You don’t need to grow up to be an open source dev.
Simple question with a not-so-simple answer: Why does the federal government levy taxes?
The obvious, but incorrect, answer is: To fund services. To pay for stuff that they want done.
While this is true for state and local government, this is not the case for the federal government. The federal government has no need of your tax dollars to pay for services. They can (and do) print as much money as they need to pay for the things they want to pay for.
The next local step is to respond: “Okay, sure, but if they did that, the inflation would be insane” (moreso). Aha! Now we’ve found the first reason why the federal government levies taxes: to control inflation. And for all its faults, the US government is actually the best in the world at this. That’s a scary concept.
Another way to think about it is this: whenever the federal government spends money, on military, education, science, industry subsidies, debt interest, or anything else, new money is created. Every time. Conversely, whenever taxes are collected, money is destroyed. In an ideal situation, those two numbers are equal and we have a “balanced budget”. But that hasn’t happened since the late ‘90s, and is unlikely to ever happen again.
So do not ever whine that “my tax dollars are being spent on (thing I don’t like)!” Or “my tax dollars are being wasted.” No they aren’t. We all hate inflation, and your tax dollars are being spent to control inflation. Instead, complain that money is being PRINTED to fund (thing I don’t like). And/or complain that (people I don’t like) should pay more taxes and I should pay less. Both are probably valid.
There are two more reasons why the federal government levies taxes:
To generate demand for the currency. US taxes can only be paid in US dollars. If you could pay your taxes in Euros, gold, or bitcoin, that would reduce the demand for dollars (moreso) and threaten the foundation of US dollar hegemony. Can’t have that!
Lastly, and less crucial to this conversation: the federal government levies taxes to influence behavior. Tariffs are the perfect example of this. Tariffs are a tax on US businesses, and sometimes individuals, to make it more expensive to import goods internationally. They encourage patronizing US businesses, which is fine if there actually exists competing US businesses in the industries that are being tariffed. If there aren’t, well, that just means higher prices for US consumers.
My main point is this: maybe the federal government shouldn’t have the power to print as much money as they want. Then the obvious answer would actually be the correct answer.
Because existing laws were never meant to be enforced. At least not entirely. They were meant to be enforced selectively against the “out” crowd. Binding the “wrong” sort of people. While the laws protect the “in” crowd.
It is infeasible to fully enforce all the laws. We need fewer laws. At least against the people.
In case anyone was wondering, #nostr is apparently “the weirdo blockchain network”.
I suppose any news is good news, but I expect better from Gruber.
Survivorship bias.
Oh, and you’re a tech genius with significant Lightning experience.
It’s still scary for most of us.
Welcome to Nostr! Great to see another CA skier around here. If you find yourself heading to Tahoe during ski season, hit me up and we’ll go to #kirkwood !
Olas, by nostr:npub1l2vyh47mk2p0qlsku7hg0vn29faehy9hy34ygaclpn66ukqp3afqutajft, looks promising.
Interesting. I don’t know it worked like that.
So if I just send to my default channel with that same key, it doesn’t appear in News? Where would it appear? I see you have a LongFast channel. Maybe there?
They all just use the default key of AQ== except for ghostmesh which is part of ghostnet. https://github.com/s2underground/GhostNet
Then how are they distinguished on the network? Like if I send something, how do I get it to show up in “News” on your node?
Are they just different keys? Or are you doing something different with the broadcast itself?
Think of it this way: When TikTok removes one of your videos or bans you completely, it’s not “censorship”. They are a marketplace and you are the product. They are just choosing which products they want to sell (ie to advertisers). If they don’t like a product (ie you) they don’t have to sell it.
So, the choice really is:
1) Create only the content that will appease the marketplace owner, not what you really want to create, nor what your followers want/need to hear.
2) Create and publish content on a truly censorship-resistant, and open marketplace, directly to your followers.
You see, it’s not really TikTok that’s censoring you. You are choosing to censor yourself.
You don’t have to do that anymore.
Can I store user-encrypted data that only my app will use? Which nip/kind should I be looking at?
They don’t see it that way. And in their mind, there is no other way to see it than what they’ve been doing.
But I don’t see a lot of other countries balancing their budget or moving to a un-debasable currency. So I think it’ll just be a slow burn.
Maybe there will be a revolution, but that sounds messy.
You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all wanna change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know
We all wanna change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know that you can count me out?
Don't you know it's gonna be alright?
Alright
Alright
You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We'd all love to see the plan
You ask me for a contribution
Well, you know
We're all doin' what we can
But if you want money for people with minds that hate
All I can tell you is, brother, you have to wait
Don't you know it's gonna be alright?
Alright
Alright
“Doing taxes on your crypto can be complicated.”
Yeah, and whose fault is that?
Sounds nice, but there’s no incentive to do so. If it’s possible for someone to print money, someone will print money. And no amount of voting will change that. Even if people actually vote the way you say.
It’s like The One Ring: “But I will use the power to HELP people!” Nope!
The only way out is a monetary system that CANnot be debased, but The Ring will fight back: “Throw it into the fire!” “No.”
Let’s hope it doesn’t take 3000 years.
Some are better than others. Rogue One is really good. And Andor. I wouldn’t bother with the Book of Boba Fett.
My unpopular opinion is that Ep. 7-9 movies are better than “OG” 1-3. Especially 7.