One of the sad things about taxes is it deprives us of this genuine connection when we give.

Everyone who pays taxes is in some way giving to pay welfare for people in need but we never get to look them in the eye as we hand over the money and we are robbed of the human connection.

Taxes does not make us feel good like giving does as we are being robbed under duress and those receiving the handout feel entitled to receive from the state and are robbed of feeling of being blessed when they are given to.

State welfare empovirishes everyone not only financially but spiritually as well.

I am surprised that in Australia the state even allows parents to self custody their children at this point.

Fiat turns everything into number go up technology. 📈

The pendulum is a wrecking ball.

Even if it does swing back so much of what we have around us will have been destroyed by the path of the wrecking ball.

But even then the voice in your head will know and if it sounds anything like mine you will hear plenty of criticism if you are not doing or saying what you know you should.

The entire world is built on broken incentives.

I would get a pixel and install GraphineOS on it. Its a privacy focussed OS perfect for a bitcoiner.

You can buy a refurbished or second hand one quite cheaply.

The setup is easy and you can do everything with it that you can do with any other android.

https://grapheneos.org/

I think the point is that the law as it should exist exists without government. Just as the laws of physics do.

If there is a government then they should exist only to protect and defend the rights inherent to each individual and from this defence of property rights "law" will follow.

Fiat makes rest impossible as doing nothing means you are always moving backwards.

To stay still you have to keep running.

Bitcoin takes us off this treadmill.

Enjoying the simple things is the secret to a happy life.

My only hope is that this technology will force people in to face to face interactions.

When it becomes apparent that everything you see through a screen is more likely than not AI generated then hopefully this will cause people to seek out and value time in the real world.

The distopian view is that a pure AI friend will send better texts than your human friend using AI and people will gravitate to socialising online solely with GPUs.

A company can be environmentally friendly if after they dump toxic waste in to the water supply they pay a carbon offset credit.

Every proposed "woke" solution either promotes compliance and destruction of individual rights or facilitates wealth extraction.

I agree that there is no better solution and like you am hopeful for what scaling solutions the future will bring.

You are correct in pointing out that bitcoin itself is not straying away from sovereign money but what so many people are and are choosing to interact with is far from sovereign. In my mind the straying is more cultural that technological.

As bitcoin becomes increasingly mainstream the average bitcoiner strays from being an adversarial thinking libertarian.

It could be compared to the internet and how there is no physical limitation preventing each business from operating their own website yet increasing numbers of them choose to only advertise and operate through Facebook and insragram relinquishing control in the process and opening themselves up to censorship, surveillance and deplatforming. These same people will probably choose to only interact with bitcoin in the same way.

These are my fears and I hope to be wrong. I am glad there are so many smart and capable people working on open and interoperable bitcoin layers and hope to see them win.

In a future where base layer bitcoin becomes out of the average persons reach I fear this will become the default bitcoin experience.

How do we avoid the banking system 2.0?

Perhaps inflating the money supply has been solved but we are straying away from self sovereign permissionless money.

Most people do not think for themselves and until those who do the thinking for society change their tune on bitcoin the masses won't either.

Covid proved that when the powerful say "jump" the masses ask "how high?"

There are many valid things to criticize Trump for but the media never push those criticisms as they are generally the areas where Trump went along with the uniparty corporate interests so instead they are forced to resort to calling him names.

And we sww the media who in an ideal world would be the ones exposing the illegal activities of our government and who would act as a defense against overreach and corruption seek favor with our corrupt governments and slander the heroes doing the job they themselves should be doing.

I am past being surprised but I am still saddened.

Yes the state is pretty good at wealth redistribution. The greater the failure, the longer the blunder, the further over budget then the greater the distribution will be.

Incompetence is built right in to the business model.

Money from the many to the chosen few.

I have never know what to make of this topic but heard a theory discussed on a podcast and found it interesting.

The summary is its for climate mitigation. Inducing clouds during the day to reflect heat and not at night to allow cooling.

You can read about it here:

https://climateviewer.substack.com/p/geoengineering-with-contrails

Do not forget being kind to yourself.

Often this can be the hardest.