Sunday, January 3, 2021

What would you do differently if you knew we were being programmed to fail?

Suppose you were a loyal cog in a large corporation. To your surprise, you had been induced (pressured, really) into a position of responsibility you did not want.

Then, suppose as time went by you observed many times when the powers-that-be not only bent but flat-out defied "the rules". And, if things went south, your head was the one that would roll?

By some minor miracle, no hiccups occur. But then, in the eleventh hour suppose that you find yourself wedged into a corner where your management has given you multiple, conflicting, irreconcilable requirements.

You, and your team, are the designated fall-guys. You have been programmed to fail. Somebody is going to stand atop your corpse and make "a point".

Is the US Dollar the designated fall-guy?

Maybe. It certainly looks like it is programmed to fail.

"Management" has crypto-currency staked out as their escape pod.

Is Joe Sixpack doomed?

Maybe, maybe not. We are probable toast from "the dollar as a durable store of value" standpoint. That is one of the primary functions of currency.

One thing they will have a hard time taking from us is our "character equity" and what is between our ears. They can assassinate our reputation but those closest to us will ignore them. They can hit us with billy clubs and scramble our brains. But short of that, there is not much they can do to "steal" those forms of equity.

If you woke up tomorrow with just enough money to pay your property taxes, would you be able to make it?

What do you know? Who do you know? How many ways can you communicate outside of (or through the interstices of) the Alphabet/FB/Amazon/Apple nexus?

What would you do differently? How would you reach out to people you trust and find ways to work together?

Gloomy thoughts.


  1. Yup, gloomy. But even gloomier if you never thought 'em.

  2. As the singer stated, "a country boy can survive"
    Meatspace connections.
    Local, local, local.

  3. Cryptocurrencies aren't really that secure so I'm not so sure they are the escape route.

    Systems have been hacked, and in one case the founder/manager of an exchange never documented the master password so when he died all depositors lost everything.

  4. Remember the employee of the Big Bank who programmed the computers to delete all the information if his name disappeared from the employee rolls ? When he was let go, the computer program that he wrote wiped its memory banks clean and erased itself. He was caught but the damage was done. Not to mention the thousand or so ways that a hacker could eventually crack the code and disappear your "coins".
    All your coins are belong to us". And some kind of glitch could wipe you out also. But if you trust it, be my guest.It is really not about money anyway, it is about control.

  5. Remember, low tech. As low as possible, even primitive is best. And to paraphrase Ronald Reagan, Verify, then trust.

  6. During the Weimar hyperinflation, the farmers in Bavaria became the richest group in society, because they produced food while city dwellers could not. Controlling the food supply is real power. Money is a social construct. Local, local, local, clean and zero your rifles, and conserve your ammunition for when you need it.

  7. Fred is correct. The cities...not so much...