henryreardon
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December 16, 2013, 01:36:15 PM |
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Excerpts from Bitcoin Revolution: Ending Tyranny for Fun & Profit below. (BTW if the author wants me to delete this post I will readily comply.)
The first thing to understand about governments is that they grow by stealing the wealth of their citizens. Without money to pay for bureaucrats, police, spying agencies, tax collectors, military machines of aggression, and propaganda like the mainstream media and the education system, the government would pose little threat to the freedom and prosperity of its citizens. So, assuming you believe the growth of government is the cause of the increasing poverty, unemployment, and misery that we see around the world today, you must ask, “What is the best way to reduce the size of government?” Well, it seems to me that there are 2 possible solutions.
You can try politically to reduce the size of the government. That is, elect politicians who will reduce the size of the government, or
You can stop funding your government and starve it of the wealth that it so greedily steals from you. The first option is surely the most desirable… if it is achievable. But, that is a big “if” in today’s society that is already so far gone. By “so far gone,” I mean that the education system, media outlets, and the general population are so enamored with big governments that only a “punch in the face” blow like an economic collapse will wake people up to the dangers of big governments.
if you want to know where the US and the rest of Europe will be in a few years, just look at Greece and Spain. Every week, millions of people march in the streets, protesting what the Euro technocrats are doing to them. Every week, the police come out with batons, water canons, pepper spray, and rubber bullets and beat the crap out of people. It never even enters the heads of the politicians to help the citizens they represent and give into their requests.
Exactly the same thing will happen to the rest of Europe and in the U.S. in the next few years. Once a ruling class has amassed that much wealth and power, there is simply no way that they are willing to give it up. Citizens can petition their governments all they like; they can protest, hold strikes, throw Molotov Cocktails, and anything else, but the ruling class will never give up their power voluntarily. It did not work for Soviet citizens. It did not work for Chinese citizens. It did not work for the Argentineans, the Cubans, the North Koreans, or anyone else who was unfortunate enough to allow the ruling class to become that powerful. Almost without exception, there are only two things that cause the ruling class to lose their power:
1) Force; or
2) Bankruptcy
Both are colossal disasters for the citizens. In the case of force, the cost in blood and life of waging war against a modern army and police force will be horrific. (Think Tiananmen Square massacre, times a million .) Also, think of what is happening in Greece and Spain at the present moment.
Still, the people of Greece and Spain are nowhere near winning the battle. If the people of America and Europe were to win via violence and protesting, it would be at a cost of tens, if not hundreds of millions, of civilian lives. A truly tragic set of events that could very likely happen.
So, what about bankruptcy ? Governments are experts at bankrupting themselves; we’ve seen throughout history that they all do it eventually. The problem is usually that they bankrupt the citizens first. Once a government has run up significant debt, they eventually turn to their citizens and take whatever they have left. They raid pension accounts, bank accounts, and investing pools. They nationalize real estate, businesses, gold and silver, food, energy, telecommunications , and means of production. They call it taxes, levies, contributions, buy backs and bailouts, but it all amounts to the same thing: Theft. In addition , they also have the biggest theft of all up their sleeves: the ability to inflate the money supply. Eventually, every bankrupt nation resorts to turning on the printing presses to pay interest on the massive debt they have accumulated. That process escalates more and more until every piece of fiat currency is worthless.
Bankrupt governments are replaced only after the citizens have lost their life savings and suffer greatly. Even at this point, some governments manage to stay in power. The sad thing is bloodshed is nearly always required. The cost to the average citizen on the street is atrocious. The hunger, poverty, corruption, and gang violence that follow a government overthrow is truly horrific. Bitcoin potentially offers a new alternative by allowing citizenry to create an economy beyond the reach of the government theft. Their wealth cannot be stolen through inflation , their bank accounts cannot be raided, and their retirement accounts are safe from bureaucratic hands. In fact, as the people flee the national fiat currencies, it is the private Bitcoin owners and business that will flourish. It is the entrepreneurs and employees in the Bitcoin community that, having successfully built a resilient economy, will see the masses flood toward it. It will be the Bitcoin community, if it can grow fast enough, that will be there to save the world, when the western economic world collapses in a debt riddled heap. That is why I say that transferring a portion of your wealth to Bitcoin and using it to pay for goods and services is the most patriotic thing you can do. While Bitcoin is building an alternative, functioning economy, it is also doing something very powerful. Something that people so often fail to learn during a collapse: more tyranny. Even after all of that suffering in the transfer from a failed government to a new government, people frequently just choose a slightly different form of tyranny. All too often, the country slips straight back into totalitarianism of a slightly different form, until the new system corrupts completely and the process repeats itself. The key to lasting worldwide peace and prosperity is a limited government. Until a mechanism can be found to limit the government, the government is sure to grow and grow and continue to cause the suffering we see across the world today.
