by Priem19 on 2/23/21, 11:34 PM with 190 comments
by Clewza313 on 2/24/21, 12:41 AM
South Korea and Japan are 10-20 years ahead of the same curve here. However, the result has been resignation and stagnation, not revolution.
by seaourfreed on 2/24/21, 12:52 AM
Rigged pharma. Unethical medical billing. Out of control healthcare costs. 2008 mortgage crisis. High Frequency trading firms front running trades. Panama Papers. Libor. And a million more.
Citizens won't have it any more. Fixing congress (so they don't sell us out), and congress CAN would WOULD fix this.
by pcstl on 2/24/21, 11:19 AM
I find it funny how first-worlders are horrified by the idea that they might have to live in mild discomfort. Maybe try looking at how most of the world that isn't the US and Western Europe lives before saying people's lives will be "nasty, brutish and short" because they won't be working some low-skill 9 to 5 for 40 to 50 years while making 6 figures and then retire with the rest of their lives pretty much planned out for them.
by hintymad on 2/24/21, 12:59 AM
But why? Why can't more kids get into STEM fields? Why aren't there more decent jobs, say manufacturing jobs? Why are American kids so bad at basic reading, critical thinking, and basic arithmetics? Why is there an apparent bifurcation in the K5 system, where a large number of perfectly capable kids get misled and tortured by craps like Common Core, while a small number of kids are ready for algebra or more advanced maths? Why do we have kids who get straight A in high school yet can't pass placement test in a community college? Why do we have so many kids who ace through high school think entry-level courses like introductory calculus or organic chemistry are too hard? The questions can go on.
And I certainly don't hope that the answers are what Seattle and California public schools have started to teach: https://equitablemath.org/
by Judgmentality on 2/24/21, 12:22 AM
This completely ignores the fact that the stock was shorted over 100% of float, and people knew it was going to squeeze so they bought in hoping to ride the wave. And that did in fact happen, although timing is everything.
I could go on, but this philosophical piece is incredibly lazy with its historical accuracy.
by h0nd on 2/24/21, 4:07 PM
This has very strongly increased during that year of pandemic. In my country a vast amount of money is spent on protecting old people that future generations will be liable for.
by Bluestein on 2/24/21, 1:03 AM
This is great.
Sums it up.
by nceqs3 on 2/24/21, 12:42 AM
by moralsupply on 2/24/21, 7:23 PM
Feel free to short Bitcoin in a futures market, and keep all your wealth allocated in assets associated with the US dollar.
We'll talk again in 5 years time.
by dman7 on 2/24/21, 4:45 AM
> Bitcoin doesn’t work, it’s a naked speculative bubble based on a technology that doesn’t scale can’t and can’t replace any existing financial service
When you say Bitcoin doesn't work, what are you referring to? As a medium of exchange, you're correct: it doesn't work. But the narrative in crypto communities is that Bitcoin is becoming a store-of-value. Under that narrative, Bitcoin is "working": it's replacing gold as a store of value. We're seeing institutions expand their portfolios to include BTC. There are additional arguments for why Bitcoin may be a better hedge against inflation than gold or oil. Here is an interesting analysis by Winklevoss twins [1]
There's more to cryptocurrency than Bitcoin. Today, there are over 4,000 crypto tokens out there and they're each solving various use cases with varying success. One particular thriving area is Decentralized Finance (DeFi) which creates decentralized exchanges, market makers, lenders/borrowers that aim to disrupt traditional (centralized) financial structures. As proof that there's something here, decentralized exchanges are taking market share from centralized ones - which are valued at $100B.
Or consider the more visionary take on cryptocurrencies: decentralized computation networks that create economies for network participants. Centralized businesses must act in the interest of shareholders and are built to extract as much value from their product as possible. Decentralized computation networks, on the other hand, do not. They can (and are) constructed to be minimally extractive, taking only what is needed to reward network participants & secure the network. Thus, the value capture is distributed across all network participants, enabling new forms of humans organizing together to achieve a common goal. Check out [3] if you're interested in learning more.
I hope this spurs your curiosity to dig into cryptocurrencies beyond just the surface. Thanks for writing the article!
[1] https://winklevosscapital.com/the-case-for-500k-bitcoin/ [2] https://defipulse.com/ [3] https://smartcontentpublication.medium.com/the-purpose-and-v...
by toss1 on 2/24/21, 4:19 PM
I'm reminded of an advert campaign slogan that New York State ran for it's lottery: "All you need is a dollar and a dream". Spot on.
An astute friend's comment was: "We'll keep the dollar and you keep the dream".
I've long agreed with the author that lotteries are an innumeracy tax. His insight that BTC is also largely the same is spot on.
by smlckz on 2/24/21, 4:56 PM
by suikadayo on 2/24/21, 12:34 AM
by samirillian on 2/24/21, 3:55 PM
Socialism provides a "yes" to every "no" in this article. Authors critiques are good, but author too lapses into nihilism.
Even cryptocurrency is not beyond rescue, it is only beyond rescue under a capitalist mode of production. Technology is the cause and effect, but we _do_ have agency.
by maerF0x0 on 2/24/21, 12:19 AM
That is pure irrationality. IMO The real issue is a crap education system which gives neither opportunity, nor good advice-- instead of training rational actors w/ valueable skills it focuses on building activists before they have any life experience and smacks of marxism.
What's the path out? Free education for socially profitable degrees might be a fix (ie STEM). Not wasting the first 18 years of a person's life might be an alternative (eg: why are we memorizing dates permanently recorded online, why arent we teaching (personal) financial and programming expertise?).
Edit: by financial I meant personal financial skills, not wall street skills. My apologies for the imprecision.
by solosoyokaze on 2/24/21, 12:40 AM
Bitcoin is like the lottery? It's up thousands of percent over the years. Many, many people have made real money and/or are sitting on massive gains. Regardless of if you think Bitcoin has actual utility (I think it does in spades), labeling it a "failure" means your argument is instantly ignored by every person who's up on their investment (aka every person who's held Bitcoin over the past 10 years).
by seibelj on 2/24/21, 12:27 AM
by elihu on 2/24/21, 1:32 AM
I think this completely misses the point. This isn't just a plain pump-and-dump scheme. Before /r/wallstreetbets got involved, the price of GameStop was being artificially held low by over-zealous shorts. So some investors figured out the shorts were in an untenable position and called their bluff. The extreme high prices are as far as I can tell just part of the process of the stock price returning to a regular equilibrium, whatever that is. Blaming WSB for a valuation that wasn't based in reality is a bit silly when it wasn't based in reality to begin with. Without the shorts, the stock couldn't have spiked as high as it did.
And in the end, GameStop will survive a bit longer (or even thrive, if it can figure out a successful model), and the people it employs will continue to have jobs.
I stopped reading the article when it turned into a rant against Bitcoin. I mean fine, you can criticize Bitcoin if you want but there's more to it than just people investing in currency speculation. If you don't think Bitcoin has any legitimate uses you're just not paying attention.