|
Show Posts
