pull down to refresh
0 sats \ 22 replies \ @daolin 8 Sep \ parent \ on: The New York Times Trump Attack Hits Ross Too Politics_And_Law
Are you and I going to surrender the power that Bitcoin gives us, and trade it for fiat so that the government can decide where to spend our work, instead of us choosing for ourselves? Just because the government doesn't like something doesn't mean it goes away automatically. They have to decide how much of a fight it's worth to take it from me.
Its not a question of what I or you do but what the dominant MoE is and historically that has been determined by the dominant trading nation/s.
Today thew dominant trading nation is China and my guess is they will want to gain the same extraordinary privilege as the US has enjoyed (and squandered).
As individuals we are still to a large extent subject to the governments that we live under and that create the conditions which we experience.
reply
Fiat is a historical blip that has barely lasted 100 years. For most of history, the dominant MoE was negotiated on the market, and the ruling gang/state had no choice but to compete for the same commodity, albeit violently. It was never a matter of securing trade routes and then shilling a token of their choice after the fact. Even fiat was tolerated by the market for it's ability to process transactions over long distances quickly, a feature which is no longer unique to fiat.
The hardness of money (and the inevitable collapse that coincides with any attempt to standardize soft money) has always been a serious limitation on state power.
But I guess I shouldn't be surprised that a CCP supporter would consider the desires of the individual insignificant compared to government mandates.
reply
The truth is the ideal system is a fine and judicious balancing act.
People who have enjoyed global hegemony and the 'rights' and privileges it confers may struggle to understand the importance of the state- they may often take it for granted, but history has a way of teaching those who ignores its lessons.
I am no more a supporter of the CCP then I am an apologist for US Imperialism.
It is simply rewarding to observe with as neutral and impartial disposition as possible and avoids the pitfalls others often fall into...
reply
Your commitment to impartial observation a noble path and will indeed keep you sane in the nights to come. I am unable to travel it with you.
I'm aware that the average American derives innumerable benefits from US hegemony, but I don't attribute that imperial status to decisions made by the federal government. The industrial revolution was led by the private sector. FDR's expansion of government power caused a century's worth of economic destruction. A massive, impossible to cut portion of the budget is dumped on pet projects dreamed up by armchair intellectuals in LA and New York at the expense of productive industry. The US federal government runs at a net loss for the country.
reply
Sure there are plenty of state led projects that undermine the economy but historically the US was in a fortunate position geographically, being far from Europes chronic warring.
The US was new ground for people to break and make fortunes, much like the other pioneers states of Australasia and Canada.
But the US had the size and overall advantage and post WW2 holding most of the gold and most of the remaining manufacturing plant it then also gained monetary dominance becoming the global reserve currency- that is a construct of the state and that construct of US enjoying the extraordinary privilege of global monetary dominance has enriched the US ever since. It also ultimately bred inefficiency and arrogance and now the USA is in decline.
It is the combination of good government and a private sector that can generate wealth but private wealth has come to dominate and control US politics and corrupted it.
At the same time a more hungry and determined nation, China has emerged with the goal of achieving true domination and sovereignty which no nation outside of the European/ western imperialists has enjoyed since- well since about 600 years ago when China was then the most advanced wealthy and well governed nation on earth.
reply
Becoming the global reserve currency wasn't a result of state engineering. It was, as you mentioned, a geographic and historical coincidence from not having to fight WW2 on its own soil.
You talk about China like the country has agency. It's one party making all the decisions from Beijing. Who knows what China the nation actually wants? What choice do they have?
I don't think being ruled and dominated by someone the same race as you qualifies as "sovereignty." It seems like a cheap imitation of independence that is only marginally better than being dominated by a foreign country.
reply
Becoming global super power was a combination of things, some fate and some choice- Great Britain was not up to the job anymore so the empire was handed over to USA as it was best placed to continue western civilisations global reign.
China has a unique and ancient culture and position in the world- it was too big for anyone single western imperialist power to take full control of and even Japan could not ultimately hold it.
Sovereignty definition-
'sovereignty /sŏv′ər-ĭn-tē, sŏv′rĭn-/
noun
Supremacy of authority or rule as exercised by a sovereign or sovereign state.
Royal rank, authority, or power.
Complete independence and self-government. '
How many nations enjoy fully independent self determination???
I would say almost none- perhaps just the super powers.
Europe, UK, Japan, Australasia, Canada, S.Korea are all subservient militarily and monetarily to the USA.
Russia, N.Korea, Iran are now subservient tribute states to China...and almost all nations today must trade with China or lose significant economic advantage.
China never ceded full sovereignty and has always retained the belief that it deserves full sovereignty as it enjoyed for millennia before western imperialism delivered its one hundred years of humiliation.
The next 100 years will be interesting.
reply
China did cede full sovereignty, to the CCP. You're not independent if you relinquish your entire will and identity to masochism. The fact that it's self-inflicted doesn't mean you're independent.
I don't understand why you don't hold the same or greater resentment towards the CCP that you do for the UK or Japan, considering they killed more Chinese in peacetime than any foreign power ever could have managed.