Tag Archives: finance

The EV Advantage: A Structural Budget Shift That Pays for Itself

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💥 Final Thought First:

Want to cut $80–$100/month from your fuel bill, eliminate oil changes, and future-proof your ride?

This whole post assumes 12,000 miles a year. If you drive more your savings is more!

Switching to an EV like the Tesla Model 3 isn’t just smart for the environment — it’s structurally smart for your budget.

Now let’s show you how.

🔑 A Budget Is Hard to Change — But Your Car Might Be the Exception

You can skip coffee, cancel subscriptions, and still feel stuck. That’s because real savings come from structural budget changes — the kind that permanently reduce your monthly fixed costs.

Your vehicle is one of those levers.

If you’re driving a gas-powered car like a Toyota Camry, switching to an electric vehicle like a Tesla Model 3 can lower your monthly spending in fuel, maintenance, and even time.

⚖️ Same Price, Lower Operating Costs

According to CarGurus: Link here for comparison

  • Average price for a 2021 Toyota Camry: $22,799
  • Average price for a 2021 Tesla Model 3 RWD: $22,677

Despite what many assume, the used Tesla isn’t more expensive than the Camry. The big difference shows up in operating costs over the next five years:

🔋 Used Car Budget Comparison: 2021 Camry vs. 2021 Tesla Model 3 (RWD)

CategoryUsed 2021 CamryUsed 2021 Model 3 RWD
Purchase Price$22,799$22,677
Fuel/Electricity (5yr)$7,031$2,520
Maintenance (5yr)$3,000$1,500
Insurance (5yr)$7,000$8,500
5-Year Total Cost$39,830$35,197

✅ The used Tesla saves you over $4,600 across five years — while offering a quieter, cleaner, and more enjoyable ride.

🔧 The Tesla Advantage

  • No oil changes
  • Lower brake wear (thanks to regenerative braking)
  • Electricity is 3–5x cheaper per mile than gasoline
  • Less time spent at gas stations or service centers

📉 This Is a Structural Budget Shift

This isn’t penny-pinching. It’s transforming your cost base. A typical Tesla owner:

  • Cuts monthly energy costs by $80–$100
  • Reduces maintenance visits and expenses
  • Still gets the same seating and cargo space as a Camry

All without paying more upfront.

📌 Recap:

  • The average used price of a 2021 Tesla Model 3 is equal to the Camry
  • But it costs $4,600 less to own over five years
  • That’s a monthly structural savings of $75–$100

💬 Final Word

Want a better monthly budget without sacrifice?
Then you don’t need to cut your fun—you need to cut your gas.

A used Tesla Model 3 isn’t a splurge. It’s a smarter car that saves you money every single month.

Stablecoins: The Offshore Demand Engine for a Decaying Fiscal Regime

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Over the last decade, stablecoins have quietly grown from a crypto curiosity into a multi-hundred-billion-dollar shadow banking system. Pegged to the U.S. dollar and backed largely by short-term U.S. Treasury debt, they serve as the grease in the wheels of global crypto markets, offshore exchanges, and dollar-hungry economies.

But beneath the surface, something much bigger is happening.

The Dollar Finds a New Buyer

Traditionally, U.S. Treasuries—the lifeblood of American government spending—have been snapped up by major institutions: foreign governments (like China and Japan), domestic banks, and pension funds. But in recent years, these traditional buyers have pulled back. Geopolitical tensions, rising debt levels, and concerns over inflation have made U.S. debt less attractive, even as the U.S. continues running multi-trillion dollar deficits.

Enter the stablecoin.

Today, companies like Tether (USDT) and Circle (USDC) hold tens of billions of dollars in U.S. government debt to back their tokens. When someone in Argentina, Nigeria, or a Binance trading desk mints USDT, they’re not just getting a “digital dollar”—they’re triggering a real-world Treasury purchase. The crypto user thinks they’re opting out of the fiat system. But in reality, they’re becoming its final buyer.

The Crypto User Thinks They’re Opting Out of the Fiat System

Why do people in Argentina, Turkey, Lebanon, or Nigeria rush to buy USDT?

Because their own currencies are collapsing. Hyperinflation, capital controls, corrupt central banks—these people aren’t speculating; they’re fleeing. To them, the U.S. dollar—even in stablecoin form—is a lifeline. A way to store value. A way to escape the chaos of their local monetary regimes.

But here’s the catch:

They think they’re opting out of fiat. But in reality, they’re just opting into a slightly better fiat—one that’s still built on debt, political manipulation, and unsustainable spending.

