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Topic: Bitcoin is dead & I predictied it - let's channel our discontent into OWS! (Read 5403 times)

sr. member
Activity: 392
Merit: 250
I predicted this Bitcoin collapse a while back (you can go look and see that I was right).  It happened just like I thought it would.

You predicted that the price would drop after it skyrocketed to speculation fueled unmaintainable levels? What should we call you oh great one? The Oracle of Bitcoin?

I'll take any of those useless Bitcoins that you want to get rid of.
legendary
Activity: 1680
Merit: 1035
Sorry if this is too long to read. I wanted to explain as much as I could instead of just "you're wrong"

1 :: Student Loan Amnesty

I'm one of those with $75,000+ of debt. Student loans are owned by the banks and the government, but in turn, through stocks and bonds, are owned by the people. Amnesty for all student loans will result in a lot of 99% losing their retirement funds, and the government going into much further budget deficit. (Also, don't forget, the banks have paid back most of the bailout money.) This situation is closer to that of Italy, where the debt is actually owned by all of us, as opposed to Greece, where the debt is owed to outsiders. Forgiving loans could also set up a precedent where no bank or organization will ever risk giving out a student loan again out of fear of losing their entire investment.


2 :: Stop Foreclosures

All for keeping tabs on banks to make sure they don't foreclose illegally (aka literally steal someone's property they have no right to). As for stopping all foreclosures, until the banks clear the bad assets off their books, this recession will continue. (and, again, they paid back most of the bailout money). Best course of action is to have them keep foreclosing (LEGALLY) as fast as possible until all this is cleared out. Like it or not, economies still heavily rely on the banking/finance system, and the sooner we clean that up, the sooner we can get our economy growing again. Also, coming from countries where it's normal to see whole families living in the same house/apartment, and where it's normal to move out, into an apartment, only once you are married (countries being entire ex-soviet block and much of Europe), I have no sympathy for the people being foreclosed on. Move back in with your family until you can truly afford a house without relying on someone else's financial trickery. The whole "american dream/owning your own house" propaganda and subsidies have actually been rather disastrous for the US economy for the last century.


3 :: Defend & fund the social safety net

I'm all for social safety nets, but how much longer should we keep paying for unemployment, and with who's money? Don't forget, those big banks are owned by the same people who have been saving for retirement, and making the banks pay is almost like asking for people who have pensions and 401k's to pay. Forcing Wall Street to pay will only hurt those older people's destroyed 401k's further. If the problem is unemployment, then focus on fixing the problem instead of patching the symptom. Unemployment is high because the amount of unskilled labor is high, and number of unskilled jobs available is low. On the other hand, demand for skilled labor is very high, but the number of skilled employees is always low. In today's economy, just like during the Great Depression, it's really hard to find good help. Unemployment rate for college educated people is in the 4% to 5%, the way it's always been. So either make our unskilled labor more competitive with the rest of the world by lowering minimum wage, or use the money going for unemployment to make specialized job training mandatory and increase our pool of skilled people.


4 :: Pay for Healthcare and social services with a 1% Wall Street Sales Tax:

Ugh, horrible idea! Considering A LOT of securities have returns of only 1% to 3%, having to pay sales tax both ways will instantly cut 2% off of all gains. You are also, again, forgetting that bankers aren't the only ones doing the trading. Everyone who owns pensions or 401Ks will be hit by this 2%. Like minimum wage, this tax will make certain types of investments (jobs) not possible (profitable), such as more secure and stable treasuries, bonds, or certain Large Cap stock investments. As a result, everyone will end up having to invest in much more risky securities in an attempt to stay above the 2%, resulting in much more risk in the economy overall.

