When individuals need freedom, free markets come to the rescue. Due to fiscal irresponsibility most of nowadays governments are dead broke. Today New Jersey news is just the last canary in the coal mine. As we can see, the more broke are governments, the more oppressive they become towards their subjects. This is the case for Italy, for example. Before there was only the “profitability meter”: if the expenses were too high based on your employment, then it was SURE that you were dodging taxes. (Ironically this is what the Italian government has done so far with a public debt reaching 132% of GDP.) Now comes the “savings meter”: if you save too much money based on your employment, then it is SURE that you are dodging taxes.
But wait, there’s more. The “savings meter” analyzes bank transactions (credit cards, current account activity, investment account activity) and sees if they are used frequently enough. And if you do not use them frequently enough, then it is SURE that you are dodging taxes. Instead of proceeding towards a concrete liberalization of the internal economy, we continue along a path made of more taxes and more oppressive bureaucracy. Do not believe the chit-chats yelled during the election campaign. This law has passed and nobody who will settle in the next government will take it away. Don’t believe in flat taxes, “friendly taxes”, or the fight against tax evasion, all governments in bankruptcy resort to the same draconian measures. It is true today as it has always been true throughout history.
But then, on the same newspaper, we find this other piece of news in which is stated that crytocurrencis are used to fund terrorism. Central planners are scared. They are trying to avoid their inevitable death by telling people: “Do not choose freedom, instead continue to let you pluck like chickens and cook over low heat.”
Two key points here:
1) Nearly ALL bankrupt governments invariably resort to this tactic at some point.
2) It’s also a great way to engineer a banking crisis.
Think about it, Italy’s banks are already teetering on collapse. Some have already failed, others are almost there. If Italians know that the government is spying on every transaction they make (or don’t make), who in his/her right mind would want to keep money in an Italian bank? Anyone with half a brain will be moving funds away from this prison.
Italy’s banks are so fragile, though, that they won’t be able to survive if even a small percentage of their depositors flee. And here step in cryptocurrencies, offering a viable alternative to what actually is a legalized plunder.
We think that an important strategic lesson of cryptocurrencies is this: if we want to make gradual but concrete and realistic steps forward in the direction of freedom (i.e. the defense of the principle of non-aggression) and therefore in the direction of sustainable prosperity, then we must forget to reason with governments; we must forget to discuss with governments; we must forget to make deals with governments. Governments cannot be reformed, cannot be improved.
Sector by sector, piece by piece, governments can be forked, developing a structure of economic incentives to do it and a way to be not censurable.
If in 2009, instead of the Bitcoin invention, there had been the best attempt to politically provide a sustainable market alternative to fiat money, today these alternatives would have had the same value as they had in 2008: zero.
In other shorter words, to make gradual but real steps forward in the direction of freedom, we need to think in terms of freedom and the market, not in terms of good dealings with governments. Vote with your money, it’s the only way your vote really counts. Fortunately, free market is always a step ahead of central planning and cryptocurrencies prove this.