The stablecoin looks like freedom. It feels like safety. But under the hood, it’s still backed by U.S. government debt, not hard money.

Ironically, while individuals are rushing into dollars, governments and central banks are quietly opting out—dumping Treasuries and buying gold. China, Russia, and other major players are de-dollarizing their reserves, building gold stacks instead of paper promises.

So while everyday people buy USDT thinking they’re escaping a broken system, they’re actually becoming the last line of support for it.

A Bad Deal for the User, A Great Deal for the Issuer

This system is not just ironic—it’s rigged.

When a user buys a stablecoin, they hand over real money (often hard-earned in volatile, inflation-ridden economies) and receive a token that loses value over time. Meanwhile, the stablecoin issuer uses that cash to buy U.S. Treasuries yielding 5%, pocketing the interest for themselves.

It’s a classic arbitrage:

The company gets the yield. The user gets the illusion of stability.

And what does the company do with the profits?

Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin issuer, has been using its surplus to buy Bitcoin and gold.
Yes—they are converting fiat yield into hard assets while their users hold yieldless tokens that depreciate.

Stablecoins aren’t neutral tools—they’re a form of rent extraction on unequal access to dollars. The poor and marginalized, locked out of the global banking system, pay the premium. They provide the capital, but don’t share in the returns. It’s dollar apartheid dressed up as digital liberation.

Ironically, while the wealthy and powerful are exiting Treasuries and moving into gold, the global poor are herded into yieldless tokens that prop up a collapsing system—tokens whose issuers are quietly stacking Bitcoin behind the scenes.

Exit Liquidity for the Empire of Debt

Here’s the twist: stablecoin users—retail traders, global remitters, DeFi participants—are providing exit liquidity for traditional U.S. Treasury holders.

As old institutions reduce exposure to U.S. debt, stablecoin issuers step in, fueled by global crypto demand. The American government still gets to sell its debt. But the buyer has changed. The new buyer is a protocol, backed by offshore exchanges, remittance flows, and millions of anonymous wallets.

This system works—until it doesn’t.

When the Music Stops

What happens in the next crypto bear market? What happens if regulators crack down on stablecoins? If demand for stablecoins dries up, the artificial demand for Treasuries does too. The U.S. government will have to find new buyers—or offer much higher interest rates.

That’s the risk of this hidden system: a shadow Treasury market tied to the most volatile and politically uncertain asset class on earth.

The Ironic Truth

Crypto was born to escape fiat. But stablecoins—its most widely used product—are deeply tied to the health of the fiat regime. They don’t disrupt the dollar. They extend its life. They distribute it further. They help the empire keep borrowing.

In this light, stablecoins aren’t just a tool for freedom. They’re also a backdoor bailout for a bloated fiscal machine, enabled by the very people it exploits.

And if that’s true, the real question isn’t whether the U.S. dollar will survive—but how long crypto will prop it up… while its issuers quietly prepare for the next system.

💡 Want to understand the global mechanics behind this better?
Look up The Dollar Milkshake Theory by Brent Johnson.
It explains how a structurally flawed but globally dominant dollar continues to suck in capital from weaker economies—even as the system cracks.

💵 Dollars Are Just Fancy Scrip

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Why real freedom starts with escaping centralized money

Most people think money is neutral. You earn it, you spend it, you save it. Simple. But what if the money in your wallet isn’t really yours? What if it works more like company scrip than true, independent money?

Let’s take a step back in time — and a step deeper into the system we live in.

🏭 Company Scrip: The Original Trap

In mining and lumber towns of the 19th and early 20th century, companies often paid workers in “scrip” — private money usable only at the company store.

  • Could you spend it elsewhere? Nope.
  • Could you build wealth? Not easily.
  • Were prices fair? Absolutely not.

It was a closed-loop system. One that looked like money, but ultimately existed to control labor and consumption.

🏛️ Fiat Currency: The Scrip Goes National

Now look at the dollar, the rupee, the euro.

These are government-issued fiat currencies. But just like scrip:

  • They’re created at will by central banks.
  • They lose value over time through inflation.
  • They’re political tools, subject to manipulation and control.
  • And they limit your economic choices to within a system you didn’t design.

It’s still scrip — just at scale. You’re still in the company town. The company just got a flag and a central bank.

🪙 Bitcoin, Gold, and Financial Exit

Real money — money that promotes freedom — should be:

  • Scarce
  • Neutral
  • Borderless
  • Independent of politics

That’s why people turn to Bitcoin and gold. They’re not controlled by anyone, and that matters.

