Replying to Avatar Joe Nakamoto

Today I visited a school for mentally challenged and disabled kids that didn’t have a lick of AC.

Classrooms do have ceiling fans but they do sweet fuck all when it gets to a certain temperature.

It was 35 degrees + humid today but felt like 42.

That’s like when you open the oven door to check on your chicken.. every time you step outside.

Why was I there?

Well bitcoiners at btccuracao funded the school’s brand new WiFi.

I wanted to see the impact of this donation and speak to a poorer community about their experience with btc.

Btccuraco paid the internet company that installed the WiFi in Sats as part of the donation. It’s one of many grassroots initiatives they undertake to try to show that bitcoin is better money.

The new WiFi is a total game changer for the school and the teachers were tearful explaining how much it has helped them teach, inspire and lead these less fortunate kids.

But it only goes so far.

The solar panels atop the school’s long roof “stopped working” this week.

A govt contractor installed the panels this year as a “go green” initiative.

Long story of govt enraging incompetence short, basically half the school had working WiFi + ceiling fans. Sometimes the electricity simply cuts out.

So one half of the school had classrooms of engaged kids with YouTube access + useful visual aids for the kids in a semi manageable heat

while the other half slowly cooked and tried to read books in the inferno.

My white shirt was wet and transparent by the time I finished the school tour. I was like how the feck are these kids gonna get a chance in life?

I interviewed the head of ICT who was gushing about the new WiFi and was saying how some of the kids can now learn to code with this Minecraft coding thing.

She had the biggest heart. But like many islanders she had been crypto scammed a few years ago and was still really reluctant about bitcoin.

Really saddening because of course no sane person thinks “oh yeah I’m gonna learn about bitcoin now I sold my gold necklace for a crypto thing 5 years ago and never got the money back.”

I managed to send her some sats to say thank you but if I’m honest I think it’s coz I was recording this during the interview.

In all, I left the school utterly humbled and a little bit angry at the world.

I don’t have a nice thing to round off on, sorry.

Bitcoin doesn’t fix everything. And some things utterly suck.

Every area has a school like this, very under funded and kids with very complex needs, I regularly work with kids from one school, it’s mostly a residential school, a lot of kids families can not cope.

Austrian economists never consider these people. One of the biggest reasons I’m not a ‘Bitcoin fixes everything’ type person.

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Yeah 100%. Social safety net is so so important

I don’t think its correct to say “Austrians never consider these people”. Hayek immediately comes to mind in his writings about philanthropy. In my opinion people would be much more charitable if they felt financially stable and not worrying as much about an economic disaster, which I believe is at least partially solved by Austrian economics.

Exactly. There's a difference between not considering such people and not wanting government to reduce everyone else to the lowest common denominator. That's what usually happens with "social safety net" thinking and policies.

Bitcoin won't fix every problem directly, but it certainly will indirectly solve most of them by promoting abundance.

Well in what I’ve heard in various podcasts with Austrians and various libertarians I can’t think of any where they’ve discussed these issues.

I do remember Saifedean Ammoys saying he never donates to charity though…

I would think a lot of libertarians and Austrians feel as though they are already taxed, which is meant to provide the “social safety net”. I think we can agree based on the story that sparked this conversation, that safety net often fails. But we cannot opt out of paying those taxes which go to failed/failing welfare efforts. If you return economic freedom, I think the majority of all people regardless of political or economic beliefs want to help their fellow human.

The only social safety net I've ever seen work is a local community. Whether that's family, close friends, church, or a village, beyond that people are to far away or to occupied to care. Returning purchasing power to the individual communities will do more to heal the world than all the big charities in the world combined.

You're an absolute legend Joe bringing light to what bitcoin could do, not simply what it's doing today.