Of course we all read in elementary school Marco Polo’s description of fiat currency, when he first encountered this type of monetary system being used in Emperor Khan’s territory late in the 13th century. We know that private issuance allows the issuers to create as much coin for themselves as they want without oversight, enabling the currency issuers to arrive at “wealth beyond your imagination” at the expense of the users of their currency. We know fiat money enables gross corruption and capital misallocation, its effects being “without exception and without possible salvation unmitigated disaster”. We know Nixon ushered in the current version of the fiat dollar in 1971 when he defaulted on gold obligations, exactly 51 years ago today.
We also know that we are thirteen years into a new currency era, now that we have readily available publicly auditable and verifiable cryptocurrencies which have grown immensely in their first decade. We know that those who have started using them in their businesses have for the most part hugely profited from using this technology, we know it can be easier and cheaper to use crypto than the fiat notes or third party banking / merchant / card services. We know we could prepare for inevitable economic troubles by accepting some public currencies alongside our current fiat systems, with very little effort. We know that the worlds wealthiest people have started using and collecting the new monies. We know that continuing to use the unconstitutional fiat currency is making us poor, concentrating wealth in the hands of a few, as well as enabling the most environmentally destructive practices on the planet.
However, despite these clear and well know facts, many people have still not started accepting any public currencies for their products, labor, and property. How could this be? It seems beyond comprehension that any organism, crystal, molecule, or life form of any kind would continue to contribute to their own demise for no reason even though alternatives are readily available. However, primate behavior is quite remarkable; our psychology quite complex. Don’t attribute to psychosis what might be explained via social pressure or other causes. There may be reasons for accepting only fiat dollars at our businesses and for our labor. Let’s take a look at those reasons!
10. The founding fathers were genocidal slave owners. One good way to get back at them is to support taxation without representation.
9. Fiat with paper and cards just makes better cocaine paraphernalia all around.
8. Don’t like my customers; want to drag them into a broken-by-design financial instrument so I can enjoy watching them cry when Blackrock buys them out.
7. Just had the completely wrong idea of what legal tender laws apply to.
6. It’s not my job to think about payment systems or what monies to use. My only political responsibility is to vote once every couple years.
5. Sound money is bad for the environment because the network uses energy. We should instead use only counterfeitable-at-zero-energy-cost fiat to make sure the military and the oil companies can get their green subsidies to save the environment. If the wealthiest people can’t print as much new money for themselves as they like, how are they going to afford the private jets which fly them to environmental conferences ?
4. Been in a coma since 1970, still believe there’s a gold standard.
3. Accepting something like bitcoin would make people think you were trying to get rich, which could ruin your reputation.
2. Don’t rock the boat. It’s safer to just play your position, own nothing, and be happy.
1. Just hate the USA, want to see its institutions plagued with corruption and its citizenry impoverished.