When your wealth is stored in something you control, your freedom becomes harder to take away.

⚠️ The Real Issue: Agency

The bigger point isn’t about currencies.
It’s about control.

Whoever controls your money controls your choices.

If a central bank, a political party, or a single institution can dilute or freeze your money — you don’t own your life. Not really.

Financial agency isn’t just a luxury. It’s a requirement for freedom.

🧠 Final Thought

So yes, your dollars function. But they’re not neutral. They’re managed, manipulated, and diluted — all without your consent.

They’re just fancy scrip — and you don’t own the store.

Study Bitcoin!

From Rome to Norway: What History Teaches Us About Post-Labor Wealth Models

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As we edge closer to a post-labor economy fueled by AI and automation, the conversation around how to distribute wealth fairly is more urgent than ever. Advocates of dividend-driven futures, like David Shapiro and others, propose income portfolios built from public wealth funds, UBI, cooperatives, and residual wages. But are there any historical models to guide us? Have civilizations ever successfully structured systems where wealth flowed to the public without direct labor?

It turns out, yes. And the lessons are mixed.

The Roman Bread Dole: Subsidy Without Structure

Ancient Rome’s grain dole (“annona”) offered a form of basic sustenance to citizens, distributing heavily subsidized or free grain. At its peak, hundreds of thousands of Romans received this support. It was politically stabilizing, popular, and arguably necessary as economic power consolidated into the elite.

But the system was fragile. It depended on imperial conquests, slave labor, and an expansive logistics network that became unsustainable as Rome declined. It also did little to build durable economic agency. The dole kept people fed, but not empowered.

Lesson: Subsidy without economic diversification or civic agency becomes brittle.

Native Tribes and Casino Revenues: Promise and Pitfalls

In the U.S., many Native American tribes operate casinos, with profits funding health care, education, and direct dividends to tribal members. These tribal wealth funds resemble the localized wealth mechanisms proposed in post-labor economics.

However, outcomes vary widely. In some communities, casino revenues have elevated living standards and strengthened governance. In others, benefits have concentrated in tribal leadership, exacerbating inequality and dependency.

Lesson: Without transparency, inclusive governance, and diversified investment, even well-intentioned redistribution can fall short.

The Alaska Permanent Fund: A Modern Dividend Model

Established in 1976, Alaska’s Permanent Fund takes oil revenues and invests them globally. Each year, residents receive a dividend, usually between $1,000-$2,000. It’s simple, durable, and popular.

Yet, it faces political risk. When Alaska hit budget shortfalls, politicians dipped into the fund. There are debates about whether it discourages work or disincentivizes participation in broader civic life.

Lesson: Popular dividend programs are sustainable, but vulnerable to political raids and lack of reinvestment discipline.

Norway’s Oil Fund: The Gold Standard of Public Wealth

Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global, often dubbed the Norwegian Oil Fund, is the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world. Fueled by oil profits, it now exceeds $1.5 trillion and invests in over 9,000 companies across more than 70 countries.

Unlike Alaska, Norway does not send direct cash to citizens. Instead, the fund returns go into the national budget, funding universal services such as education, health care, and pensions. Crucially, the fund adheres to strict ethical guidelines, has world-class transparency, and maintains a 3% spending rule to preserve capital.

Lesson: Long-term sustainability requires diversification, professional governance, limited spending, and a focus on services that boost collective agency.

Designing for the Post-Labor Era: What Must Be Done

The future calls for a blend of these lessons. Post-labor economic resilience depends on:

  • Diversification: Don’t over-rely on a single industry or location (Rome, casinos).
  • Transparency & Governance: Avoid elite capture (tribal pitfalls).
  • Capital Preservation: Limit annual drawdowns to preserve intergenerational equity (Norway).
  • Layered Income Models: Combine UBI, local trusts, cooperatives, and personal assets for resilience.

The past offers both warning signs and inspiration. If we take the best from each model—Rome’s stabilizing intent, tribal localization, Alaska’s dividends, and Norway’s professionalism—we might just build a post-labor economy worth living in.

The Fake Money That Fueled a Real War: How Mefo Bills Led to WWII

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This post was created from this video

Hitlers Gamble That Ignited War | Blood Money Inside The Nazi Economy | Part 1 | Documentary Central

In the 1930s, Nazi Germany was broke. The country was reeling from the Great Depression, saddled with war reparations, and shackled by the Treaty of Versailles, which banned it from rearming. Yet within a few years, Germany had built one of the most fearsome war machines in history.

How did they pay for it?

They invented money.

