The entire system is a scam. Inflation and debt are designed to subjugate people to the state from cradle to grave, and to create an orderly and contained society that preserves the power and status of a privileged few. It doesn't just seem like people are spinning their wheels, they are doing exactly that. People who are paying off their mortgage and worrying about their student debt are literally enslaved by this system. Bitcoin is important because it has shown us that we can create value and engage in commerce without the state. I think this will be an important historical artifact, because it points to the possibility that we are rapidly developing a radical new way to organize people.
slfnflctd|8 years ago
The counterpoint would be that there is a huge amount of 'real life' happening within the confines of the system as you describe it, and many people are not so negatively affected as you might think.
Underneath it all, yeah, a great many aspects of how we do things are arbitrary, horrifically inefficient kludges with overly externalized costs that would be replaced immediately on a more level playing field... but solving the problem of 'greed at the top' is possibly the biggest and most difficult challenge we face as a species, and I don't think it makes you a bad person to decide you're not up for spending too much of your brief existence fighting against it. Enjoy what you can while you're here, sometimes that's the most effective way to brighten the world around you.
buttershakes|8 years ago
Are you a beneficiary of this system? We aren't very good at thinking on a large scale as a species, and most of us on Hacker news are in some way beneficiaries of the system, relative successes. However, there is something deeply troubling about the social and economic structures that are currently pervasive. I don't think you or anyone else is a 'bad person' for not fighting against the way things are, but I personally believe there is a better way, and we have the tools now to find it.
elsewhen|8 years ago