The decline of western civilisation all the while people chatter about banal diversionary nonsense...

Go live somewhere there is no government, no taxation, no law and order or property rights except might is right and the law of the jungle, and report back on how much sense it makes to you.

Of course we all know you won't ~ because your not suicidal or insane...are you?

Go live somewhere there is no government, no taxation, no law and order or property rights except might is right and the law of the jungle, and report back on how you find it. Good luck with that! Of course we all know you won't ~ because your not suicidal or insane...are you?

Its not stealing - its leveraging collective liquidity into a strategic development of your economies natural advantages resulting in economic growth and prosperity.

The wealth of nations is significantly derived from the competence and effectiveness of their governments.

China has won the trade war and is challenging US monetary and military hegemony.

Reverse engineering them - just like China have done to the wests manufacturing and productive base.

Learn from history what likely happens next...starting with The Opium Wars...or earlier.

If I go out and wash someone's car, and they pay me 20,000 satoshis, why do I get a letter from some rando on the other side of the country demanding I pay him 1,000 satoshis?

Assuming you mean the random is the tax department the answer would be that taxes fund governments and governments determine the wealth of nations. If you wash someones car in a nation with a weak government and history of weak and corrupt government chances are you will receive less for washing someones car.

'Well if citizens are holding the CCP at gunpoint to scare them into acting in the national interest, then it isn't too much different from America's system'

The difference between the Chinese government and western 'liberal democracies' for example the US system, is that in western democracies an administration can fail to deliver for most citizens and simply gets voted out and onto their cushy retirement speaking tours and jobs with the corporate sponsors who owned them all along. In China all the politburo know that their position wealth and privilege can last a long time- but only if they continue to provide good economic results- so they do...or die!

Western governments have allowed the private bankers, who own them, to MISUSE fiat debt leveraged capital issuance and allocation- squandering our collective liquid capital and undermining our past present and future.

As long as most westerners don't wake up to how this has happened things will not be likely to improve. While Bitcoin does provide a small amount of relief by giving us an alternative SoV it has largely been captured and controlled by the sly bankers who have allowed it as a speculative KYCed and taxed commodity but largely blocked it as a MoE.

SWIFT is absolutely a MoE use case- it gives the US arguably more cost effective power and leverage than direct military. If you do not hold USD in your central bank you cannot access SWIFT and cannot make trade payments to the majority of global markets. Use of BTC for MoE is outright banned in 70% of the global markets.

SWIFT is absolutely demonstrative of the power of MoE dominance...even though Chinas alternatives CIPS and mBridge are increasingly providing an alternative.

Bitcoin is not being used for any significant trade payments...it is increasingly confined to use as a speculative commodity.

Many speculative commodities have, can and do run alongside fiat with no real problem for fiat as long as they are not being used for MoE to any significant extent.

You seem unable to understand the extent to which BTC MoE has been slyly but successfully obstructed if not outright banned, globally. The fiat powers are jealously guarding and preserving their hegemony...hegemony which is based upon MoE dominance if not monopoly.

China has won the trade war. Reverse engineering The Opium Wars. China is now poised to reverse engineer the SWIFT trade payments system hegemony that funds the US military...via Hong Kong, CIPS and mBridge.

Banking and military-policing power systems are very closely aligned.

Why would you expect the government to act more closely in alignment with the national interest?

Very good question!

The theory is that in democracies they need to show they are in order to get re elected- but then the elites figured out they could own both major parties in most democracies and here we are! Ruled by parasitic shadow bankers. Most citizens have become apathetic and antagonistic toward meaningful participation in democracy because the elites have rigged it. Infrastructures and productive sectors emaciated by chronic debt slavery and lack of investment because most fiat debt issuance has been squandered on non productive speculative asset price pumping.

However at the same time more or less, rather ironically, the CCP emerged from the turmoil of Maos era where it was regaining its self determination after the hundred years of humiliation following the Opium Wars and so in the 1980s onward under Deng adapted its economic theory to allow more of the principles of free enterprise to operate in its favour, while retaining strong control over the strategic direction of development. And while China is a one party state the CCP was and is well aware that if it does not deliver credible economic results to its a good majority of its citizens it will probably suffer the fate of brutal and bloody removal.

Heavens Mandate gives the CCP plenty of incentive, and so the pragmatic mercantile Chinese mixed economy is employing fiat capital issuance and allocation far superior to the crony capitalism of the decadent west. China has thus won the trade war and dominates global markets in most manufactured goods and commodities.

The CCP still directs capital whereas in the west Capital (banks) now direct your government. Get it yet?

MoE dominance is where Fiat gains its power. Think about SWIFT for example.

Or the citizens of any nation who must use the currency ordained by their government.

SoV is provided by many speculative assets of which Bitcoin is but one. Bitcoin being held as a SoV is not in real competition with fiat money as long as it is not used as a MoE.

70% of the world has banned MoE use of Bitcoin- nearly all of the remaining 30% has taxed its use a sa speculative commodity making MoE use impracticable due to the onerous tax recording and payment obligations that result.

Legal MoE use of Bitcoin has been banned or highly obstructed in virtually all nations so slyly you apparently didn't notice!

Thanks again yes Im trying one of those https://searx.perennialte.ch It does seem to work ok I will try it for a while to compare with DDG. But I thought DDG did not track users?

Thanks for that but it looks like a lot of work compared to Duckduckgo which I am told does not track me.

Bitcoin does provide some healthy competition for the fiat monetary monopoly but only where fiat debt capital issuance is being misused and abused as it is in the west today...and only if Bitcoin is a practical MoE, which it is not in almost all economies because it is either banned for use as a MoE (in 70% of the world) or allowed but taxed heavily in the other 30% where MoE use is not explicitly banned.