The Mefo Trick

Enter Mefo bills—a financial sleight of hand orchestrated by Hjalmar Schacht, Hitler’s economic wizard and head of the Reichsbank.

The plan was simple and devious:

  • A fake company called MEFO (Metallurgical Research Corporation) was set up.
  • MEFO issued IOUs, or “Mefo bills,” to arms manufacturers instead of actual cash.
  • These IOUs were guaranteed by the German government, and companies could trade them or cash them in later at the Reichsbank.
  • Crucially, the bills were kept off the official budget, hiding the scale of rearmament.

This created a parallel currency used only within the military-industrial complex. No taxes raised. No gold reserves touched. Just promises backed by more promises.

But there was a catch: each Mefo bill had a five-year maturity. That meant the government had, at most, five years before they had to repay the IOUs in Reichsmarks. The first wave of bills, issued in 1934, would come due in 1939—just as Germany was preparing to invade Poland.

A Booming Mirage

It worked—at first.

Factories roared back to life. Steel, chemicals, and synthetic fuel production surged. Unemployment plummeted. To the outside world, it looked like an economic miracle.

But it wasn’t prosperity—it was military Keynesianism on credit.

By 1938, 20% of German GDP was going to the military. Consumer goods remained scarce. Wages were frozen. Trade unions were banned. Prices were controlled. And Mefo bills kept piling up.

Schacht warned that the system couldn’t last. Eventually, the bills would come due—and the Reichsbank would either default or start printing money. Hitler didn’t care. Instead of slowing down, he pushed harder. Schacht was sidelined, and Hermann Göring took over economic planning with a singular goal: prepare for total war.

War Became the Only Exit

The Mefo system couldn’t sustain itself. Germany was running out of foreign reserves and raw materials. The economy was overheating. The only way out was forward—through invasion, plunder, and conquest.

Occupied countries like Austria, Czechoslovakia, and eventually Poland were stripped of gold, steel, coal, and labor. France was forced to fund the German occupation. The Nazi war machine was now self-financing—by theft.

By the time the Mefo bills started coming due in 1939, the regime began repaying them not through taxes or trade, but by printing money and launching war. The economy was now riding on a tidal wave of credit, conquest, and coercion.

Why It Matters

The Mefo bill scheme shows how financial manipulation can fuel political extremism, militarism, and war. When money is divorced from accountability and markets are warped by ideology, the result isn’t just inflation or inefficiency.

The result is destruction.

What Is Money, Really? A Fresh Look at Why Bitcoin Matters

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💡 Money Isn’t What You Think It Is

Most of us think of money as the bills in our wallets or numbers in our bank accounts. But money isn’t a physical thing—it’s a system of IOUs. It’s how we track value we’ve created, whether that’s building a fence, baking bread, or writing software.

Here’s the key insight: money itself doesn’t hold value.
If it did, you’d want to hoard it. But you don’t. You probably try to get rid of your dollars by putting them into stocks, real estate, or gold—anything to escape inflation.

🧱 A Story About a Fence (and a Broken System)

Imagine this:
You build a 100-foot fence for someone. They pay you $100. One year later, you ask them to build a fence for you. They say, “Sure, but now it’ll cost $105.”

Why? Inflation. Your money didn’t hold its value. The effort you gave last year is worth less this year.

And while the U.S. has “low” inflation, other countries—like Argentina—see 100% inflation annually. In places like that, people rush to convert their paychecks into food, bricks, or U.S. dollars just to preserve value.

But let’s be honest: the U.S. dollar and Argentine peso aren’t fundamentally different. Both are government-issued currencies that lose value over time due to overspending and excessive money printing.

⚙️ Enter Bitcoin: Fixed, Transparent, and Decentralized

Bitcoin was designed to fix this exact problem.

  • There will only ever be 21 million bitcoins.
  • Each one can be divided into 100 million sats (Satoshis).
  • Bitcoin is basically a global, digital IOU ledger that nobody controls—but everyone can verify.

Think of it as an open-source Excel spreadsheet that tracks who owns what. But instead of one person controlling it, thousands of computers (nodes) maintain the same list and agree on changes only when a valid transaction is made.

🔨 How Bitcoin Transactions Work

  1. You send a transaction using your app or wallet.
  2. It enters the mempool, a kind of digital waiting room.
  3. Miners select and bundle transactions into a block.
  4. They solve a math puzzle to earn the right to add the block to the chain.
  5. Once added, it’s permanent—and verified by the entire network.

Each block takes about 10 minutes to process. Miners are rewarded with both newly “unlocked” bitcoin (currently 3.125 BTC) and small transaction fees—typically less than 1%, cheaper than credit cards.

