I would modify (3) to say: It is better to encourage saving than to encourage spending on useless shit that won't last.
The problem with today's "investment" is that it is almost entirely on shit that won't last, and is for the purpose of short-term monetary gain than for investment into infrastructure which will last generations. An "investment" today is concerned with the next quarter, 6-months or perhaps even a year. Most companies do not concern themselves with anything longer than 3 years, or anything to do with the well-being of the societies in which they operate. Most companies simply can't operate on the time-scales needed to build and eventually profit from creating infrastructure. Instead of building something with the intent of breaking-even in 10 years, one will instead still be paying back interest accumulated on loans taken out 10 years ago.
The end result is that the role of building infrastructure in developed nations is now almost entirely assumed by governments, or contracted by government, which ends up creating virtual monopolies propped-up or subsidised by the state. Private companies which are profiting hugely from public money, but do not operate like regular companies because they don't have to compete with anybody and have little accountability. It's the worst elements of socialism and capitalism combined into one package.
In the academies, research projects which span 3+ years are now almost unheard of. It's more important to get 3+ publications per year, now matter how garbage they are, else the funding won't come around next year. We're seeing stagnation in many areas of science because research which is not short-term profitable is ignored.
For most of the working and middle classes, the high time preference results in them buying useless gadgets, largely for the purpose of wealth-signalling, eating junk food, getting wasted, anything to fill the requirement to spend the money one has earned, because it is not worth saving the money. For many, paying rent is preferred to buying property, because the latter requires saving to achieve, which is hard when people see their stored value decaying in their bank accounts.
The shift from inflationary money to non-inflationary money will fundamentally affect people's decision making in their purchases. It isn't going to happen overnight, but as people realize they can accumulate wealth without risky investments, they will come to value saving over spending. The companies producing cheap junk for short-term profit will have to change the way they operate to fit the changes in spending habits.
On (4), gold is still inflationary as new sources can be uncovered. It is better than fiat currencies which can be arbitrarily inflated, but it is still worse than zero inflation for anyone who wants to save money.
Gold is not too scarce. It can be more difficult to acquire than Bitcoin in some cases due to red-tape. Gold is not very fungible because it is difficult to separate. It's also difficult to verify that it is real gold. Even under gold monetary systems, a major source of inflation has been to dilute the amount of gold transacted by alloying it with small amounts of other metals. Over time the gold in the coinage has shrunk to fractions of its original amount. This can't be done with Bitcoin.
And the value of transmitting remotely, without censorship or interference should not be underestimated, particularly as governments and technology companies are increasingly pushing towards dystopias in order to attempt to save themselves from their own poor decision making.
Bitcoin also enables a kind of economy that was not previously possible, which is a micro-payment economy for online services. With some of the technology being built on bitcoin, you will soon be able to make instant payments worth fractions of a cent, with transaction fees being negligible. (This can already be done, just not yet at scale).
Since many people are invested both financially, and technologically in this space, it certainly isn't going to go away any time soon. If people happen to have their savings appreciate over that time by holding them in Bitcoin, it will only further cement Bitcoin's future as the next monetary standard.
The problem with today's "investment" is that it is almost entirely on shit that won't last, and is for the purpose of short-term monetary gain than for investment into infrastructure which will last generations. An "investment" today is concerned with the next quarter, 6-months or perhaps even a year. Most companies do not concern themselves with anything longer than 3 years, or anything to do with the well-being of the societies in which they operate. Most companies simply can't operate on the time-scales needed to build and eventually profit from creating infrastructure. Instead of building something with the intent of breaking-even in 10 years, one will instead still be paying back interest accumulated on loans taken out 10 years ago.
The end result is that the role of building infrastructure in developed nations is now almost entirely assumed by governments, or contracted by government, which ends up creating virtual monopolies propped-up or subsidised by the state. Private companies which are profiting hugely from public money, but do not operate like regular companies because they don't have to compete with anybody and have little accountability. It's the worst elements of socialism and capitalism combined into one package.
In the academies, research projects which span 3+ years are now almost unheard of. It's more important to get 3+ publications per year, now matter how garbage they are, else the funding won't come around next year. We're seeing stagnation in many areas of science because research which is not short-term profitable is ignored.
For most of the working and middle classes, the high time preference results in them buying useless gadgets, largely for the purpose of wealth-signalling, eating junk food, getting wasted, anything to fill the requirement to spend the money one has earned, because it is not worth saving the money. For many, paying rent is preferred to buying property, because the latter requires saving to achieve, which is hard when people see their stored value decaying in their bank accounts.
The shift from inflationary money to non-inflationary money will fundamentally affect people's decision making in their purchases. It isn't going to happen overnight, but as people realize they can accumulate wealth without risky investments, they will come to value saving over spending. The companies producing cheap junk for short-term profit will have to change the way they operate to fit the changes in spending habits.
On (4), gold is still inflationary as new sources can be uncovered. It is better than fiat currencies which can be arbitrarily inflated, but it is still worse than zero inflation for anyone who wants to save money.
Gold is not too scarce. It can be more difficult to acquire than Bitcoin in some cases due to red-tape. Gold is not very fungible because it is difficult to separate. It's also difficult to verify that it is real gold. Even under gold monetary systems, a major source of inflation has been to dilute the amount of gold transacted by alloying it with small amounts of other metals. Over time the gold in the coinage has shrunk to fractions of its original amount. This can't be done with Bitcoin.
And the value of transmitting remotely, without censorship or interference should not be underestimated, particularly as governments and technology companies are increasingly pushing towards dystopias in order to attempt to save themselves from their own poor decision making.
Bitcoin also enables a kind of economy that was not previously possible, which is a micro-payment economy for online services. With some of the technology being built on bitcoin, you will soon be able to make instant payments worth fractions of a cent, with transaction fees being negligible. (This can already be done, just not yet at scale).
Since many people are invested both financially, and technologically in this space, it certainly isn't going to go away any time soon. If people happen to have their savings appreciate over that time by holding them in Bitcoin, it will only further cement Bitcoin's future as the next monetary standard.