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I am reading this from my RV with a node onboard. I think you are onto something.
Living on the West Coast, house, rent, and land prices are too high. We're just not going to set roots down here long-term; we had to opt out.
We live a fairly minimal life since we can't carry much onboard, so storing value in something digital that I can self-custody is a huge advantage for us.
It's tricky to balance fuel prices these days. We are fortunate that we have been able to park on some land where we can have a large garden too. That's a rare thing in my area.
If there was a large gathering/camp of nomad Bitcoiners, I'd be there!
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Van life is basically opting out of the rat race on the consumption / lifestyle side, so kind of makes sense bitcoiners are interested. That said, I still think it's not a great societal trend re: purchasing power of wages that people are resorting to it.
Bitcoin doesn't solve the problem of firms in the larger economy scraping by paying people unlivable wages in many cases / locations. BTC gives people an opt-out / off-ramp to stop having to save in fiat currency and bonds, which may over time help with having some bargaining power over wages, but those wage charts over the decades really are the problem. The wage (in terms of purchasing power) has been squeezed for decades by inflationary monetary policy. Increased competition from outsourcing and mass immigration stops wages from rising even in nominal terms let alone real purchasing power.
Things are pretty dire in that respect, because whether you denominate wages in USD or BTC or whatever, people are still settling for less every year in real terms.
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The modern tendency to job-hop and for employers to rent-seek are all tied to this monetary inflation issue. The work done by unions and labour groups in the past to secure certain wages and conditions can all be undone by a decade of high inflation and people scrambling to not be unemployed. Think of how much effort and organizing and tension it takes to raise wages a little, compared to how easily any gains can be inflated away.
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So true.
All those wage gains that were reported during 2021 and 2022 for the people that are on the lower end of socioeconomic spectrum. With the rising cost of food housing gas and all the other consumer goods, did they really come out ahead? Of course not, all those gains have surely been inflated away.
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Never tried it but freedom seems a pretty strong correlation. And BTC does allow you to be unbank yourself.
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I am reading this from my RV with a node onboard. I think you are onto something.
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I must confess to a certain soft spot for van-life. However, I worry that with time criminals will also realize the potential of van-life people having bitcoin, and then we will have van-life + bitcoin + US$5 wrench attack. ;)
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I hope that is a way off but personal security and privacy precautions should help. Think that are more likely to be after ready cash, maybe high value electronics etc. than your digital savings.
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I always thought the opposite: the Bitcoiners <-> homesteaders correlation.
Val-life seems to me like an intermediate step - you hate the city, you hate your cubicle and fiat job, so you go traveling and think that is freedom...
But eventually you realize freedom is really staying in a place you love and constantly tweaking your setup: buying more land, building more structures... Essentially building an empire! It doesn't have to be all in one place, it can be also in many places around the world - if you can handle that - but all these places need to somehow grow with you over time.
Van-life seems to me still rooted in the fiat mindset, same as the digital nomad lifestyle. You basically travel around and "consume" - everything from food to experiences. And you as a person can't grow by just consuming.
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