🆚 Bitcoin vs “Altcoins”

Bitcoin has no premine, meaning the creator didn’t secretly give themselves coins before anyone else could buy them. Most altcoins (alternative cryptocurrencies) do. That makes many of them less like open money and more like disguised businesses.

Ask yourself: What real problem is this altcoin solving?

The answer is likely that the coin is built around a company structure, because it can’t solve the store of value problem. Bitcoin already solved that problem.

💸 How to Buy Bitcoin Today

Option 1: Brokerages

  • Buy FBTC, the Fidelity Bitcoin Trust, just like a stock or ETF
  • Available through Fidelity, Schwab, and others
  • Small fee: ~0.25% expense ratio

Option 2: Direct Purchase

  • Use apps like Strike, River, or Cash App
  • You can hold your own Bitcoin (self-custody) or keep it with the app

📈 Why Bitcoin Could Hit $13 Million

There are $750 trillion in global assets.

Asset CategoryEstimated Value (USD)
Real estate~$360 trillion
Equities (stocks)~$110 trillion
Bonds (debt markets)~$135 trillion
Broad money (M2)~$100 trillion
Gold (above ground)~$14–15 trillion
Private businesses, art, collectibles, etc.~$20–30 trillion (est.)


If even $273 trillion of that (stocks, real estate, bonds, money supply) flows into Bitcoin, that’s:

$273 trillion ÷ 21 million BTC = $13 million per coin

This isn’t speculation—it’s about monetary premium, the extra value people add to assets (like real estate or art) just because they don’t trust cash.

Bitcoin is absorbing that value because it’s better money.

🧠 Strategy: It’s Not Too Late

A $10,000 investment today could get you 0.1 BTC.
If Bitcoin hits $13 million, that’s worth $1.3 million.

Of course, you shouldn’t invest money you can’t afford to lose. But for many, $10K is a small bet with a big upside.

Bitcoin isn’t just about price—it’s about a fundamentally better way to store and transmit value.

🎯 Final Thought: We’re All Fish in Fiat Water

You’ve lived your whole life in a system where money loses value. It feels normal, but it’s not natural.

Bitcoin is a new kind of money: scarce, digital, decentralized, and global.

Once you understand what money really is, it becomes clear: Bitcoin is not just better money—it’s the future of value itself.

Why ChooseFI and Bitcoin Should Be Allies (But Aren’t Yet)

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In theory, the ChooseFI and Bitcoin communities should be natural allies. Both value independence, long-term thinking, and building a future that’s not dependent on the whims of politicians or corporations. But in practice, there’s an odd divide: the ChooseFI crowd leans hard into index funds and conventional investing, while Bitcoiners are laser-focused on fixing the money itself.

As someone who walks between both worlds, I think it’s time to bridge this gap.

The ChooseFI Perspective: Smart, but Incomplete

The Financial Independence (FI) movement is one of the best ideas to come out of the last 20 years. It’s a rejection of consumerism and dependence on a 9–5 job. It promotes saving, intentionality, and investing in low-cost index funds to build wealth over time.

But here’s where it falls short: the movement assumes the system is stable enough to invest in indefinitely.

ChooseFI thinkers often acknowledge that inflation erodes purchasing power. That’s why they invest. But they rarely ask why inflation exists or what kind of inflation we’re talking about. They trust the market to keep delivering 7% annual returns because, historically, that’s what it’s done. It’s a comforting narrative—but it’s built on the assumption that the dollar is sound money. It isn’t.

The Bitcoiner’s View: Start With the Root Cause

Bitcoiners take the opposite approach. They start by asking: What if the money itself is broken?

If money is supposed to store value over time and across space, then fiat currency fails that test. Central banks manipulate interest rates and print trillions to bail out markets. This isn’t capitalism—it’s financial engineering.

Bitcoiners understand that if the base layer of the economic system is corrupted, then all the “smart investing strategies” built on top of it are sitting on shaky ground. They argue that if we had sound money—money that couldn’t be debased—then saving would be investing. You wouldn’t have to chase yield to stay ahead of inflation.

In other words, Bitcoin doesn’t replace the FI mindset—it completes it.

The Missed Opportunity

ChooseFI and Bitcoin share the same end goal: personal sovereignty, freedom from wage dependence, and the ability to live life on your own terms. But their tactics differ, mostly because of assumptions they make about the system.

  • ChooseFI says: “Inflation exists, so invest wisely to beat it.”
  • Bitcoin says: “Inflation exists because the money is broken—so let’s fix the money.”

