According to historians, 1971 was the last time the world was stable.
Of course there were troubles but overall it seems the majority of the western population had never had it so good. Unemployment was VERY LOW.
NO housing bubble - house prices were stable - people were actually paying off there mortgages in as little as 7 years. Interest rates were as high as 10% which meant it was good for savers. Today it is 1.2%.
SO WHAT WENT WRONG?
In 1971 president Richard Nixon took off the dollar from the gold standard. He did this to raise money for the Vietnam war.
WHY IS THIS SIGNIFICANT?
Think of it like this. Before Nixon, if you had one dollar you could go into any bank and DEMAND one dollar´s worth of gold. So imagine a Govt wanted to print more money, they can but it meant that BY LAW - they must have enough physical gold in the bank to back each and every dollar/pound/krona etc.
This is why gold reserves were so important.
NOW - when Nixon took this LAW away it meant he could print as much money as he wanted.
Other western countries copied and so this is the state of affairs for most western countries today.
Govts can literally print as much money as they want and when there is too much of something then its value diminishes. This is why the value of your currency keeps going down and down and down and down and down. And is why it takes more and more money to buy a house, a car, an egg, a loaf of bread etc - and why wages also do not go up.
This will only get worse and worse and worse.
SO WHAT`S THE ANSWER?
Cryrto-currencies are literally programmed to have limited amount created. This means they become more and more scarce and the more scarce something is the more its value goes up. This is why people call Bitcoin digital gold.
I am probably preaching to the converted here as those who are on Steemit are those who have seem the light already.
Thank your visiting my blog and a warm welcome back next time.
Thanks arthuradamson for your blog. Hindsight is so awesome. Even though I don't live in USA - we were/are pretty much Americanised. I'm glad to say, for myself that attitude has been dumped and kicked to the kerb. Our media followed USA, be it politics, financial markets, entertainment, you name it -we were practically a star on the USA flag. I'm not denigrating the ordinary citizen but those who were in charge of propoganda. corporate greed and corrupt agencies. Nixon's era was a turning point too, but I believe it goes back even further than that. Suffice to say - this is my second day on Steemit and now I feel I have a chance to pay them back in my own small way. By learning about cryptocurrency, blockchain technology and smart contract protocols - because these are what will disrupt the powers that be. I am an old duck with a young mission - learn from history, take this opportunity and make the world a better legacy for the generations to come. Bless you arthuradamson.
Hey thanks for the wonderful positive feedback and a big welcome to the Steemit community. With that kind of attitude you will do well on Steemit. I will follow you and look forward to your contributions.
I've been reading about wealth equality and it seems the world was much more equal in the 70s. I had improved since the early 20th century and has deteriorated since then. We ought to be living in some sort of utopia by now, but there's still so much suffering in the world due to poverty and greed. I don't know if cryptocurrency can solve that, but there are opportunities for more people to benefit.
I agree Steevc, - coincidently Ive also been reading similar literature and was quite amazed at the wealth equality in the 70s - seems positively alien today.
I have great belief in Crypto for the future. There does not seem any other constructive ideas on the table and I doubt if the gold standard will return - however apparently there are talks of Putin and China doing it which might explain why they are buying so much gold.
Bitcoin is gradually inching its way into the mind of the mainstream as a solid investment these days - which is why I do not think it will be used as standard currency - but I could be wrong - it has the reputation and is now working faster. Bitcoin it is the cornerstone for all other crypto currencies so I think it is here to stay now. So it is a great investment. Leaving your money in a bank account is just plain daft. You are paying the bank to have your money there.
I think that all these ICOs is creating a bit of a bubble in crypto which is somewhat worrying because we all know what happens to bubbles. Saying that I think the established cryptos will survive, such as steem. Each year that passes with Steemit the more valuable its currency will become. I see Steem as being part of sharing in its growth -as if I had bought shares in facebook or something.
I have a feeling that eventually Govts will create their own cryptocurrency once the realise how well it works. I live in Norway and would you believe the Govt here is talking about creating an "ecoin" - apparently it will work very similar to Monero in that it will be untraceable. This amazed me as usually Govts want to be able to track you. Norwegians like their privacy I think.
Thanks for the comment - cheers!
