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mrbluze writes:
"An interesting blog post by Charles Hugh Smith on Why Banks Are Doomed: Technology and Risk.:
The funny thing about technology is that those threatened by fundamental improvements in technology attempt to harness it to save their industry from extinction. For example, overpriced colleges now charge thousands of dollars for nearly costless massively open online courses (MOOCs) because they retain a monopoly on accreditation (diplomas). Once students are accredited directly--an advancement enabled by technology--colleges' monopoly disappears and so does their raison d'etre.
The same is true of banks. Now that accounting and risk assessment are automated, and borrowers and owners of capital can exchange funds in transparent digital marketplaces, there is no need for banks. But according to banks, only they have the expertise to create riskless debt.
...
One last happy thought: technology cannot be put back in the bottle. The financial/banking sector wants to use technology to increase its middleman skim, but the technology that is already out of the bottle will dismantle the sector as a function of what technology enables: faster, better, cheaper, with greater transparency, fairness and the proper distribution of risk.
There may well be a place for credit unions and community banks in the spectrum of exchanges, but these localized, decentralized enterprises would be unable to amass dangerous concentrations of risk and political influence in a truly transparent and decentralized system of exchanges.
It's still early days, but can new electronic currencies such as Bitcoin become mainstream without the assent of governments?"
(Score: 2) by Sir Garlon on Monday February 24 2014, @02:25PM
Paying the taxes you owe would be a start.
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight who is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by migz on Monday February 24 2014, @02:55PM
I pay my taxes. I use my vote, and withholding my productivity, to create pressure abolish this extortion, but I do pay it.
Your government has made promises in order to raise those taxes (e.g. Social Security). Then instead of using that money for the intended use they used it to do other things. So now a whole bunch of people are expecting to collect on something they spent their whole lives paying for, but the money is gone. And it's not just that money, the government has borrowed money based on taxes it expects to collect in the future.
Realize there are only two ways to get out of this mess, raise the taxes, or make the debts worthless (inflation).
Unfortunately government has grabbed this future money by selling Treasury bonds to pension funds (amongst others). So the inflation route will compound things.
Increasing taxes? I tell you what once I hit that top tax rate, I STOP WORKING. Why should I pay 54% of my earnings to government? They are just going to use it to enrich themselves and their friends, while telling the public the lie that it is for the benefit of the poor.
It's just not worth getting out of bed in the morning when you are a tax slave. Some other sucker can do the work. But the other suckers will also figure it out. Eventually productivity will get really low.
This is what happened in USSR. Why bother if no matter what you do, the politically well connected get richer, and you can't get ahead, no matter how hard you work?
This is bad news, either way.
How about for a solution, stop using tax money to enrich yourselves and your cronies. Stop programs that you cant afford, and come clean, that you cannot hope to meet those promises you have made (viz. social security, medicare, etc.)
How about stop trying to be the worlds policeman? Not that I mind (I like a lot of American values), but you can't afford it. Let the rest of the world sort out their own problems, or fail on their own terms.
(Score: 2) by Sir Garlon on Monday February 24 2014, @03:19PM
Sorry, didn't mean to put words in your mouth, but I took
to mean you're one of those jerks who refuses to pay taxes. But since you clarified you do pay your taxes (presumably to a non-US country, shocking as it is to realize they exist), then I've got nothing bad to say about you. :-)
Not *wanting* to pay taxes isn't obnoxious, it's normal.
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight who is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.