Both strategies have value. But only one questions the foundation.

And here’s the deeper issue: too many in the ChooseFI world are afraid to deviate from the script. There’s a culture of “stay the course,” which, while helpful during market turbulence, often becomes a dogma that discourages curiosity. I’ve met people in the FI community who understand something feels off—whether it’s the Fed printing trillions or housing prices going vertical—but they suppress those questions because they fear sounding like conspiracy theorists or rocking the boat.

I want to say this clearly: it’s okay to ask questions. In fact, if you’re pursuing financial independence, you should be asking deeper questions—about the money, the system, and whether the rules we’ve been taught still make sense in a world that’s changing fast.

A Better Future: Combine the Philosophies

Imagine if ChooseFI thinkers began to see Bitcoin not as a speculative gamble, but as a form of saving that aligns with their most cherished values: delayed gratification, personal responsibility, and building a more secure future.

If these two groups came together, we’d have something powerful: a community that not only escapes the rat race—but understands why the race exists, who designed it, and how to stop participating in it altogether.

For ChooseFIers interested in Bitcion I’ll point you to a few of my previous articles below.

What Problem Does Bitcoin Solve? part 3 Buckminster Fuller, F.A Hayek & Henry Ford’s comments

Why Bitcoin?

Bitcoin Treasury Boom: 20 Companies That Bought Bitcoin in the Last Week

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In the final week of May 2025, a significant number of companies announced substantial Bitcoin acquisitions, marking a notable trend in corporate cryptocurrency adoption. Below is a list of 20 companies that made headlines with their Bitcoin purchases:

  1. Trump Media & Technology Group (USA)
    • Investment: Plans to raise $2.5 billion to establish a Bitcoin treasury.
    • Source: Reuters
  2. GameStop Corp. (USA)
  3. Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) (USA)
  4. Metaplanet Inc. (Japan)
    • Investment: Purchased an additional 1,004 BTC for $104.3 million.
    • Source: CoinDesk
  5. Méliuz (Brazil)
    • Investment: Plans to raise R$450 million (~$78 million) to buy Bitcoin.
    • Source: CoinDesk
  6. H100 Group AB (Sweden)
    • Investment: Purchased 4.39 BTC; raised $2.2 million to buy more.
    • Source: Cointelegraph
  7. The Blockchain Group (France)
    • Investment: Raised $72 million to buy 590 BTC.
    • Source: CoinDesk
  8. Gryphon Digital Mining (USA)
    • Investment: Announced acquisition of American Bitcoin.
    • Source: Medium
  9. Cantor Fitzgerald (USA)
    • Investment: Launched a $2 billion Bitcoin lending business.
    • Source: Gemini
  10. Circle (USA)
    • Investment: IPO includes Bitcoin investment strategy.
    • Source: Gemini
  11. American Bitcoin (USA)
    • Investment: Merged with Gryphon; treasury-focused miner.
    • Source: Financial Times
  12. Strive Asset Management (USA)
    • Investment: Plans to raise $1.5 billion for Bitcoin acquisitions.
    • Source: Financial Times
  13. KULR Technology Group (USA)
    • Investment: Increased holdings to 800.3 BTC.
    • Source: Investors.com
  14. Twenty One Capital (USA)
  15. Acurx Pharmaceuticals (USA)
  16. Riot Platforms (USA)
  17. Marathon Digital Holdings (USA)
    • Investment: Acquired two BTC mining sites for $178.6 million.
    • Source: Wikipedia
  18. Block, Inc. (USA)
    • Investment: Ongoing BTC holdings; long-term strategy.
    • Source: Wikipedia
  19. BlackRock (USA)
    • Investment: Launched European Bitcoin ETP.
    • Source: Wikipedia
  20. El Salvador (Country)
    • Investment: Increased Bitcoin reserves to over 6,000 BTC.
    • Source: Wikipedia

🥾 Bootstraps Without Boots: Why the Global System Still Extracts Talent

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We love to say “just pull yourself up by your bootstraps.”
It’s a neat, comforting idea. Work hard, be smart, and success is inevitable.But here’s the truth:

That advice only works if you were born with boots.

In many parts of the world — from Haiti to Senegal to rural India — people aren’t lazy. They’re not stupid. They’re simply locked out of the systems that reward effort.

🌍 Talent Is Universal. Opportunity Is Not.

As economist Ha-Joon Chang points out, people in poor countries are often more entrepreneurial than those in rich ones — because they have to be. There’s no safety net. No trust fund. No stable job waiting after graduation.

