Bitcoin Tech Talk #393
Interesting Stuff
Financialization and De-Civilization - I wasn’t familiar with the economist mentioned in this article, Giovanni Arrighi, but the concept that he explored is quite intriguing. The main idea is that hegemonic powers start dying when they financialize. The reason being that the order the hegemon imposes on the world is to the hegemon’s advantage, but that it disincentivizes productive activity, which in turn causes more financial games, eventually toppling it. The article argues that each successive hegemon has declined quicker and quicker, starting with the Italian city-states, through Amsterdam, England and now the US.
Organ Donation Bureaucracy - There are 17500 human kidneys that are lost or thrown away in the US every year. So describes the article about the unacceptably inefficient organ donation system. Much of this is due to really bad regulation, in that there’s essentially a monopoly due to the way the system was set up. As with most monopolies, there’s no real incentive on the part of the monopolist to improve their services and indeed, this is why so many people are on dialysis machines waiting for kidneys. The rent-seeking here is particularly egregious because of the people that literally die waiting for these organs, but if there’s anything I’ve learned about rent-seekers, moral duty is not enough incentive for them to do the right thing.
Work vs Talent - This essay puts to words what a lot of us feel, but can’t express. Namely that while hard work will get you places, it’s really talent that makes the difference in the end. There’s a notion that everyone is equal and that hard work can make up for any lack, but as reality shows us, it’s not true. No matter how hard I work, there are some things I will not be good at. Yet in a strange way, economics provides some hope, because there is the concept of comparative advantage. Even if someone else is better than you at every conceivable task, there are still things you will be able to do for money that your rival will not, simply because you both only have 24 hours in a day.
Undermining the Blue Church - The article is about the academic/hollywood/elite group think and how to subvert it. As the author points out, the current metric of whether to accept an opinion right now is whether they have a credential, rather than what was traditionally used: the ability to predict things. As he points out, Bitcoin is one of the rallying points against the Blue Church. There’s much more in the article, and it’s worth your time to think about it.
What I'm up to
Destroying Rent Seeking - My talk from BitBlockBoom is up as part of the livestream that they did. I talked about rent-seeking at the company, nation and global levels, the consequences and how we’ve become a static society that’s actively getting worse as a result of this terrible system of control by the money printers. One part that I would like to expand on next time is this idea that rent-seeking is usually backed by violence.
Bitcoin Country - My conversation with Max and Stacy at the Plan B forum in Lugano last October is up! We talked about the battle between the IMF and Bukele, the other national governments watching the fight, and the safety upgrade in El Salvador and a lot more. Max and Stacy shed some light on the arrest of the gangs and the energy costs getting lower and the positive changes in the country. Lastly, we talked about the charge that Bukele is a dictator.
Book Available for BTC - You can now buy Fiat Ruins Everything in Audiobook or eBook at the Bitcoin Magazine Store using BTC! It’s cheaper than the paperback, and it’s deliverable all over the world. If you’ve been wanting to read or listen to this book and happen to be from a non-Western country, this is your chance to read it!
Nostr Note of the Week
What I’m Promoting
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