Hello Stacker News,
I want to first state that I am all in on Bitcoin and by no means think this a slight to the network at all more so a genuine curiosity to what many fellow plebs think about this. I know most bitcoiners are anti government and every man for themselves mentality through proper sovereignty but still as much as I do believe the power of that I understand that some people need help based on their life circumstance.
For an example my grandmother who is 90 now has been living by herself since she was about 60 when my grandfather died. She worked all her life as an immigrant in the US as a nurse which she didn't officially retire till her 70s. Many services have been very helpful for her that was provided from the government. In a bitcoin standard where I assume that taxes will be an obsolete thing of the past or at least an option to pitch in if you want to be a great Samaritan what will happen to services that some people actually need?
Humans are naturally self incentivized and why would anyone feel inclined to pitch into something that doesn't directly affect them.
Who will fund general infrastructure? Who will fund disability checks for parents with children that have mental disorders or sicknesses? Who will make the education system in an area where they are not as affluent financially to be functional?
Or is it the general consensus that in a truly free world its your problem and I don't have to help?
I'm conflicted because I believe the government spending that has been going on over the last 50 years is modern slavery but also realize it is very naïve to say that some things that are done by the government may not be the most efficient but still carry a more net positive.
I would love if anyone could clarify this for me. Thanks in advance!
"Who will fund general infrastructure? Who will fund disability checks for parents with children that have mental disorders or sicknesses? Who will make the education system in an area where they are not as affluent financially to be functional?"
Who funds it today? Why does infrastructure go away without a monopolistic protection agency threatening people into obedience?
Who is responsible for educating children? Who brought those children into existence? I have 6 children and none of them have spent a single day within government funded schools. Why should I demand that society around me is responsible for MY offspring? That is MY responsibility. With liberty comes the burden of individually accountability.
Under no circumstances ever, would I apply for unemployment or disability checks from a coercive regime. I would only draw from a policy which I have voluntarily invested into, such as a private insurance agreement collaborative that guarantees such coverages. Any such collaborative that is based upon force or coercion, is invalid and amounts to nothing more than theft, and is therefore unfit to be used according to my values.
You might ask - What if I cannot afford any such collaborative policy? Then hopefully my own family or friends may be able to assist in my time of need, just as I would for them in their time of need (according to whatever ability I might have). But I could not rightfully impose that upon them as some sort of moral obligation or duty. And I would NEVER call upon the government mafia to draw weapons and threaten or compel anybody else to provide their resources to me. Most people who do draw from government redistribution schemes would also rarely endorse such harsh methods as calling on them to draw weapons etc... But the practical fact of the matter is the same even though they hide behind the façade of being an "innocent citizen."
My needs are MY responsibility. Providing for my children is part of that because I brought them into the world. Anything beyond that is based upon individual prerogative and consent.
I personally believe that being charitable and compassionate are valuable human traits. And I encourage them. But I make no such claim of valuable traits somehow being misconstrued as intrinsic human "rights" or obligations from one stranger to another just because we are of the same species.
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My needs are MY responsibility. Providing for my children is part of that because I brought them into the world. Anything beyond that is based upon individual prerogative and consent.
Right there: pure truth.
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"I do believe the power of that I understand that some people need help based on their life circumstance."
My response to this would be - Then help those who you choose to help. Who is stopping you? The difference between the principles found within liberty vs. statism, is that one is voluntary, and the other is coercive. One recognizes consent, and the other exists upon force. There is no benevolence nor virtue within force.
How much more can you personally "help" people in need if you were not stolen from in the first place? That is, if you were not extorted via coercive taxation, and then you use a portion of your resources to help those in need which you are speaking of.
"Or is it the general consensus that in a truly free world its your problem and I don't have to help?"
This is a distorted view. The proper view is that gangsters, who call themselves government, are not righteous for stealing from one group in order to give to another. They do not own the resources they are redistributing.
