On the wall of my office years ago hung a sign with what software developers called “The Programmer’s Triangle”. Each point of the triangle was labeled: “Cheap”, “Fast”, “Good”. “Pick any two” the sign pronounced, because that’s all you’re going to get. This triangle is also known as “The Quality Triangle” and its message is almost universally true.
If you want it cheap and fast, it won’t be good.
If you want it cheap and good, it won’t be fast.
If you want it fast and good, it won’t be cheap.
To date the only thing I’m aware of that is able to consistently deliver all three is Mexican food, which is usually cheap, fast and good. I don’t know what their magic sauce is because nobody else seems to have figured this out. “You get what you pay for” and “haste makes waste” are axioms of our culture for a reason.
The quality triangle also applies to the money supply. If money is cheap and fast to produce, it won’t be good, sound money. That’s what we’re dealing with today. Fiat money backed by no hard asset costs virtually nothing to produce. At the push of a button new money is instantly created, but this money is not good. It doesn’t have staying power, and the fact that it’s cheap and fast to produce incites those in control of the push-button profits to make more and more of it, enriching themselves and the people close to them at the expense of everyone else. This is known as the Cantillon Effect.
This low-quality money has created all manner of perverse incentives in our world. In a serendipitous moment as I was pondering the ills caused by fiat, a tweet came across my feed of an article Marty Bent published yesterday on this very subject. In it he outlines six aspects of life that are negatively skewed because of unsound money.
Bad morals. Having left the Christian faith due to my cult background, I don’t agree with all the conservative morality many Christian Bitcoiners hold. I’ve seen all too often the negative impacts of such repression, though unlike many I respect the freedom everyone has to choose what is best for themselves and their family. That said, I am a big believer in ethics and try hard to cause no harm to others while working to benefit myself and those I care about.
Fiat money makes it difficult to be ethical. Because your savings rot away due to inflation, getting ahead honestly is much harder. Those who take risky steps or defraud others are often handsomely rewarded, and seeing these people constantly get away with it makes it difficult for someone to stay on the straight and narrow. You do honest hard work and are punished for it by watching your money evaporate while others do no real work and scheme their way into riches and get a slap on the wrist after a mea culpa.
Banks are some of the worst. For example, Bank of America has been fined 271 times for a total of $83 billion. They keep doing it because the fine is a fraction of the money they’re making off their unethical behavior. It’s just the cost of doing busines. If they were caught 271 times, imagine how many times they got away with it. With examples like these, it takes deep personal conviction to remain ethical. For most people, that’s a tall order.
Bad financial decisions. People don’t make good decisions on impulse, thus the concept of a “crime of passion”. While capable of rational thought, humans are primarily driven by emotion and instinct. Over the centuries society has learned to reign in our human nature to maintain relative peace and order. If each time we were wronged we resorted to violence, chaos would ensue. That’s why we need laws and lawsuits and police, though each of those things can also be abused so there’s a balance to be struck.
Fiat money forces people to act impulsively and make risky decisions. Because your purchasing power is being drained away through inflation, you must act quickly to keep the water out of the sinking boat of your finances. These quick decisions often result in poor investment choices and other subpar behavior. If you want to buy a house that costs $200,000 today and try to save your money to pay cash, by the time you have the money the house will cost much more because of inflation. This pushes people to get into debt whose interest rates only further eat at their savings, resulting in an economy full of wage and debt slaves.
Bad education. As stated, the Cantillon Effect is the reality that the people closest to those who can print money get most of the benefit from them doing so. Big business and big industry players that fund political campaigns and offer politicians golden parachutes in return for favors get tax loopholes, government contracts and bailouts while the rest of us get more inflation and less purchasing power.
To keep this racket going, the wage slave class must remain ignorant to how the economic system works. That requires little or misleading financial education, which is exactly what children get in public school. I attended a Magnet School from 2nd grade all the way until graduation. It was the highest level of public education available in the city, yet none of these “advanced” classes taught me anything about fiat, inflation or how to properly manage money. That’s by design. Unsound money requires unsound education to keep the ponzi going.
Bad health. When you work multiple jobs to keep your head above water you don’t have the time necessary to make healthy, nutritious meals from scratch. The shopping, preparation and cooking are costing you precious hours that could be earning the dollars you need to shore up your dwindling savings. Besides, home cooked meals made with quality ingredients are expensive. Cheap, fast frozen food gives you more time for your wage slavery. Fresh food also goes bad if unused, so you must be judicious in your purchases otherwise that’s more money down the drain. Frozen food can last a very long time.
This reality of fiat money results in an unhealthy, overweight populace. With little time for proper diet and exercise, a sick nation relies on side-effect-laden medications to cover up their symptoms just enough so they can go back to work. This only perpetuates the problem as they become addicted to these drugs and shell out more of their inflated funds to get their fix. A U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee (JEC) study found that the “opioid epidemic cost the United States a record of nearly $1.5 trillion in 2020”.
Bad relationships. The rat race doesn’t just negatively affect physical health. It also damages the emotional health that naturally comes from loving relationships. We all know the stories of absentee parents working long hours to make ends meet, leaving the care and education of their children to others. As already covered, public education is designed to turn children into wage slaves, a fate I’m sure most parents do not want for their children.
This creates a vicious cycle. Harry Chapin’s famous song, “Cat’s in the Cradle” narrates an absentee father whose son grows up to be just like him. Parental example reinforced by poor financial education results in low quality, unhappy relationships and family life. That brings us full circle to the opioid crisis and other self-medication as people try to numb their misery.
Bad outlooks. With all of the above at play in the lives of the average consumer, what hope could they have for a better future, let alone a better world? Hope gives courage, and courage motivates right action toward beneficial goals. Lacking that, society deteriorates until its inevitable collapse, when the cycle starts all over again.
There Is Hope
If this sounds bleak and depressing, it is, but it doesn’t have to be this way. There’s an off-ramp. Sound money removes the incentives for unethical behavior. It encourages wise financial decisions since hard work and saving are rewarded rather than punished. With the Cantillon Effect gone and parents no longer reduced to wage slavery, quality education naturally arises with more parents educating their own children or demanding better standards from public schools. Once off the rat race hamster wheel, health improves as people can afford to take the time to eat good food and get proper exercise. Better health and more time lead to happy relationships, which is good for the individual and the family, creating a virtuous cycle rather than a vicious one. All of this gives hope that inspires right action and perpetuates the benefits to society far into the future.
Bitcoin is the hardest, soundest money the world has ever seen. It’s decentralized, permissionless and secure. As world economies careen off the cliff of their self-induced debt spirals, it’s time to opt-out. The more people that reject cheap, fast fiat and the societal havoc it reeks on us all, the sooner we get off this train before it dives over the edge into oblivion. Your personal decision to do so benefits you, your family and everyone you care about, which in turn moves them to do the same, creating a snowball effect that will eventually save us all. May it be so.