1) This brings to mind the hilarity of what happens when a group of nitwits demands an entire system and structure be thrown out, only to replace it bit by bit with the same damn thing.
2) Just.... usually worse, jury rigged, and ultimately ineffective, causing them to want the original bits back in the first place.
Get rid of police, and you get a warlord who's even more brutal, thuggish, and criminal.
Keep out ambulances, and you get street medics.
Get rid of police, and you get a warlord who's even more brutal, thuggish, and criminal.
Keep out ambulances, and you get street medics.
2) Where I saw this before came from the early hey-day of bitcoin.
Bitcoin, where a bunch of people said 'fuck all these financial institutions, we don't need any of that!'
Bitcoin, where a bunch of people said 'fuck all these financial institutions, we don't need any of that!'
4) So they got rid of banks. And then they realized, fuck, we don't actually have a way to store our bitcoins that we purchased. So they used websites that provided accounts with which to store bitcoins.
Only for the owners of said websites, aka bitcoin banks, to steal it all.
Only for the owners of said websites, aka bitcoin banks, to steal it all.
5) Seriously, the early history of an organized bitcoin presence online is a history of skullduggery, theft, and scams.
It's actually quite beautiful in a schadenfreude kind of way.
It's actually quite beautiful in a schadenfreude kind of way.
6) Then they realized, the programming for bitcoin was incomplete and needed to be changed to actually continue functioning.
And so the bitcoin miners, the people running the programs that 'produced' bitcoins, formed a de facto federal reserve to agree on what changes to make.
And so the bitcoin miners, the people running the programs that 'produced' bitcoins, formed a de facto federal reserve to agree on what changes to make.
7) Slowly, over time, they had to rebuild all the infrastructure for bitcoin that they had abandoned when they tried to break free of the financial system, because they forgot the 2 most important rules of a financial system.
You probably don't know these rules.
You probably don't know these rules.
8) They're not the kind of rules that are taught in college econ courses. Or any kind of courses, really. Not even marxists will teach these rules.
So what are these rules you ask?
So what are these rules you ask?
9) People are herd animals, and prone to panic when others around them panic.
People are greedy to varying degrees, and will act on that greed when the reward for said greed outweighs the opportunity costs if caught. Some people value opportunity costs differently.
People are greedy to varying degrees, and will act on that greed when the reward for said greed outweighs the opportunity costs if caught. Some people value opportunity costs differently.
10) Our financial apparatus is designed with both of these rules in mind.
Bitcoin does not have this, and so bitcoins are more, not less, prone to market crashes, scams and thievery, etc. There's no safety nets to prevent panic, and there are no opportunity costs for assholery.
Bitcoin does not have this, and so bitcoins are more, not less, prone to market crashes, scams and thievery, etc. There's no safety nets to prevent panic, and there are no opportunity costs for assholery.
11) It is human nature for the lowest of us to throw away these structures built around us to protect us and make us feel safe, because the lowest of us fail to understand the purposes behind the apparatus.
We then attempt to rebuild it only for it to be a ludicrous facsimile.
We then attempt to rebuild it only for it to be a ludicrous facsimile.
12) And that's when you get a bunch of people standing around someone who clearly isn't breathing and not even attempting to give CPR, instead weakly calling out 'medic! medic! medic!'
/end
/end
