Government and peoples attitudes about it really pisses me off

I read two things today that really just got under my skin. The first was an article that was one of many getting bankers to comment on Bitcoin in response to the whole "Bitcoin is a fraud" nonsense. I say nonsense because any Wall Street banker calling something a fraud is just humorous given that they almost managed to destroy the entire world economy.

According to Bloomberg, James Gorman, CEO of Morgan Stanley, wondered aloud when regulators would "decide [they] want to control monetary flows for money laundering and privacy and capital outflows and all the other reasons."

I get that it is true that they will want to do this. I also get that the very nature of cryptocurrency can successfully thwart their plans to control it. What irritated me is that there isn't enough outrage about KnowYourCustomer regulations in the first place. I can only speak as a US citizen but this seems like a blatant violation of my fourth amendment rights. The fourth amendment states:

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Requiring a bank to gather my private information because money launderers exist in the world would be like requiring me to allow surveillance cameras to be placed in my home because other people that own homes have been caught doing bad things.

Things like this make me feel less free every day. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies turn the tables back in our favor. If we can get to a point where we can avoid fiat entirely then the control is squarely back in the hands of we the people.

The second thing that pissed me off was a comment from a member of the US House of Representative about tax reform. We can have disagreements about whether there should be an estate tax and if so how much it should be. What we really can't have a disagreement about is the word "give". Only in the mind of a politician can taking less from someone be treated as giving them something.

image courtesy of Pixabay