The fiat operators have effectively captured and controlled Bitcoin use limiting it to a relatively harmless role and narrative as a speculative commodity, KYCed and taxed, while MoE use has been either outright banned, or made so inconvenient it is not used as a MoE except by a small minority who are prepared to ignore tax recording and reporting requirements- like us, zapping, on SNs.

Where fiat debt based capital issuance is applied with discipline and focus it can enable more rapid and vigorous economic growth providing the host economy with a competitive advantage over other economies where such discipline is not applied.

This is part of the reason that China has won the trade war and enjoys annual trade surpluses over $1T while western governments and economies have suffered chronic trade and fiscal deficits and now are at risk of losing their legacy hegemony over the global monetary system.

The wealth of nations is considerably influenced by the quality of their governments. In the west governments have been captured by parasitic rentseeking bankers who misuse fiat issuance for their own enrichment but who are ultimately undermining the wealth of most other participants in their economies.

How do you do that? What is 'your server'? Is it a search engine? Or you mean a Windows OS website server as DDG suggests? I do not understand what you mean.

I would disagree with that...with provisos. Individuals/private investors are primarily self seeking for their own gain. A government with sufficient honesty and discipline can invest or direct captial to be invested in infrastructure and productive assets (including citizens skills and R&D) with a broader more strategic and longer term vision. This is what the CCP in China has done in multiple areas. Fpr example they use fiat capital issuance to build massive power generation projects such as the The Gorges on the Yangtze river or coal or gas or nuclear power plants- this new power generation is supplied and available to any private enterprise who can use it and in the past was often used by Bitcoin miners. Anyway by supplying power to an regional economy it stimulates productive potential and multiple subsidiary economic development and investment. This has been a major prong to economic development in China in the last 4 decades and has delivered mostly good results. Only a government has the mandate and ability to push through these projects and if done well they unleash huge latent potential that might otherwise have remained dormant. The west used to do this sort of economic stimulus but since neoliberal voodoo economics, or should I say since the bankers came to largely own western governments, this does not happen much. Private enterprise works well in a competitive market but in many cases investment in and development of basic economic infrastructure and supply chains requires a broader more strategic viewpoint- which governments that are motivated can provide and fiat capital issuance can help fund such developments without being an undue burden upon the citizens whose currency has been debased, as over the medium- long term, such projects when done well can deliver a stronger more prosperous economy than a solely private capital funded one could. Chinese are now building an ever bigger hydro project several magnitudes bigger than the three gorges, just above India and Bangladesh... Another example is the power efficiency drive initiated and pushed by the CCP since the early 2000s- it was simply about acknowledging Chinas energy deficit (dependence on imported fossil fuels) and the logic of improving energy efficiency across the economy for producers and consumers- the result- China leads the world in production and use of Solar power, Wind Power, LED lighting, EVs, Lithium Batteries and high speed electrified bullet trains. All this increases the Chinese economies energy efficiency and has also delivered billions in receipts from exports. You might argue private enterprise could do the same- but No private enterprise does not have the ability or motive to think and act in the best long term interests of the national economy- only a good honest government does.

duckduckgo is good.

Another argument fiat proponents can make is that in a growing economy with a hard monetary system there is a danger that people who hold surplus cash funds will have reduced incentive to spend or invest those funds as the value of cash savings will be constantly increasing without taking any risk via investment.

Thus there is a risk that more and more savings are held back from consumption and investment because the holders of those savings are incentivised to simply hold them at zero risk rather than investing in potentially productive projects or spending.

Stackers should surely understand the logic of this!?!

Fiat enables almost endless issuance of capital which can be used to further invest in and advance an economies productive potential.

While there are problems inherent with this- including the need to ensure fiat debt capital is only advanced toward purposes that are likely to be productive and therefore enhance the overall wealth creation of the economy, it is a feature of debt leverage and capital allocation that can theoretically outpace a fixed hard currency such as gold or Bitcoin.

For fiat money to operate successfully you need sufficiently disciplined and honest government and bankers in place to operate such a fiat debt leverage economic model- where those exist is can and demonstrably has worked well historically- where those are absent as in the west today, it can work to cause much damage.

Inflation is the logical consequence of debasement of the currency. It can only be justified if the fiat debt based capital issuance that causes debasement is directed a capital investments which can be reasonably expected to increase the total sum of production within the economy.

Only in this way can that debasement be justified as if an increase in production and wealth creation broadly recompenses participants in the economy for the debasement of their money.

This was recognised and regulated within the monetary system prior to the 1980s neoliberal reforms of banking by requiring commercial banks to only provide fiat debt capital funding to productive purposes.

The neoliberal 'reforms' removed this constraint and ever since commercial banks have increasingly provided fiat debt funding toward non productive speculative purposes- primarily but not exclusively- housing.

So since those 'reforms' with commercial banks no longer restricted to financing productive projects and investments the era of fiat crony capitalism has afflicted the western world. Banks inflate property markets because property mortgages are much easier to assess for risk and much more secure than most productive plant investments. Property markets have been inflated with a ceaseless pumping of fiat debt leverage. It went a bit too far and triggered the GFC but that blew over and the cycle resumed again.

Since 1990 interest rates have steadily declined enabling this parasitic non productive fiat debt leveraged crony capitalism to maintain an illusion of economic success in the west. But now that interest rates are at a level that can no longer be lowered much, nor raised much the process has reached a dead end. Property prices will stagnate at best- at worst they could decline considerably.

Meanwhile China has largely avoided this trap and invested most of its fiat debt capital toward productive assets and infrastructure and has ultimately won the trade war.

The west is left clinging to a massive pile of debt and over valued non productive assets. The outlook for the west is not bright - pOp.

Good to hear. Is Bitcoin adoption increasing in South Africa?