Bitcoin and the Sovereign Nation State

[practicaldreamer]

Globalisation has meant that the individual nation has become less "sovereign" IMHO. This article makes an interesting read - The end of the welfare state? How globalization is affecting state sovereignty.

     "More explicitly, economic globalization, in its most recent form, has been limiting the capacity of states to determine their own policy outcomes in three main ways: through trade and economic integration; financial markets; and the competition for employment. Due to the increasing pressure of international competition in trade markets as well as the increased mobility of capital and multi-national corporations, states are incentivized to cut labour costs, to reduce the price of goods and services, reduce taxation to make their domestic market more competitive, and to decrease the size and scope of the welfare state"

     The author of the above article is interested in the relationship between globalisation and its effects on the welfare state. I know some of you will think its been a good thing that national Governments have had the rug pulled from under them - but lets not forget it hasn't occurred via the will of the people of those nations - it has occurred through the influence of what, maybe 150, immensely wealthy and powerful multinational corporations ?



My question is, what would be the effect of Bitcoin upon the sovereign nation state ?

It seems to me that it could only undermine it - as has global capitalism. Would this be the case ? Would this be a good thing ? It certainly doesn't seem to have been so in the case of global capitalism.
    Why would it be different with Bitcoin ? What, do you believe, would Bitcoin bring to the table ?

Workers of the world unite, after all   ?


Just thinking aloud here chaps  



  

[Chef Ramsay]

More and more everyday and in many instances, it allows people of said nations to have more honest money to exchange it peer-peer or larger scale business in a timely and fair manner. And, it's that much less capital being reallocated by the state for purposes of corporate handouts or the monopolization of force around the world through military operations. The base concept here is voluntary trade and interactions, something that doesn't usually stem from the state as an entity. Through voluntarism, everyone has an equal shot at worthwhile employment and compensation for one's efforts. No one but the market economy gets to pick winners and losers unlike the govt that gives to their buddies and punishes their enemies. The US govt is a prime example of that system of corporate oligarchs while paying lip service to individual rights. Of course, when a conflict of rights v. the state comes to be, the state's court usually rule in their favor and not for individual rights.

[hello_good_sir]

Just about every new technology initially weakens the power of the state, and then ultimately strengthens it.

Bitcoin will initially weaken the power of the state by taking away its ability inflate away your wealth.  It will eventually strengthen it by making it extremely easy for the government to know what you are up to, through blockchain analysis methods that we can't even imagine yet.

[5flags]

My question is, what would be the effect of Bitcoin upon the sovereign nation state ?

Stefan Molyneaux convered this quite well. Whatever you think about Stefan's other stuff, he pretty much nailed it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joITmEr4SjY

Government gets to exert its will because of its ability to create money out of thin air. This is essentially massive wealth confiscation. To given one of Stefan's examples...

You remember that the US Dollar used to be backed by gold? Gold is a fixed supply store of value, and when the US dollar was backed by gold, it was also, to a first approximation at least, a fixed supply store of value. In order to create more dollars, the central bank needed more gold. Gold has obvious parallels with Bitcoin.

The amount of gold in the world (mined) is approximately 170,000 tonnes. If we looked at the cost of the America's wars on Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, they have costed approximately $3 trillion. That equates to approximately 75,000 tonnes of gold. If the US government had had to ensure it had an additional supply of gold equal to 44% of the world's supply, do you think they would have been able to afford the war? No, obviously not. The alternative would be that every single household could be asked to pay $30,000 to fund the wars. Does this seem likely to be accepted? No, obviously not.

Bitcoin has the capacity to dramatically reduce the spending power of the state. Even if you're an ardent statist, the inevitability of the economics should tell you that we are heading towards a global financial apocalypse precisely because governments and central banks control the money supply.

[practicaldreamer]

I think given globalisation and multi nationals its time that the left started to think about global trade unions.

Of course, given the sorry state of national unions this is a bit of a pipe dream.

But the internet - and even Bitcoin - might be able to help facilitate this social organisation across national boundaries.

Union subs paid via Bitcoin - voting done via Ethereum (?) and the block chain ?  I dunno - just thinking aloud here.

[Trading]

The huge part of the money created out of thin air is created by commercial banks, not the central one/the State.
The biggest problem of bitcoin for the State seems to be the potential for tax evasion.

[Bitcoin-hotep]

Old thread about a similar topic.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=365035.0