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Comment by Thorentis | Hacker News Reader

No it doesn't.

What fixes this, is realising that debt is artificial and an economy of the future needs to realise tangible goods have more value.

Why should a country have to borrow money to provide food stamps for people? Just provide the food. Healthcare? Just provide the hospitals. I'm not advocating for communism - far from it. A distributist model of social security and healthcare is what is needed. Not some larpy digital coin that's based on speculation. Speculation is what got us into this debt mess to begin with. Speculation is not the answer.

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> Why should a country have to borrow money to provide food stamps for people? Just provide the food.

Where does that food come from? Government run farms, hospitals? Those takes money to build and staff.

Government may need to pay money, but a government that is the source of its own fiat money doesn't need to borrow it. That's just a product of systematic play acting based on the desire to pretend that fiat isn't fiat.

> a government that is the source of its own fiat money doesn't need to borrow it.

Sounds like a Magical Money Tree.

I too could be the source of my own currency (as could you, or a bank, or another business), thus would not need to borrow my currency to pay for the goods and services I desire.

Well, yes, the government never needs to tax or borrow, it could print whatever it wanted when it wanted. The question becomes whether or not that would be more destabilizing.

Think for a second and you'll reach the conclusion that currency monopolies (meaning: you can only use a given currency in a "country"), taxation and populism (a side-effect of democracy) are interlinked.

As for the "what's needed" for social justice, that's your opinion. It might even be the "majority's" opinion. But what if I don't agree? Will you still impose taxation through force on me to fund your ideas?

Anyway, my best advice for you is to not hold crappy bitcoin (and/or gold/silver), and keep your wealth in US dollars (or whichever other fiat currency). I guarantee you won't regret that strategy in 2-5 years.

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