I wonder what would happen if a homeless man attempted to commit suicide.  Normally very few people give a shit about homeless people, and pass by them while their starving looking in the opposite direction.  When the dude starves to death, still no one gives a shit.  But when someone willingly takes their own life, it's a tragedy.

I'd say the chance of that happening is very low to zero.  The value of bitcoin is still very volatile, and the country would need to give up all monetary policy, so they wouldn't have the option to stimulate or contract the economy through financial manipulation.  That is a huge power that very few governments would be willing to give up.

There may come a day when you can use bitcoin in most stores, but it likely won't be the primary currency.

There can be a third party that can act as an intermediary for transactions, or something like an escrow service that ensures the seller completes their part of the transaction before releasing the payment.

Well let's say that humanity operated collectively, and it was about innovating technology to the point where we consume resources in a sustainable manner.  I'd say we have the technology live in a sustainable way (energy production and consumption, agriculture, transportation), however we are unable to execute on it.  We are putting a lot of effort and resource towards unsustainable resource consumption, which is negatively impacting the air we need to breathe and the water we need to drink.  When collective sustainability is sacrificed for personal ambition/desire/profit, it is similar to cancer in your body.  Not to say that personal ambition and desire is meaningless, but it can also be done in a way that positively or neutrally impacts the environment around us.

We have all you can eat buffet's here, but there are others dying from starvation.  The chemical soup of Coke and Pepsi are accessible world wide, but clean drinking water isn't.  We send raw materials to China to produce a product that you can use for 10 minutes before it ends up in a landfill, where it will not decompose.  I consider that a terrible allocation of resources.

I would agree with you on both points.  Our allocation of resources is terrible; I don't think there's any questioning that.

So the issue with guns/war is that they already exist and are in the hands of millions of people.  Most of those people are responsible folks not looking to use guns offensively towards another person.  Some use it for defense, sport, hunting, protection from wild animals, etc.  The issue is the small % of mentally ill or violent people.  I would assume that most of them would acquire guns illegally from the black market, to the point that they bypass any safety training or testing that the rest have to go through.

If there is any possibility of acquiring a gun illegally, then the entire gun control conversation doesn't address the issue.  Right now I'd say it can be acquired without too much difficulty, and all you need is cash.

I'm talking about trading...where you exchange fiat for bitcoin or vise versa, for profit.  You and many other people including myself have bitcoin which are off the grid from fiat, but we are not trading against fiat and it lowers the liquidity of bitcoin.  I consider this to be a barrier for bitcoin at the moment.  It should be as easy as a normal foreign exchange transaction.

I'm not sure if the consequence is unintended.  I don't think that the primary reason for strict drug policy is to decrease drug use in society.  It was threatening industries like alcohol, tobacco, pharmaceutical, cotton, petroleum based products, etc.  It also allowed law enforcement to put minorities in prison.  The same idiot that primed alcohol prohibition eventually failed and then moved onto drugs (Henry Anslinger).

In the same way, if the government wants to minimize suicides, then they need to address the main issue, which is  - what is deteriorating the mental health of people in today's society and how can we help them?  If the best we can do is say "that's illegal dude", it's not really addressing anything.  Suicide is still taboo topic in North America and is not discussed.  Suicide is not even reported in the media.  When I used to take the subway to work, and someone would jump in front of the train, there would be an announcement saying that there is a delay due to "signalling issues".  We can't keep treating people like retarded children and expect a positive change.

The thing about credit cards is that they offer rewards and cash back to the buyer, at the cost of a fee to the seller.  So for me, I get cashback on all CC purchases, as well as additional insurance coverage and some other smaller benefits that probably aren't significant to most people (road side assistance and towing).  I have my credit card set up to automatically be paid, so I never incur any interest, but benefit from the rewards.  To your point though, for anyone not planning to pay off the full balance, a credit card is a terrible way to spend money, but as long as you always pay the full balance, there is a benefit to the buyer from the rewards programs.

In terms of cars, I agree there is no need to spend beyond your means, but as a car/motorcycle enthusiast, I have had great experiences in motorsports, that were very worth the cost to me.  I never spent beyond my limit or went into debt.  More recently I have an economy car, and rarely even drive anymore as I live in the city, but miss the excitement I used to experience earlier.

