the proper lesson is not to fear every stranger, but to be suspicious of people who approach them.
if e.g. they are in trouble, then you don't want them to be afraid of strangers and not ask for help from the 99% of the people who would be happy to help them.
>i'm caving for a world where hw manufacturers exist who fully embrace opensource development,
Those do very much exist! My go-to is System76. There are others, e.g. arguably Framework.
> and are rewarded for that...
Oh well, one can dream anyway.
The freedom Linux gives you also gives you the freedom to slap Linux on some random bit of Windows kit and then blame Linux for failing to work around the broken firmware. Apparently this is preferable to buying hardware that works with Linux.
Having access to USD is still a lot better than whatever local currency most of these countries have. All those without any real central bank independence (though FED independence has become more questionable in the US as well).
...fleecing the poor worldwide...stablecoins don't change much in this
Just Devil's Advocate, but isn't that a reason not to use stablecoins? I mean, I can participate in the fleecing of the poor without changing anything at all apparently.
I don't know what the effect is called, but suddenly some unrest in some country or inflation in another calls for creating a whole new money system. It seems unreasonable and I'm a bit suspicious of where it comes from.
"Usually" in the countries that need it. The problem with the 102 countries with less inflation is that some years it may be less, but other much more.
IIRC in hindsight at the beginning of 2024 the best was to exchange all your saved dollars to pesos, invest them in bonds or the bank, and exchange them for dollars at the end of the year. Probably you can get a 20% yoy increase. But there was a risk or many unexpected problems that would let you with a lot of monopoly money that is worth only a 50% of the initial value... So the safe option was to keep your savings in dollars.
Euros are another safe option. Pounds are very difficult to exchange. The money of nearby countries is sometimes better, but they may have unexpected surprises too.
> I don't know what the effect is called, but suddenly some unrest in some country or inflation in another calls for creating a whole new money system. It seems unreasonable and I'm a bit suspicious of where it comes from.
This is the worry of globally-available USD stablecoins.
By swapping the volatility from crypto to lower USD volatility, they effectively create a funnel from riskier currencies into dollars.
Which is the same state that previously existed... except now facilitated by the crypto industry's global accessibility/UX and with less international regulation.
Blessing USD stablecoins at the US federal level was a smart move (from the US-perspective) as it creates a much bigger demand for dollars, and if the US didn't do it then China or OPEC would have eventually gotten around to it as an end-run around dollar hegemony.
Winners:
- Crypto industry (more volume to skim)
- US Treasury (more demand for debt)
Losers:
- Countries with less-stable currencies (lose further control of monetary policy)
- China / OPEC (miss opportunity to push dedollarization further)
TBD:
- Money laundering (once volume grows, KYC and traceability will follow)
Oh yeah, if you get a USD savings account from major nationwide banks you'll be getting exciting interest rates of up to 0.02% [1], assuming you have a 'relationship bonus'. BofA gets up to 0.04% [2], with the right tiers.
> sure, but does government prevent wealth inequality, or maybe the very cause of it?
Neither. Government is just the system through which policy that either greatness or lessens inequality is implemented. For example, government can decrease an inheritance tax, therefore increasing inequality, or they can do the opposite to reverse it.
compulsory education is a main pillar of the twisted power structure in our society.
power in society comes from a knowledge gap, and powerful people have all the incentives to sustain it. consequently education is a battleground, and we, the honest people, have pretty much lost the battles for about a century now.
the OP only makes sense when also considering this aspect of the question.
if e.g. they are in trouble, then you don't want them to be afraid of strangers and not ask for help from the 99% of the people who would be happy to help them.