Culture is downstream of elite behavior. And elite behavior is downstream of incentives. And incentives are downstream of money.

It always comes back to the money.

Reply to this note

Please Login to reply.

Discussion

What is money downstream of?

Work, energy and attention

It's always a cycle: uncertainty creates money, money leads to capital formation, capital lead to uncertainty.

Money is society’s operating system.

I largely agree. But everything is downstream of biology, of evolution. Bitcoin is of more value to relatively advanced human types than it is to the relatively primitive.

Song assumes homo economicus when humans are actually motivated by reputation, ideology, community bonds, survival, revenge, love, craft mastery, and dozens of non-monetary incentives.

Man I’ve been trying to tell my wife this for years, and this morning, she finally understood. V proud ❤️

This reminds me of a book I read recently, "Applied Elite Theory," by Neema Parvini. He makes the argument that culture is downstream from law, which is downstream from the interests of the ruling class.

When the money lies, everything downstream learns to lie with it. Fix the root, not the symptoms.