Conclusion of Money as a Reflection of Political Values, Virtues, and Human Order
Recap of main points
Recap of main points
Previous Parts
- Introduction
- Part I - Politics, Values, and Money
- Part II - A Defense of "Neutral" Money
- Part III - Values and Virtues
- Part IV - A Critique of "Neutral" Money
- Part V - The Functions of Money
- Part VI - Bitcoin's Genesis
- Part VII - Bitcoin and Financial Freedom
- Part VIII - A Critique of Bitcoin
Monetary design is an extension and reflection of political and moral values. The way we use and perceive money has direct social, political, and economic effects, and is thus an important topic to be debated and evaluated. The spontaneous design upheld by Hume, Hayek, Smith, and the likes is valid and appealing; however, human relations are not purely situated in markets, and as discussed in previous parts of this essay series, money plays a role in human relations that goes beyond pure transactional market dynamics. In fact, the fixation on “neutral” money and bitcoin’s design and simulation of the “natural laws of money” is in many ways contrary to the spontaneous order of human organization and evolution.
While “neutral” money and bitcoin promote themselves as a money for the people and as a monetary system that empowers freedom, sovereignty, and liberty, the definitions of those values are individualistic and limited in scope since they ignore other essential aspects of life that constitute what it means to be free and purely focus on material and financial freedom. Moreover, the freedom and sovereignty upheld by “neutral” money and bitcoin empower certain groups and individuals while disregarding other groups and individuals, and ignores the freedom, sovereignty, and liberty of the broader community.
As for money’s functions, there seems to be a micro and macro view on what money serves, but one overlooked function is how money brings ideas to life. The point made throughout the paper is that money’s value is linked to what money allows us to create and build as opposed to its value being rooted in money in and of itself. Bitcoin’s existence is rooted in its price and is an end in and of itself, hence distorting money’s function and corrupting human flourishing and prosperity.
It is for those reasons that the nature of bitcoin is unjust.