But despite this hustle, the game is rigged:

  • Currencies collapse.
  • Corruption is common.
  • Legal systems are slow or predatory.
  • Borders are closed.
  • Global capital flows around them, not toward them.

You can be brilliant and still stuck.

👣 Magatte Wade’s Truth: The Problem Isn’t the People

Senegalese entrepreneur Magatte Wade has built global businesses from Africa. She’s seen the raw talent. The drive. The ideas. The hunger.

Her message?

“Africa isn’t poor because Africans are lazy. It’s poor because the system makes entrepreneurship nearly impossible.”

She calls it “permission-based economies.” In many developing countries, just starting a business requires dozens of licenses, bribes, and approvals — often taking months longer than in the U.S. or Europe.

So even if you’ve got the mindset, you don’t have the infrastructure to win.

🎯 The Bootstrap Narrative Fails Globally

MythReality
“Anyone can invest.”Not if your currency melts or you can’t access a bank.
“Just learn online.”Not if you have no internet, no laptop, no electricity.
“Start a business.”Not if your government makes it illegal or corrupt.
“Just move to a better country.”Not if your passport locks you out.

🍀 And Yes — Luck Matters More Than We Admit

Even in the U.S., success often comes down to:

  • Who your parents were
  • Which zip code you were born in
  • Whether a policy loophole happened to exist in a year you applied

You may know someone in Haiti who made it to the U.S. only through a temporary rule — and only with personal support. That’s not “bootstrapping.” That’s a rare alignment of chance, help, and timing.

🔑 So What Do We Do?

✅ 1. Stop Pretending Meritocracy Is Global

Effort matters. But effort without access is just exhaustion.

✅ 2. Support Systems That Shrink the Luck Gap

  • Bitcoin → access to global savings
  • Online education → access to real skills
  • Remote work platforms → access to higher wages
  • Legal reform → access to build freely, without bribery

✅ 3. Build Platforms That Let Value Flow to the Creator

Not to the middleman. Not to the gatekeeper. Not to the “aid industrial complex.”
To the person doing the work.

💥 Final Thought

The tragedy isn’t that people in poor countries are lazy.
It’s that they’re invisible to the systems that claim to reward merit.

Talent is everywhere.
Boots are not.

If we want a fair world, we don’t need more advice.
We need to start building the Earned World — where those who create value are finally allowed to keep it.

Further Reading:

Earned World Manifesto – Thinkers I Wish to Unite

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I generated the above table using ChatGPT. I have been invovled in all of these communities that are swirling around the same ideas. I wish I could get them to work together.

ChatGPT also generated the below. It’s not perfect but I wanted to publish it because I want to.

  1. offer it to the world
  2. open for critique and improvements.

The Earned World Manifesto

A Declaration for Builders, Not Rent-Seekers

1. The Problem We See

The current system extracts more than it empowers.
It rewards proximity to power, not creation of value.
It builds systems that entrench dependency, then calls that stability.

We see:

  • Productivity rising — but wages stagnating
  • Knowledge abundant — but credentials gatekept
  • Labor outsourced — but profit hoarded
  • Currency inflated — but savings eroded
  • Talent global — but opportunity gated
  • Work automated — but ownership concentrated

This is not an accident.
The rules are rigged — and the game is extraction.

2. What We Believe

🧱 Agency Is Non-Negotiable

Each individual has the right — and the responsibility — to direct their life.
Freedom is not given. It is constructed.

📈 Value Should Flow to the Builder

The person who creates, fixes, or risks should own the upside.
Rent-seeking is a tax on the capable.

🧠 Education Must Be Sovereign

Learning is abundant. Gatekeeping it is theft.
We reject the credential treadmill in favor of demonstrated skill.

💰 Money Must Be Earned and Preserved

Currency debasement is economic theft.
Savings must store effort, not melt it.

🔐 Ownership Is the Foundation

He who owns the tool, the platform, the protocol — holds the power.
We choose ownership over permission.

3. What We Support

This is not a utopia. It is a direction.

We support:

  • 🔸 Individuals achieving financial independence through disciplined action
  • 🔸 Workers becoming owners, not just operators
  • 🔸 Monetary systems (like Bitcoin) that cannot be corrupted
  • 🔸 Skill-first pathways over debt-fueled credentials
  • 🔸 Systems that reward contribution, not compliance
  • 🔸 Local or global opt-out zones where new rules can be tested

We reject:

  • Coerced redistribution
  • Forced altruism
  • Dependence disguised as security

4. Our Two-Stage Strategy

🛶 Stage 1: Build your lifeboat.
Earn freedom through action.
Reduce expenses, save in hard assets, develop durable skills, and reclaim your time.

