United We Stand!
Divided we fall. - Competition has always played a key role in many aspects of life's evolution. Nonetheless, I chose to seek solutions to ultimately put an end to the initiation of violence because everyone’s life would be better off if it could be achieved and because there is insufficient evidence to prove violence is necessary.
No matter how formidable and daunting this task might seem, I do not know of any more enjoyable cause.
Redistributing Power!
Governments are today's most violent institutions. The truth is they simply can't exist without resorting to violence. As Sun Tzu put it: "The art of war is of vital importance to the State. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin."
To reduce the power of governments without the use of violence, people must be able to create and secure value at a greater rate than those governments.
Through various systems, governments currently create their national currencies out of nothing and ultimately decide who are the beneficiaries of this newly created money. It is those mechanisms of money creation which need to be outperformed so that the power to create money slip away from governments' hands.
The reasons are pretty obvious and are best described with the following quote of unknown origin. "The bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create money, and with the flick of the pen they will create enough deposits to buy it back again."
Cryptocurrencies are a new technology which first emerge in January 2009 with Bitcoin. Since its inception, Bitcoin has been outperforming all national currencies many times over and thus has begin to shift the power to create money away from governments.
There are currently hundreds of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin is still the cryptocurrency with the largest market cap (the value of all existing Bitcoin).
The market cap of all cryptocurrencies currently sit at $101B ranking them as the 72th biggest company.
Though these market caps are far from being the whole story, if the current trends cryptocurrencies have been on for the last couple of years hold, they could very soon pose a real challenge to all national currencies and eventually to the very survival of countries as we know them today.
It is these trends and their implications which I'll be expanding on further in my upcoming posts.
Understanding Money Shall Upset You Free!
Before going deeper into cryptocurrencies, I'll explain what are national currencies so as to understand what are cryptocurrencies are up against and also because this understanding has been one of the most enlightening and uplifting understanding I've ever had.
National currencies are fiat money which mean they aren't back by anything. Who has the power to create and distribute fiat money is of capital importance for the whole of human society and in today's society a real problem.
Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics, Maurice Allais has so clearly highlighted this fact when he said:
Source
"In essence, the ex nihilo money creation practiced by the private banks is identical -- I do not hesitate to say this because it is important that people understand what is at stake here -- to the manufacture of currency by counterfeiters, who are justly punished by law. In practice both lead to the same result. The only difference is that those who benefit are not the same." [source: La crise mondiale d'aujourd'hui]
Easy Money With A Twist
Broad money is also called M3. It is the broadest definition of money. [source: wikipedia]
$83.6T World M3 [source: cia.gov]
A list of the M3 of each countries can be found on cia.gov.
3481% more US money in 2006 than in 1959 [source: Fed]
26% more US money in 2017 than in 2006 [source: cia.gov]
The US Dollar's purchasing power is less than 5% what it was in 1913. [source: Fed]
The official publication of the US M3 has been stop in March 2006. [source: Fed]
Money Is Created Out Of Nothing!
When I first began to learn about the whole subject of money creation it all felt surreal. It still does to some degree even today.
After much reflections and a thorough investigation, I came to realize that what Mr. Allais's quote was describing was in fact very real. National currencies are created out of thin air, benefiting their creators at the expanse of everyone else (through inflation).
More precisely, money is created out of nothing, then who take possession of the newly created money is decided by some institutions. Explaining money creation's fundamentals by anything else than: "Who get what percentage of the newly created money." is unnecessarily complex whether its by design, with the intent of obfuscating the facts or simple ignorance.
On the subject, the prominent economist and best-seller, John Kenneth Galbraith wrote: "The study of money, above all other fields in economics, is the one in which complexity is used to disguise truth or to evade truth, not to reveal it. " as well as, just a couple pages later "The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled." (Source)
I find these 2 quotes to be so fitting in describing the situation my mind felt in, when I was beginning to learn about money creation.
The Money Masters
I bet a lot of people, if not most people, can't conceive the creation of national currencies to be so simple and unjust, at least that was my case. So whether or not national currencies could just simply be created by what seems like magic and then arbitrarily added to the bank accounts of some people, I found it would be utterly irrational not to investigate. So investigating money creation I did.
After investigating money creation for many hundreds of hours spread over more than 12 years, I can say there isn't anything that come close to this mind-boggling 1996 documentary "The Money Masters: How International Bankers Gained Control of America".
Right from the gecko, the movie is packed full of reffrenced quotes from important figures of history making a lot of its most fundamental claims easy to verify and research.
There's no need to watch this documentary to understand what my upcoming posts will make clear in regard to how cryptocurrencies are a growing challenge to governmental institutions and how they could possibly lead to their demise but because of what I've already explained about the documentary and money creation, I duly encourage everyone to give it its chance, at least it first 5 minutes.
Though it contains some inaccuracies and some speculations passed as facts, it is hands down the most enlightening documentary I've ever seen, among the thousands of hours of documentary film I've ever watched.
I distance myself with what the movie propose as solutions to money creation, now that cryptocurrencies are providing much better solutions than what was available back then. I also distance myself with the movie director's views in particular his political views.
This documentary, "The Money Masters" have the potential to teach more about the fundamental of US history and history of humanity at large to most people than they ever learned before in their entire life.
The movie runs 3h30 and I've first watched it in 3 different sessions. I've now watched it more than 2 times since that first time.
How are the far reaching repercussions of money creation being kept under wrap, never very seriously discussed, is a far reaching topic in itself which I plan to touch upon in upcoming posts. Some aspects of this are discussed in the documentary.
Enthusiastically Seeking Solution!
It seems the world we live in is very different than what most people have come to believe. I'll reiterate why by mentioning Sun Tzu's quote: "All warfare is based on deception."
Trying to deceive one another is part of this merciless competition which has played a key part in life's evolution through out the past billions years but as I've already said, we should definitely look to do away with all of this nonetheless.
One of the main aspect of curtailing violence is to share our most empowering knowledge, because fairly redistributing power while minimizing possible abuse is our best bet to try to keep everyone from resorting to violence.
Being able to securely store and exchange our labour is another fundamental aspect of curtailing violence. Because if some people can rob others by creating money out of nothing, diluting people's purchasing power, then sooner or later these people end up with everything and everyone there is to own.
Comparing Currencies
This simple comparison can help people understand why cryptocurrencies are shifting power away from central authorities and how this is greatly benefiting everyone.
National Currencies
The cost of creating new money is negligible.
The future creation rate is unknown and decided by a small group.
They can be counter-fitted.
Nobody knows exactly how much money there is.
Benefit those who benefit from the growing money supply, at the expanse of everyone else. (It's that simple.)
Bitcoin
The cost of creating Bitcoin is non-negligible.
The exact future creation rate is known.
They can't be counter-fitted.
Everyone can know exactly how much Bitcoin has been created.
Benefit everyone fairly.
Sharing Empowering Knowledge!
The seemingly inescapable relation violence has with evolution might not be so inescapable after all. One thing is sure though, maximizing my life's enjoyment while seeking to put an end to unnecessary violence, is the single most fundamental precept guiding my life.
The knowledge I've acquired about money, cryptocurrencies and everything else have allow me to live a good life which I'm very grateful for.
Let's share our knowledge, knowing full well that the content of those bits of knowledge we're sharing is just as important as how they are presented.
My life isn't perfect but like Steven Wright said:
I intend to live forever. So far, so good.
and
You can't have everything. Where would you put it?
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