2013-08-30 Bitcoin: Society's Boon or Bane?

[NewLiberty]

This author seems to be on the side of BANE

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ari-zoldan/bitcoin-societys-boon-or-_b_3715125.html

Why?
1) More crime
2) Less government control
3) Less social development investment

He looks all wet, maybe he missed the boat.

[aigeezer]

I knew I had seen this drivel before: "Bitcoin is fundamentally based on mistrust, as it was designed to evade governments and central banks. This is a significant obstacle in Bitcoin's growth, as economies, and in particular currencies, revolve around trust. Nevertheless, if Bitcoin ultimately does become a global economic force, it would then possess the power to significantly disrupt and deleteriously affect our society."

Turns out this is an old blog post "Posted: 08/19/2013 6:27 pm". Must be a slow news day at HuffPo for them to pick it up again now - they got in some Miley Cyrus coverage though to make your click worthwhile.

Edit: I forgot the link to the old HuffPo version thread. One from the vaults: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=277997.0

[monkeybars]

Pretty hilarious to see these tyros tearing their hair out over trust.

Where's that trust been in the last 100 years, since the Fed was created? Where was that trust in 2008? Now?

Mistrust is the only thing that can save the world economy at this point. Thank goodness for it!

[gog1]

Consider how western society is primarily based on adversarial system (look at the justice system), democracy is suppose to be citizen voting for those who represent their own self-interest best and capitalism is based on the premise of competition, stating how bitcoin is based on mistrust will doom it is complete BS.

[TooCasual]

Gotta love the "new bitcoin posts". With all the retards of such strong opinion of shit they have no clue about the uncharted new world currency. 

Its not just this post, but many others that have such introspective godlike financial knowledge... Haha

TC

[GoldSilverBitcoin]

Many of the articles which comes out of the mainstream are full of crap, and unfortunately these are the same papers that our regulators read.

[zeroday]

Author is either too naive or just a hypocrite.

IMO, what he means as "less social development investment" = less possibilities to suck taxpayer's money by thousands of bureaucrats and hundreds of "chosen by government" corporations.

[prophetx]

the older generation writes all this stuff as if it is bad

the younger generation reads it and thinks it is great

[zeroday]

This could mean the end of programs like Medicare, Medicaid and social security

Unfortunately, these profit making money-sucking machines will never stop, to big to fail

Because it is completely decentralized and provides zero identification with respect to its users, Bitcoin is virtually impossible to tax. There is no way for governments to know who owns what, who is paying whom, what is being sold, who is buying what, and how much income a Bitcoin owner has. By preventing governments from levying taxes against their citizenry, Bitcoin could very well decimate governmental power and significantly diminish the ability of governments to operate.

In other words - "we are poor slaves and we cant imagine how to live without our Masters, we will all die without their guidance"

Now there are a few small countries still exist in Europe (but outside EU) which don't have personal income taxes at all, and the standard of living in there countries is much higher than in the rest of the civilized world.

[cr1776]

Exactly zeroday.

I think the flip side is the side of the power-hungry control-freak political class who can't imagine WANTING and NEEDING psychologically to control everyone else and to dispose of the lives of everyone else to suit their whims because "they know best."

The authoritarians (socialists, communists, fascists, big government types etc) do NOT like freedom, and are afraid of it, so want to rest of us to live under their thumb.  And they will try to use fear to whip people into a frenzy to keep their control.

This could mean the end of programs like Medicare, Medicaid and social security

Unfortunately, these profit making money-sucking machines will never stop, to big to fail

Because it is completely decentralized and provides zero identification with respect to its users, Bitcoin is virtually impossible to tax. There is no way for governments to know who owns what, who is paying whom, what is being sold, who is buying what, and how much income a Bitcoin owner has. By preventing governments from levying taxes against their citizenry, Bitcoin could very well decimate governmental power and significantly diminish the ability of governments to operate.

In other words - "we are poor slaves and we cant imagine how to live without our Masters, we will all die without their guidance"

Now there are a few small countries still exist in Europe (but outside EU) which don't have personal income taxes at all, and the standard of living in there countries is much higher than in the rest of the civilized world.

[Birdy]

Governments are able to tax the even more anonymous cash, why shouldn't they be able to tax Bitcoins?