🏛️ Stage 2: Rebuild the harbor.
Use your freedom to build systems that don’t demand sacrifice to survive.
Not as charity — but as infrastructure for agency.

5. Join Us

We are the builders. The earners. The ones who won’t rent our future.

We will:

  • Speak plainly about value and power
  • Share tools, not just tweets
  • Reward proof-of-work, not status
  • Create systems where sovereignty scales

If you’re tired of extraction,
If you still believe in ownership,
If you’re ready to build —

Welcome to the Earned World.

As I was generating the Manifesto, I had a lot of conversation with ChatGPT. Below was a powerful statement it had.

“The current system extracts more than it empowers.”

This means that the rewards of the modern economy are disproportionately claimed by systems, institutions, and owners — not by the individuals doing the work or taking the risk. The value flows upward, while the burden flows downward.

Here’s what that looks like across different dimensions:

💼 In Work
  • Wages have stagnated while productivity and corporate profits rise.
  • Most workers trade time for money with little long-term upside (no ownership, equity, or growth path).
  • Gig work and contract labor shift costs (insurance, risk, taxes) to the individual while stripping stability.

Extraction: Time, energy, creativity — taken for a wage that doesn’t keep up with cost of living.
Empowerment: Would mean building ownership, autonomy, or long-term equity from your work.

💸 In Money
  • Fiat currency loses purchasing power over time (inflation), punishing savers and wage earners.
  • Asset inflation (stocks, real estate) benefits those who already hold wealth — not those trying to build it.
  • Central banks and governments distort money supply in ways individuals cannot control or escape.

Extraction: Your savings melt while those close to the money printer get richer.
Empowerment: Would mean access to stable, sovereign, permissionless money, Bitcoin.

🏥 In Healthcare
  • Healthcare is tied to employment — meaning you’re not truly free to leave your job.
  • Insurance costs rise faster than wages; many avoid treatment due to fear of bills.

Extraction: Your health and security are used to bind you to jobs and debt.
Empowerment: Would mean decoupling basic needs from corporate control.

🏠 In Housing
  • Real estate is increasingly used as an investment vehicle, not a place to live.
  • Young people are priced out of ownership, forced into permanent renting.

Extraction: Rent drains wealth every month with no asset built.
Empowerment: Would mean pathways to ownership, equity, or cooperative housing.

🎓 In Education
  • Education costs have exploded, leading to decades-long student debt burdens.
  • The credential economy keeps people in a treadmill of debt just to be “qualified.”

Extraction: You pay to enter the game, and the game changes by the time you finish.
Empowerment: Would mean low-cost, high-agency pathways to skill and livelihood.

🤖 In Technology
  • Tech companies extract your attention, data, and time to sell to advertisers.
  • Users create content and community, but ownership and profits go to platforms.

Extraction: You are the product.
Empowerment: Would mean open platforms, data sovereignty, and user-owned networks.

🔁 Why This Matters

When a system extracts more than it empowers, it means:

  • The average person gets poorer in power, even if they get richer in consumption.
  • Stability, dignity, and control are replaced with dependency and precarity.
  • People become functionaries, not free agents.

Stagnation in the U.S. and suppression in Mexico are two symptoms of the same disease:

A system where capital moves freely, but labor and ownership do not.

Personal sovereignty is the prerequisite for systemic sovereignty.

Entrepreneurship without savings is economic quicksand.

I think there are solutions to a lot of these propblems. But this is teh start of framing for myself to think more about solutions.

I encourage everyone in the communities I identified to read this as well as consider how they coudl work to make their own lives better as well as make the system better.

I want to highlight the 2 step process.

🛶 Stage 1: Build your lifeboat.
Earn freedom through action.
Reduce expenses, save in hard assets, develop durable skills, and reclaim your time.

🏛️ Stage 2: Rebuild the harbor.
Use your freedom to build systems that don’t demand sacrifice to survive.
Not as charity — but as infrastructure for agency.

While I believe everyone is capable of building their lifeboat, it is certainly harder for some than others.

Please comment with any thoughts you have to update this.
Please feed this into AI and discuss with it how you might make chagnes to or improve it.

Here are a few resources I referenced when thinking about this.

Gold, Silver, Debt To GDP, Wealth Preservation

The Idea of Bitcoin Needs to Succeed, Even if Bitcoin Fails

World Wage and Work

23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism -Ha-Joon Chang

Post Labor Econonomics Videos – David Shapiro