Repost from u/Annapurna317 on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/f0xoqf/centralized_power_always_corrupts_when_we/

Centralized power always corrupts. When we decentralize money we decentralize power. That enables people to have more freedom.

This is a rumination on centralized institutions, why they fail and why decentralized money is so important.

Communism (dictatorship):

• Communism is centralized control from the start. Communists leaders dictate and delegate power and tasks from the top-down.

• Communist systems impoverish those living in those systems. There are no personal rights or personal freedoms. All property and thus power is owned by the state.

• Communistic systems must continually expand into new regions or they will implode as people loose trust. Example: Russia and China pushing to expand are signs of internal weaknesses.

• The internal structure of communist systems prevents motiovation and innovation.

• These societies are brainwashed into believing that their poverty is required for the greater good of the country.

• There is no real freedom or justice, even oligarchs can be thrown in jail for nothing and have everything taken from them.

Pure Capitalism (unchecked by democratic laws):

• Pure capitalism is meant to be comprised of fair competition, but over time the incentives create monopolies.

• Monopolies centralize power, requiring people to pay more for things once industries are consolidated.

• Pure capitalism takes away freedom and impoverishes over time as the "competition" phase ends.

• Once there is a winner, the winner then uses that power to create laws that guarantee their monopolistic position. This removes motivation to compete with the monopoly.

• Monopolies rarely innovate new products as they have no competition.

• Monopolies remove or are able to avoid anti-trust laws through a corrupting influence.

• Quick note: the US has shifted towards monopolies (FAANG) over the last 30 years (largely due to money in politics).

• As a result, wealth inequality has never been larger around the world. The rich don't have recessions.

• Amazon pays 0-1% taxes due to their power and influence on tax laws. Centralized power and corruption at it's worst.

• Monopolies feed on systems without giving back to those societies.

• Pure capitalistic systems create a population of slaves that have no choice but to work more for less.

• This populous perceived freedoms, but the things they can do are actually selected for them.

Both pure capitalistic and communistic systems fail as they centralize and that leads to less freedom.

Democracy is meant to decentralize power. All people should have an equal voice about who leads, and term limits should keep those leaders accountable to the electorate.

The problem is that money disproportionately impacts elections and makes them unfair. Foreign communistic systems use democracy against itself, influencing elections with money in order to destabilize them. On the local level, regional power disenfranchises voters that they think will not reelect them.

In a democracy, the more you remove money from the election process, the more free those people will be.

The main principle is that no matter what system you have, where you have centralized power, the system fails. Money is at the core of power in our modern society. Attaining money is a game that we're all forced to play. The consequences of this game are the difference between slavery and freedom, growth or stagnation, life or death. This is why decentralized money is so important.

It must be decentralized in development (many developers) and have decentralized security (many miners or fair staking). It must be decentralized in operation (peer to peer, without central hubs) and it must have a decentralized record (immutable blockchain).

Decentralized money won't solve all of our problems. There will still be have and have-nots. There will still be racism and hatreds.

However, it could do a few important things:

• Remove centralized inflation decisions that devalues the ongoing work of the world.

• Remove the fractional-reserve system that creates war and operates on pure corruption.

• Allow people to transact with one another without a middleman (banks).

• Allow people to be their own bank, without asking for permission or having identification.

• Have positive effects on all other aspects of life associated with greater freedom.

It doesn't matter if the above solution is called Bitcoin Cash or any other name. I take no stock in what things are called. If it will do the above, then I will support it with my thoughts and actions.

Power to the people.