Our Cultural Blind Spot Shows in how we Define Money
In one of Andreas's Antonopoulos's talks, he says many people don't understand money. If your 6 year old asked you to define it, how would you explain it in simple terms that he/she can understand? Remember that when we were kids that we were given an allowance? That word "allowance" is exactly what money has become.
In other words, money has become a measure of what we are allowed to do. We are told that it is supposed to measure the value of something, but conversely in social science, it measures how many hoops we have to jump through for that new home, new car, or some other status symbol. It has become the true measure of political power, privilege and control.
And why is the Queen or some other politician's face on your money?
In my youth, there was a lot of anti-money rhetoric that seemingly was designed to lower the perceived importance of money in our culture. "Money can't buy you love", for instance, or the many negative slurs against people who are obsessed with money such as "penny pinchers", "scrooge", "penny wise and pound foolish", "money-grubbers", etc...
Why do we have this aversion to understanding its importance? Is this by design? One would think that something as all important as money would be taught in grade school, but beyond home economics, this is rarely the case. There's a reason for this and it is because money has become a system of control.
(credit - Andreas Antonopoulos)
The Credit Score
This was supposed to be strictly a calculation of how much trust you have been given in the one sense of the likelihood of a loan being paid back in full. But if you look at what it has become... why do employers need to see this score? Why does your auto insurance go up if your credit score has gone down? Virtually every aspect of living in civilized life is now measured by this score. This is why I don't call it a credit score any more. That's no longer accurate. What it really is, is an "obedience score".
Trust has now become Trustless
Remember the queen's face on your money? Might it be that placing it there is a subtle reminder of trust? Whose face should be there based upon the integrity and moral principles of those who control it? I think the below image about sums it up...
Whose Face should be on Bitcoin?
The answer is nobody. Bitcoin is a trustless protocol. Trust has become obsolete.
Donations (public bitcoin address):
3FwxQsa7gmQ7c1GXJyvDTqmT6CM3mMEgcv
I didn't think of it in that terminology before. I don't know how accurate this is, but I've heard of China attempting to set up a "trust score" system, that incorporates not only financial data but other social and political data as well. It's scary stuff. We might like to think that these sorts of things won't happen in the US, but as you point out, we already have a problematic system in place. Credit scores are bullshit.
The chinese sesame credit system is very scary. I am really shocked that there is not a huge media coverage on it. Ask the people around you if they know... If people in our societies are not vocally against this, it is only a matter of time until we will also have it.
Freedom is constantly under attack and we must protect it.
This reminds me of a Black Mirror episode I saw where everyone had a score. It was more of a Facebook profile type score, but everyone had one and it went up or down depending on how nice you were. We are terrifyingly close to that reality, if not already there.
Also, I have always thought it bullshit that a credit score counts the things you have done against you (missed payments, late payments, etc) but doesn't count the things for you (all the monthly payments you make on time other than a car or home loan. For instance, paying your cell phone bill on time every month doesn't make your credit score rise any, but being late or delinquent even one time on a cell phone bill and it dinks your credit. The same can be said for any other bill other than credit cards and mortgage. That's some bullshiiiit.)
I seen the episode too, so much of black mirror is disturbingly accurate in the direction the global culture is heading
Agreed. It's terrifying.
Really scary. I found that black mirror episode to be somewhat unrealistic but you just have to look at china to see a real world model like that being build.
I made a blog post a few weeks ago about redefining what we think about money. It's past 7 days so I am not profiting by sharing things, just trying to contribute to the conversation.
I was shocked to learn how small a percentage hard, physical cash makes up of the total value of assets that there supposed to represent.
My point is, you can't really ask us to define money, as the way it is implemented today is so far removed from it's actual definition.
I was shocked
Of course there is a large separation between paper and digital money. But it goes much further. Have a look at the difference between stocks (representing existing value) and derivatives. Now derivatives do serve some important tasks, but how can the futures market become bigger than its underlying real world value?
All of this wealth is only supported by the believe that it exists somewhere in this world. But once we realise it does not we are in for a big crash. Also notice the scary amount of debt!
Taking my data from (http://money.visualcapitalist.com/worlds-money-markets-one-visualization-2017/)
You can't buy crypto with a credit card any more because reasons, its like risky or something.
I can pay for hookers and take out cash from the ATM at casinos using my credit card.
They don't give a shit about risk. They are protecting their self interests.
Can't blame them, it makes good sense to protect their business any way they can. But it shows every one exactly why we need a form of money not in control of the banks.
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