RE: The end of the nation state: a crypto vision.
I absolutely agree with your analysis on the distribution of wealth in fiat currencies. The rich control the flow and it all flows to them.
What I would like to see is if the wealth distribution is any different with cryptocurrencies? From casual observation it seems there are a select few who own the majority of bitcoin, steem, etherum, etc. The reason we have the terms whales and minnows is to express this skewed distribution in our on environment.
If an investor can buy power in steem how is that different from buying influence in a legislative body? I would love for cryptocurrencies to be a solution but it seems that the root of the problem is a bit deeper than the mode of currency.
Please help me become a believer! Show us the distribution graphs for steem and other cryptos. I'm guessing they will be sharply exponential.
But your post was. Keep writing.
As the governments of the world start regulating cryptos I can see "us"(or you could say maybe "useless eaters") just jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
Please don't think that I disagree with your overall points in this post, @aggroed, it just seems that those 8 people/families, as well as those under them and closer to the top, are just not going to give up what they have.
I think @yulem has hit on it with the point made about it being "a bit deeper than the mode of currency."
I would posit that it has to do with a heart issue and a covetousness. Those 8 people/families could have a change of heart towards their fellow men and that could result in changing the hearts of those below them etc.
Please note, I'm not talking "trickle down economics" but a "golden-rule", "heart change" attitude.
Great post and praying for a change in the "hearts" of those 8.
Resteemed!
SDG
Inequality isn't a problem in the long term.
A mechanism for transferring wealth by force from the productive to the unproductive is the real issue we face.
Inequality is quickly remedied by an even paying field, where nobody can attack and rob others with policemen.
You don't need taxation when you have wealth. You can just sit back on your pile and use it to coerce people to do things your way and reward your friends. If you want a system without taxes then you should have a system where unused wealth goes away. You could call that a wealth tax, Norway has one - 1% of wealth is taken per year but it forces the rich to be productive, puts the trickle back into trickledown (which we all know is bullshit marketing for the gullible anyway). I'm sure you could invent a system where unused wealth evaporates over long enough time.
But wealth == power, that's as evil and pernicious as taxation == theft. Maybe there is a system where extreme wealth exists but people are just not influenced by it be they could care less about getting bribes?
Incidentally and crypto where there are transaction fees - that's taxation. Modern monetary theory (see @davidpakman recent video) says that taxation by an authority is the real source of fiat money, not barter. Let's not try to reproduce that (obviously doesn't apply to STEEM or EOS).
The more wealth you have, the more you need taxation.
People with lots of stuff get more benefit from socialised property protection services, like the police and the fire department, than those with very little.
I expanded on it here.
Threatening people with violence is uneconomical unless
TLDR; wealthy people already have hired thugs to protect their mansions, and to rob the poor to pay for it.
Less of that would be good.