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I think looking at incentives will provide the best answer. I find it interesting that Europeans came to America to escape the rule of European monarchies. The incentive to fight back became more profitable on American soil so they mobilized and got it done. Then the incentive to establish a government and tax the colonies was high. That resulted in the "head west" movement. People were trying to escape taxation by moving farther away from the tyrants. Eventually they reached the pacific ocean and had no where else to go. The people who were bound to the land got taxed the hardest. I always find it interesting to see that consistent pattern: things that are taxed the most are the things that are hardest to move or hide. You're a farmer? It's pretty easy to tax that. Home owner? You bet your ass that's getting taxed. Software developer? Much harder to tax that. Get paid in bitcoin? Hard to withhold earnings that way.

TLDR: the nature of these relationships will always be a push pull between tyrants and plebs. What can people get away with? What can the government succeed in taxing? As jobs move online, it becomes much cheaper to leave the region you are being taxed in. I believe the sovereign individual thesis is playing out right now.

sachin 1mo ago 💬 2

This is going into the territory of *why* power wins over the market sometimes and vice versa during other times

You say that it's all about incentives. Some argue that it's culture, genetics, history, etc. Others say that it's about the dominant ideas people have. There are those who say that it's an inevitable pattern or progression in society and history. Or that it's divine intervention. Or that it's about the quality of money. Or technological progress. Or the planets.

I can't put my finger on it.

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MAHDOOD 1mo ago

The reason I say incentives is because all these other things are driven by incentives. Culture changes to accommodate incentives. For example, the entire chivalry movement was born from a dying cult's wish to keep their tradition's practices alive. They found a way to integrate their beliefs into Christian culture. Women found this particularly beneficial as it provided them better treatment so they were incentivized to reinforce men that played along. The men who played along were incentivized to adopt these practices in order to gain sexual opportunities. You can argue the same about genetics. You are incentivized to mate with people who have better genetics. Historians are incentivized to write the version of history most profitable to them or their governments that are paying them. Incentives are the driving force of our actions.

Toxic Bitcoiner 1mo ago 💬 1

Power always won because, until Bitcoin, we never had a neutral property right that was sufficiently resistant to both seizure and surveillance, such that it could break the profitable, positive feedback loop of theft.

MAHDOOD 1mo ago

Yes. Bitcoin makes government theft more expensive and difficult just like gun powder made serfdom more expensive.