:: 5: Nationalize the Federal Reserve:

Few problems here: First, the government works way too slow, so by the time they finish bickering and increase/decrease the money supply, it will likely be too late to help. Second, why is it the government's job to determine who can lend money and to whom? And finally, I'm all for putting upper limits on interest rates to limit predatory lending, but actually determining interest rates, or setting them at 0%, is a bad idea. Interest on a loan is very literally a price for taking on risk. Not all risks are the same, and thus some risks cost more than others. The #1, main, and biggest, reason we had the market crash in '08 is because the price for the risk was set way below the actual cost of the risk. Very short version: thanks to credit default swaps, high risk activity (subprime mortgages) that cost a lot in risk, were sold as zero risk. Once the cost of the risk surfaced, no one had the money to pay for that risk, since everyone assumed it was zero. (don't want to get into technical details, but can if you ask). The government giving out 0% loans is essentially throwing away free money, too, in a sense that they will get back WAY less than what they give out, even if all the loans are eventually paid back.

:: 6: End Free Trade:

...done nothing to raise the global standard of living where Billions survive on less than a dollar a day....

That is ENTIRELY untrue. Places where "free trade" is allowed to enter, such as Mexico, China and India, have seen very rapid wage growths. Note that we first outsourced to Mexico, but that got too expensive so we went to China and India. At this point that is also getting much too expensive, and next places will likely be south Asia and parts of Africa. Ask those three countries mentioned if they are better off now than they were 30 years ago. Free trade exports money to other countries and teaches people more specialized skills. Once those people learn those skills, they can, and do, demand higher wages. That's the reason outsourcing to India and China is getting more expensive: companies are finding shortages of cheap employees, whereas before they has lines of thousands at the gates. So, contrary to popular belief, Free Trade is not a "Race to the Bottom," but rather the propagation and teaching of skills around the globe, and a race of those at the bottom up to the top. People hate it because lower skilled workers here have to compete with desperate lower skilled workers in other countries, and for now the "bottom" is so low that it's bringing the rest of us down. But, personally, I would rather get brought down at the expense of bringing the other people's lives up (by giving them jobs and skills), then use protectionist policies to keep us up, and leave the rest of the world's poor living in cardboard boxes and doing things like working quarries by hand, working in horrid sweatshops for only local customers, or resorting to prostitution and crime.
Also, tarrifs actually don't stop free trade. They just make the stuff we buy more expensive. They are an indirect tax on us consumers, not a tax on importers.


:: 7: End the Wars:

No arguments here... although we already do "sell" military bases on foreign soil. A lot of countries (Germany, Japan, etc) actually pay for us to keep our military there. That way they can do their stuff without having to worry about keeping up a standing army. So, empire and useless wars suck, but our military isn't all just a waste of taxpayer money, and is one of our biggest income-producing exports.
legendary
Activity: 1764
Merit: 1002
Bitcoin is not dead. 
legendary
Activity: 1652
Merit: 1128


Introducing "Rock Paper Scissors 2.0":

ROCK PAPER SCISSORS SPOCK LIZARD




But then everybody will choose Spock, therefore negating the additional two choices in order to reduce the number of ties!
legendary
Activity: 1918
Merit: 1570
Bitcoin: An Idea Worth Spending


Introducing "Rock Paper Scissors 2.0":

ROCK PAPER SCISSORS SPOCK LIZARD


donator
Activity: 362
Merit: 250
legendary
Activity: 1680
Merit: 1035
I need people that can understand good economic principles when they are put in front of them, people with web experience, people with marketing skills or ability to do research projects and gather information.  If you read any economic books you can get your hands on, like myself, or much better actually have worked in finance or have an advanced degree in economics or related fields please get in contact with me, it could be the beginning of a beautiful collaborative relationship.

Um, I'm one of those, and I'm finding a lot of issues in your claims  Undecided For instance, with the moores law claim, if the best hardware won't be able to pay for itself, won't production just scale back down to the level where it can, followed by difficulty adjustments to bring it back to break even levels?
legendary
Activity: 1652
Merit: 1128
It isn't dead you dumbshit, btc price in fiat is irrelevant.

