My Money & I'll Spend It How I Want

There is a sentiment in the cryptocurrency space that the government shouldn't be dictating how you spend your money. I do agree with that, but at the same time, I do believe most of us can make pretty poor choices with money. I was lucky enough to have a family that placed a priority on saving and hard work. Sure they might buy a Powerball ticket here and there, but they know they aren't likely to win.

Since I came from a family who valued hard work, I started working pretty young. The money I earned was my own. I'm sure my mother hinted at saving for college or a rainy day, and I did do that, a good portion of that money I earned was used to help pay for my college. The rest I didn't save, and I was free to do whatever I wanted to do with it. Buy video games, drugs, comics, donate it or stocks.

If I want to buy $500 of bitcoin, it's no different than placing $500 on the roulette table (always bet on black).

The cryptocurrency people like to play the card that the government and the financial institutions aren't letting us spend our money. Ok, let's break that down.

Banks

There has been some news about banks blocking cryptocurrency purchases. This news is real, but they are doing it because they don't want that money leaving their pile. It doesn't look good if their stack is getting smaller. Most people who live in the U.S. have a bank account in the U.S., so if you use that money in a transaction, that transaction typically will end up back in a bank. If you don't have a bank account, then you'll pay extremely high fees at a currency exchange to cash a check. The safety, ease of use and cheap/zero fees to cash checks, keep us using banks.

I need a bank for work, everyone doesn't pay my business in cryptocurrency, and my employees and contractors don't want to get paid in bitcoin (yet).

There's talk that banks are blocking cryptocurrency purchases on credit cards. Well, that makes sense because you shouldn't be doing that. You're playing with someone else's money, the banks and it's simple to try and fight those charges or carry the debt without paying. Ya... I don't think the banks like that.

When it's your money, they pretty much let you do what you want (as long as it's not illegal). Banks will do everything they can to hang onto that money and you as a customer.

Government

The government in the United States is slow, but for some reason, they are reacting to ICOs and cryptocurrency pretty quickly. A market of $300 billion is at the moment incredibly tiny.

You could think the government is looking out for you here; they don't want to see you invest your money into a scam but it's probably not the case. The government is cracking down on these ICOs since there's significant money at the top that is circumventing the law. They don't care about your $500 you transferred to that last ICO just like they don't care that you bet $500 on black at the roulette table. What they care about is what the person or people at the top are doing with this money.

I do believe we should be allowed to spend our money the way we want. I don't feed into the theory that we're being stopped or not approved to use it by the government. They just want to make sure they get their cut.