I am the
curator of the conversation between two political scientists Adam Smith and
Maurizio Lazzarato. The conversation that will be discussed is bitcoin. How
would Adam Smith and Maurizio Lazzarato meet bitcoin with political thought? I
will lead the conversation with prompts about bitcoin, discussing the creation
of bitcoin, why bitcoin was developed, how it works and what are seen to be
benefits as well as what is seen as the negatives or holes in the
system.
The conversation between the two individuals will be
set in a bar setting, as two individuals are prompted by the bartender whom I
will be in the story leading the conversation. Adam Smith and Maurizio
Lazzarato will then engage in conversations on the set topic, giving their
opinions based off of the assumptions of their writings. The two scholars can
and will be negating certain aspects of bitcoin, each other’s opinions and also
given their writing I will be exploring if there are certain aspects about
bitcoin Adam Smith or Maurizio Lazzarato would find to their liking.
Viera: “ I have been watching you two talk for awhile now an
based on what you two have been saying that you have beliefs that seem to ride
along the lines of the technology of bitcoin.”
Adam Smith: “Bitcoin? What is this
technology you’re talking about? Is this some kind of system to which man can
efficiently mint a coin, removing the ways of hand pressing those god-awful
bits of silver?
Maurizo Lazzarato: “ Bitcoin? Could
this be some type of technology to keep all of us indebted men under the thumb
of debt?”
Viera: “Bitcoin is a technology first, but more so is a
online currency system that is open-sourced which allows individuals to
complete direct transaction between themselves, instead of having a third party
taking care of the transaction. This system also allows for the currency to not
be centralized like state managed currency, which has oversight by the banks
and states. This allows for bitcoin users to have full control of their
currency by the ability to allow the currency to be transferred to any place
that user sees fit without any direct point of reference of that individual and
the party receiving the transaction. What this creates is a fast direct
exchange to anywhere in the world with the privacy held of the individuals
involved in the transaction as well as the ability of the state to shut down
the transactions if the state saw the transaction unfit.”
Maurizo Lazzarto: “ Bitcoin is not a
state owned currency?”
Viera: “No bitcoin is decentralized, bitcoin is tracked on a
massive public ledger that everyone on the network can view, each transaction
that occurs. Some sites allow people to go online and see all current
transactions without even being apart of the bitcoin community.”
Adam Smith: “Why would a community of people not want the
backing or the centralized benefit of a state backed currency?”
Hendrix Viera: “ Bitcoin has been was developed with the
last economic recession in mind. Bitcoin is a type of answer to governments
like the United States which does not create its own capital and other
countries that are controlling the over all use of money inside their boarders.
There is a large attraction to individuals who want control of their money and
a safe place to store money. This is where the banks were brought up as an
institution that would hold those funds. Bitcoin can provided that safety net
for as a secure way to hold and distribute the currency while monitoring those
funds directly.”
Maurizio Lazzarato: “ I would agree
that the United States has put their people in a tremendous amount of debt.
This amount of debt is a form of slavery; the indebted man seems to be free but
is underpinned by the amount of debt that he has occurred over time and know
that borrowing has occurred over such a long period time, their children are
born with $30,000 of debt on arrival.”
Adam Smith: “How is America putting
their children indebt before they’re even born? Does the United States not
lookout for its citizens as far as giving each person the ability to act in
sovereignty? Do the citizens of America not have the sovereign ability to
pursue his own interest, capital and industries in the fashion that he so
chooses?
Maurizio Lazzarato: “Well as I have stated before economist
have projected based off of the creditor debtor relationship is effecting the
whole population of countries like those in France whom become indebted on the
moment of birth at around 22,000 euros indebt. The same effect is occurring in
America society.”
Viera: “ This is occurring in The United States as well, how
so? You have my ears, I think this is very interesting and I would not have
guessed the well went this deep.”
Maurizio Lazzarato: “The United States is currently in debt
a total of 9 trillion dollars. This means the Federal Reserve has loaned this
amount of “cash” to the United States
government. The United States has then lent that amount of money to the banks.
In order to pay this lent money back, the United States government collects
taxes from the American people. Given the amount of people in the United States
it would take $30,000 roughly of tax money just to pay back the Federal
Reserve.”
Viera: “So the way you’re putting this is, I am not walking
around with a debt tag like I would be with student loans and have creditors
calling me to pay my debts on time. But rather that I am secretly tagged,
unknowingly that over time I will be paying $30,000 as of this moment toward a
debt that is continually increasing? That does sound like something I should be
a little skeptical of given I have not even had a say on how this debt is to be
paid. Whom is this money going to?”