If you were personally in need, would you prefer that people who genuinely have compassion for your need, are the ones who "help?" Or would you prefer that countless thousands of others are plundered and threatened in order to provide what YOU need?
The fundamental issue with redistribution is that those who promote it have some sort of altruistic outlook as it relates to OTHER PEOPLES PROPERTY. Do YOU have a rightful claim to MY resources? Do YOU have a rightful claim to the product of MY labor?
If the answer is no, then what basis would you or anybody else have to claim any legitimacy of how me or my resources are up for grabs without my consent? The answer is that there is no such legitimacy to any such claims.
The best you can do is to be individually compassionate toward others with whatever means you have available, in order to contribute VOLUNTARILY (i.e. without the threat of force or coercion) toward those needs.
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The State is just a parasite, not a charity. Working people will take care of their relatives who are unable to provide for themselves (as they always have) If the economy offers abundant and cheap goods and services, poverty will be all the easier to bear for the working people. Including for those without family or alternative, who will be in the minority, charity already exists today and will surely be more efficient in the future when needed.
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The solution to these things will manifest from technological efficiency. Not the church or local communitarians pooling their resources in the absence of any welfare state. That's comical. If technology reaches incredible efficiency (which we're trending towards), then the welfare state can carry marginal cost, that is, a cost that doesn't create an incentive structure for anyone to fight it.
Think of fusion energy reducing base load cost and augmenting availability, and all the previously un-economical things that suddenly are. Or simple mRNA treatments for cancer, dementia. CRISPr that edits genes to produce cures. Carebots. Nanobots. Robotics. The yield producing capacity of 3 dimensional printing. Artificial organs better than our own. Vertical farming. Seed genetics. Solid state lithium. Eventually quantum everything.
The real question isn't who funds disability checks, but who funds the technologies that raise the floor while opening the trapdoor on cost at scale. That capex will be spent by the same usual suspects it always was, but bitcoin is an efficiency technology itself, and will make fiat more efficient, politics more honest with a check on their prestige, energy less wasteful, time preferences longer, and investment less reckless. This will probably start with bitcoin's Atlas Blocks.
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социальный смарт контракт... люди будут помогать друг другу... сейчас достаточно накопить несколько монет биткоина что б обеспечить несколько лет перестройки на новые рельсы... подумай кто сейчас пытается сохранить? какое государство не думает о жителях? всегда будут знать что есть 125000 человек для поддержки... Мы же будем их поддерживать? а знаешь кто это??? это сейчас те кто у власти... им по 45-55-65 лет... и через время они будут с милионами но без биткоина... им что делать??? ты готов им платить после того что они сделали???
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This is still not a solution to the things I was saying. I'm not saying I want a head of state representative I'm saying the services that have been a net positive for society that public funds has given people in need of opportunity/assistance how will that be implemented on a Bitcoin Standard. If you think that is just one of the trade offs of being on one fine but statism doesn't address what I am asking.
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what are you asking can be fixed easily: stack sats and don't ask how will be in 100 years. The solution of fixing problems is not to add more government, but to get rid of all of it. Those "public services" as you name them are actually not public, but private. Stealing from me (aka taxation) to keep you alive and paid doing nothing, it doesn't mean is not theft.
Taxation is theft in any form or shape. I survived a communist regime, I know what am I talking about.
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Okay so if someone is born an orphan with no one to help are they just SOL because people like you feel that a public service is slavery? C'mon now be realistic. Not being efficient and citizen not having say in the allocation of funds is criminal not the actual services being provided. The Bitcoin standard makes these services harder and maybe all we can do is just hope someone would help if the time came in a new orange pilled world.
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If the government will not exist, that child will not be orphan. Look to the cause in order to have a remedy...
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it's all a very smooth transition... a small country sells bananas and from there pays the benefit... It makes sense that it would sell bananas for bitcoins and pay the benefit in bitcoins...
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