pull down to refresh

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.
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.
reply
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.
reply