Maurizio Lazzarato: “ The Federal Reserve has said on record
during congressional hearings in 2009 and 2010, specifically the Chairmen of
the Federal Reserve which is Ben Bernanke, who said himself that he was unsure
which financial institutions that had received the funds that they had lent out
to foreign central banks with valuations of $500,000,000,000 or half a trillion
dollars. The inspector general of the Federal Reserve has been on record saying
that she was unaware of $9,000,000,000,000 or nine trillion dollars of credit
that had lent by the Federal Reserve with no knowledge to where that money had
gone. “
Adam Smith: “Wait, the Federal Reserve loans money to the
State? Does not the State control the amount of wealth within the United
States? Does the United States distribute their own currency for exchange
throughout their country? Does the state not insure that there is a fair
distribution of wealth throughout the country and have large oversight to make
sure a select few do not benefit? I am sorry for all of the questions but this
does not seem like a country that should be promoting freedom if all you say is
true to these degrees. I would think a free market economy would drive itself
and not have to be saturated with this institution oversight or a large amount
of oversight from a select few.”
Maurizio Lazzarato: “The Federal Reserve is a private bank
that only deals with governments and government central banks. This money is
printed on demand, while being able to control interest rates in the economy.
All the while, the American people cannot get a direct loan from this bank nor
do they have any say in which the distribution of American cash is handled
because the Federal Reserve is a privately owned bank and not quiet a
government institution. So the American people have no say in who gets elected
to the board of the Federal Reserve.”
Adam Smith: “So the Federal Reserve is a privately owned
bank that controls the market economy of the United States?”
Maurizio Lazzarato: “Yes the Federal Reserve is a privately
owned bank, and there is no way to know who owns the bank because they have the
right to keep their personal books closed to the public.”
Adam Smith: “This sounds like the Federal Reserve has a
monopoly on the United States’ money market and are monopolies not illegal in
the United States? This certainly raises my eyebrows that a state would create
an institution that the government itself has to answer too or has minimal
power over this institution, giving this institution so much power that can be
leveraged for the benefit of a select few, who are not even know. It would seem
to me that this bitcoin thing is a certain way to take the power away from this
institution.”
Viera: “Yes, I would agree with you Adam based on what we
have began to discuss. The monopoly the United States has placed in power seems
to be something I have never questioned before. I had heard rumors of there
being too much power vested into the Federal Reserve but I always brushed that
talk off as non-sense but listening to Maurizio Lazzarato discuss the becoming
of the indebted man and now the links to my own government creating indebted
citizens, I can see where people may want to develop a different system. I have
heard that bitcoin is away to manage the market in away that these bubbles do
not get created. The banking system makes their money by the money that they
loan and collect interest off of. Maurizio you have spoken how creation of
interest is the ultimate theft of a man’s life in the very extreme. This would
make me come to believe that the United States is setting their citizens up to
be this kind of slave to the Federal Reserve which collects their payout from
interest accumulated by the United States and other Foreign institutions but
being paid for by the American people’s dollars through tax.”
Maurizio Lazzarato: “ I have spoken about interest being the
ultimate theft of a man, and no man has the right to owning another man’s time
on this planet. I believe the only one capable of stealing a man’s time is god
and these men surely are no god.”
Viera: “Is this how the last economic collapse happened
based on subprime mortgage loans? In a nutshell that individuals were given the
right to loans that they otherwise would not have qualified for, then giving
the banker commission on that loan then distributing that mortgage to other
banks to package with other mortgages selling those with the insurance that the
asset turns at worst into a home that can later be sold. The problem was that
too many risky homeowners were unable to pay their mortgage and began to walk
away and those incoming payments began to dry up putting more homes on the
market driving the worth of those homes in those neighborhoods lower. Soon the
respectable homeowners saw that they were paying higher rates for a home that
was not only going up in value but also moving in the opposite direction. These
homeowners who were expected to show up and continue to pay began to walk away
from their homes and the house of cards collapsed. Would this be fair to say in
a nutshell?”
Adam Smith: “Yes, I would say that is a quick way to sum up
the last financial crisis, a select group of people elite enough to make
massive waves in the global economy.”
Viera: “Would you not call that a bubble, an inflation of
resources to the extant that those resources stretched to an unbearable point?
That although monitored slightly with knowledge of implications that could
occur if there was to be a bust. Too many hands had transferred those funds,
placing the resources into unknown hands, often those hands that were unable to
support the very system everyone was banking on?”
Maurizio Lazzarato: “Yes, yes I agree with you.”
Viera: “ The what can be said of this bubble that the
Federal Reserve, the very institution that is in charge of the American dollar
has created with the nations currency? The Federal Reserve has built a money
bubble with national tax guaranteed dollars exchanged to an unknown about of
hands that when those unworthy of holding so much resources collapse, could not
the whole idea of our countries money collapse with this Ponzi scheme?