I think there is a lot more difficulty in trading bitcoin with a fiat currency, as the fiat part can be tracked without too much trouble, and as long as financial institutions/banks carry out the government's will, it can make it a chore to trade.  What is very difficult to control however, would be bitcoin being used to buy and sell actual goods and services.  It is very effective at doing that, whether the government chooses to act against it or not.  In fact if they choose to be against it, then they will force bitcoin users to operate outside of the law, and that means that they won't be able to capture any tax revenue from sales.

Several of the stocks I keep an eye on and invest in have dropped past previous 52 week lows...will be interesting to see how much fear there is in the market and if it continues to drop

I thought something like this was going to happen a couple years ago...if it does end up being an all out crash.

Yeah you're right about that.  Regardless, the point I was making is that making something illegal doesn't necessarily cause people to stop doing it.

Yeah...the probability of having a losing streak on the first bet (or any series of bets) would be very low...but it has happened to me before.

I'd be interested to know whether law/policy impacts behaviour in the way we think it would.

If I look at drug policy, Canada and USA have 12-13% marijuana users, where it is illegal...not even decriminalized with the exception of Colorado and Washington.  This can bring potentially harsh penalties including prison.

Then you have a place like the Netherlands, where they have about 5% usage, and there is no legal punishment at all.

There is more to encouraging and discouraging behaviour in society outside of policy/law enforcement.

Agreed...but even if diagnosed with illness, does it make sense for the government to have the right to make that decision?  If we can't make that choice, then we are living life on someone elses terms, and that would likely only increase the drive to commit suicide.

Of course there should be some questioning and perhaps a lag between requesting euthanasia and having it done, to allow the person to seriously think about whether or not that is what they really want.  But at the end of the day, if someone wants to end their life, they shouldn't have to require permission from a stranger.

The other part is that we always have the option to commit suicide, if euthanasia is not an option.

I'd assume that his respect for those folks is that they aren't part of the rat race of constantly chasing the shiny item dangling in front of you, but just out of reach.

I do respect people with minimum wage jobs, especially in areas with social welfare programs, such as where I live....and that's because they get paid marginally higher than people that are on social welfare and sit at home collecting other people's taxes, while contributing nothing.  I do understand that there are some legitimate cases where people are down on their luck and end up in unfortunate situations, but it's also something that is very widely taken advantage of by others.

So you think that because it's against the law, someone considering suicide will come to the conclusion that it's illegal and that will be the reason to not commit suicide?  Similar to the heroin addict that is going to go cold turkey because he found out using heroin is against the law...

If what you're saying actually works, then the countries that were the "toughest on crime" would have the lowest crime rates, and you can see that that is simply not the case.  If you don't address the root cause of why it's happening, then the problem isn't going to be solved, and you can't just stick a law in there to get the job done.


lol 

So if I am using Google Chrome and I use duckduckgo as a search engine, will Google still be able to track my searches?

I'm usually signed into Chrome, with Gmail and Youtube signed in as well, and assume everything I do is being tracked.

I never understood what legality or policy or government or anyone for that matter has to do with the decision to commit suicide.  Once you choose to check out, who cares if it's against the law?

I find the way society views suicide to be very strange...as if it's the worst outcome and no one in their right mind would ever do it.  There are tons of people with a level of suffering that is difficult for others to understand, and it should absolutely be everyone's right to end their life if they choose to.  What's the point of going into palliative care, being pumped full of opiates, not being able to function mentally or physically and waiting until your heart stops beating?

In the past few years, a lot of comedians have broken free from submitting to TV networks and are able to market themselves on social media and most of them have successful podcasts.  So bitcoin is a great way for them to bring in some additional income.  I know Joe Rogan is a bitcoin user as well.

LOL...this is the post of the day
Probably more than 20% too



It amazes me how many people still watch the news from sponsored mainstream media as their daily dose of world truth.  As soon as I hear the familiar tone of voice of a news reporter I tune out.  They all share the same reporter tone where all emotion and honesty has been stripped out and replaced with this fake shit that they were told to say 3 minutes ago.

People that still subscribe to cable even amaze me, aside from sports fans.