So, can Bitcoin be that mechanism to limit the growth of government? That may be hard to say, but it is showing some very promising signs. At the very least, it will remove the possibility of that most insidious practice of money printing from ever occurring again. That is a huge step forward. That alone will severely hamstring the government from growing. The next way to restrict government is to reduce its ability to steal your wealth. To understand why, it is important to understand that the government embodies violence. All of its power comes from its ability to force, at the point of a gun, the dictates of its leaders. If you did not know full well that men with guns would come and throw you in prison for not paying your taxes, then you probably wouldn’t pay them. Every law, rule, or guideline is enforced through violence or the threat there of. It all comes down to force and violence. And, if force and violence is wrong, how do people take power back from their government when that government is wrong? Bitcoin provides a peaceful, non-violent answer to this problem because Bitcoin is not susceptible to violence.
As we have discussed in previous sections, and as the black marketers of Silk Road prove, Bitcoin is extremely resilient to violence. You can shoot at, beat, and kick a math equation all you like, and it does not respond. There is no way to storm the Bitcoin depository and confiscate it, or make Bitcoin worthless through inflation. It is anonymous and underground. Each and every one of us can move a portion of our transactions each month to Bitcoin. Each one of us can slowly but surely reduce our use of fiat currency and increase our use of Bitcoin. Each one of us can, little by little, eliminate the government’s ability to steal our money through inflation, by not using their money. The government requires those funds to be the insurmountable force of destruction that it is. The police officers beating their citizens in Spain and Greece are cowards, doing it to protect their own jobs and income.
They don’t care about the thieves in suits they protect, and they don’t care about the people they are beating. Take away the state’s ability to pay for the thugs, and the thugs go away. So, Bitcoin has the potential to be both the mechanism to limit the growth of government and provide a prospering functioning economy. The best part is we don’t have to convince 51% of the world to vote this in. One at a time, without seeking anyone’s permission, people can opt out of funding the over reaching government without destroying their own prosperity. And, they can do this without destroying the economy or the prosperity of their fellow man. This is huge. Never before in human history has man had this opportunity. For Atlas shrugged fans, the Bitcoin community is Galt’s Gulch, Mulligan Valley, or Atlantis.
When the fiat currencies collapse, imagine if society just got up, dusted off its knees, and the economy continued to thrive by ignoring the government, politicians, and their silly solutions of a world-wide fiat currency. Just think of that possibility. Take a second and just opt out of the government; ask the question, “Who is John Galt?” Whether or not Bitcoin really does become the mechanism to limit the government by taking away its ability to inflate the money supply remains to be seen. However, one thing is certain. Bitcoin will reduce the revenue of governments, and attempts to police the Bitcoin community will create a massive for the government. In either situation, the government will be reduced. So what if this idea takes? What if the Libertarian or small government community takes hold of this idea? What if Ron Paul fans stop campaigning for Ron Paul and start campaigning for Bitcoin? What if they wave signs for Bitcoin instead of Ron Paul? What if they go door-to-door knocking not for Ron Paul but to businesses, saying, “Who ever accepts Bitcoin will get their business?” What if spokespeople start touring your country giving pep rallies for Bitcoin? Just how fast could this grow? In my opinion: Very, very fast.
So, what do you think ? Will Bitcoin explode over the next 5 years with a flurry of people making fortunes fighting for freedom? Will the hard crash landing of the fiat currency collapse be softened by the Bitcoin economy taking its place? Is Bitcoin a reasonable solution to limit the size and power of the government? Is it a reasonable solution to creating prosperity? Would a reduced state bring about more peace and less war? This book is a call to action to people who believe the answer is yes to those questions. Your fellow citizen will need your help to keep goods and services flowing when the banking system collapses. Think of those poor people suffering in Greece and Spain right now. Youth unemployment is over 50% in both of those countries. Poverty and hunger are rampant. The same thing is headed to where you live. The most valuable contribution you can make to your community right now is to build an economy outside of the reach of your government.
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