Governments will never issue an untraceable decentralized cryptocurrency @arthuradamson. Why would they make an infrastructure for something they cannot control? If they issue something “national”, it will be a scam. Banksters has taken over governments, and you can't expect anything good from them.
Well, as I say, an article was released a few months ago - I will see if I can find it and post it on here - I read it carefully and it said that the "Norwegian Govt recognised the need for untraceable crytpocoins that worked like actual coins- Normal "real coins" were as such an so a digital version would work the same.
However, I agree with you, in that I would distrust any Govt or Bank issued crypto for exactly the reasons you give. I think the future of money is in "our" hands if we want it - which I believe we do - because Govts have pretty much fcked the economy up - they are basically incompetent. I would not trust them in that they would put some kind of back door to spy or track. As I say I will see if I can find the article, usually keep these things, I probably have it in my home office some where. Thanks for the comment.
pocketsend:100@arthuradamson, the past always seems better than the problems of today. But we can indeed learn from the past in order to avoid problems tomorrow.
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I agree, but in this case the difference is clearly seen a measurable. There is no question that wealth equality was considerably better..
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As a kid in the 70's, both my separated parents bought homes in London on basic incomes. Now, I stand no chance at all with no less skill or resources than they had... and yes, I am a part of the choir here, putting all I can (such as it is) into crypto, albeit a late stage of the game in terms of life planning / property acquisition.
However, point I wanted to offer here was, after a recent trip to Slovenia, met several people of a similar standing to me, who not only owned their own property (certainly saw no signs of any homelessness) but most have a country place too and take plenty of time off to retreat into nature.
Seems that pressure to disband families and sell of properties is (inheritance tax!!!) not like it is (here in UK)
Best I could tell, a quality of life is retained in less capitalist consumer cultures, but I'm probably romanticising to an extent!??
Yes I understand you completely @ni9 - my daughter left London last year after living there for 10 years. She hd a great and well paid job but the rents kept going up and up until she could no longer afford to stay there, She bought a house in Yorkshire and is doing very well now. I think there is going to be a mass exodus in London over the next few years which very well trigger the housing bubble to burst. Without people to pay the rents who will pay the mortgages on the second homes and so people will start to sell and then BANG - apart from that this will also cause a shortage of workers in London.
I dont know much about Slovenia but sounds very positive. Here in Norway where I live, many have second homes too and there is no inheritance tax (which in my view is a pure swindle). People work only until 3pm and have 8 weeks paid holidays. Of course the reason why Norway is so rich is due to its oil. In a way, just as the US dollar was once backed but Gold, the Norwegian economy is (kind of ) back by the oil. It is not officially, but it works like that, When the price of oil is high then so is the value of the "krone". Of course this also has its drawbacks in that when the krone is high it makes it difficult to sell good abroad because they cost too much. Only Norwegian can afford to buy them. But as I said in a previous reply, the Norwegian Govt is looking into making its own crytpocurrency called "ecoin" - Most people I have talked to on the street dont want it or trust it. Thanks for the comment.
Thanks for your further take. Interesting about Norway and the ecoin. That's pretty progressive and forward thinking of Norwegian gov. and no doubt will place them well in the coming economic revolution!!!
Incidentally, my people are from Sweden actually, not so very far from your lot ;)
On an unrelated tangent @arthuradamson, as a writer, with a bit of viking blood, have you read the potent little short titled Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower!? (you can check it out on my blog if you like here http://intothedialectic.com/great-short-stories/)
New high coming, don't miss opportunity.
Want to make profits? Trade long X100 btc/usd on bitmex!
https://goo.gl/JnxQ28
Thanx
Going back to hard(er) currency would limit the flow of wealth to the places where money is created and put into the system. It would be quite a game changer with lots of repercussion for people who had to make choices in the old fiat world. It is this transition period that I worry about mostly.
I do not mean to suggest going back to a gold standard system. Personally I think that it would not work in modern times. About 4 years ago I had an email conversation with Max Keiser telling him the same and that I believe Bitcoin will out price gold. He disagreed. Now look at the case. Crypto is nothing less than a money revolution that I believe will eventually take over the world. Honestly, are there any other alternatives out there?
The banks and our Govts have shown they are incompetent to organise economies. Cheers for the comment very interesting.