Also this was the best
LOL at the entire post. I love how he recommends to "end free trade" as if trade were a policy.
 
full member
Activity: 196
Merit: 101
OP works for the FEDs
legendary
Activity: 1232
Merit: 1076
4 :: Pay for Healthcare and social services with a 1% Wall Street Sales Tax:

Is this a joke? 1% tax on every transaction would kill liquidity and destroy the economy.
legendary
Activity: 3066
Merit: 1147
The revolution will be monetized!
Oh no, bitcoin has died again, for the 500th. time.
legendary
Activity: 1008
Merit: 1023
Democracy is the original 51% attack
LOL at the entire post. I love how he recommends to "end free trade" as if trade were a policy.

What he means is, "fine and imprison people who voluntarily transact goods and services across national borders."

How dare those Mexicans sell us things! How dare the Indian's buy our goods! We must stop the Brazilians from ruining our economy by providing our consumers with things they want at prices lower than our less-efficient producers make them!!

To the OP - Read Bastiat's "Candlemaker's Petition" and then review your thesis.

legendary
Activity: 1918
Merit: 1570
Bitcoin: An Idea Worth Spending
I was interested in hearing what this boy had to say but all I got was arrogance.

You're lucky he won't be back for he said he doesn't have time to monitor this thread.

That said, let's tear apart the manifesto. I'll start with the Tobin tax.

That would include taxing every Bitcoin transaction on the Bitcoin exchanges. But at .5%, I guess that wouldn't be to bad.

legendary
Activity: 1918
Merit: 1570
Bitcoin: An Idea Worth Spending
you dont understand economics, money or bitcoin.

I would have loved to go in detail, but unfortunately im very busy and have got shit to do.

Dude, you forgot the facepalm:


newbie
Activity: 14
Merit: 0
I was interested in hearing what this boy had to say but all I got was arrogance.
hero member
Activity: 568
Merit: 500
I don't see how any of these things stop it from being a useful way for people to make anonymous transactions online -- which was ostensibly the original purpose of the currency. The fact that it doesn't meet your criteria as a national currency or a viable platform for future speculation is probably a good thing for those of us who are interested in simply having a payment option that (a) we don't have to pay third parties to use and (b) isn't regulated by a government.
full member
Activity: 189
Merit: 100
you dont understand economics, money or bitcoin.

I would have loved to go in detail, but unfortunately im very busy and have got shit to do.
c_k
donator
Activity: 242
Merit: 100
Who ever says bitcoin is dead, is an idiot Smiley
legendary
Activity: 1918
Merit: 1570
Bitcoin: An Idea Worth Spending
Bitcoin is dead? How?

This isn't a debate.

I can't spend my time educating people on this forum any more.  If you'd like to help further OWS then email me, if not then please start reading some books on economics and don't stop until you realize the absurdity of what you're saying.

That goes for anyone else wanting to respond to this post.  I don't have time to check this forum any more as I'm incredibly busy actually getting stuff done with regard to OWS and creating and furthering a social movement and building alliances.

Cheers!


I want to read you second post, but this post stopped me in my tracks.

Quote
I don't have time to check this forum any more as I'm incredibly busy actually getting stuff done with regard to OWS and creating and furthering a social movement and building alliances.

Me: Father, tell me some more about God.
Priest: Would love to son, but I'm busy at the moment. Got to go see some boys.

My point is, you can build some alliances here. You took all the time to pen the work above, I like it, then read you have no time for us and heading out to build alliances. I can't get my head wrapped around that logic. What gives?

full member
Activity: 196
Merit: 100
Bitcoin is dead? How?

This isn't a debate.

I can't spend my time educating people on this forum any more.  If you'd like to help further OWS then email me, if not then please start reading some books on economics and don't stop until you realize the absurdity of what you're saying.

That goes for anyone else wanting to respond to this post.  I don't have time to check this forum any more as I'm incredibly busy actually getting stuff done with regard to OWS and creating and furthering a social movement and building alliances.

Cheers!
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