Check your Financial Privilege
This post is inspired by a book I’ve been reading titled “Check your Financial Privilege”, by Alex Gladstein. This post will condense and distill a few things that I’ve learned, coupled with my own story about delivering bitcoin-education to people in my family, community, and network.
Bitcoin is not an Investment
From my point of view, a major theme of the book is that Bitcoin is not an investment. After meeting new people and telling them what I do, I am then posed one or more of the following questions.
Isn’t bitcoin dead?
Do you think it’ll go up?
Is now a good time to get in?
How many bitcoin do you have?
Am I too late to invest in bitcoin?
Whats your price prediction for bitcoin?
Isn’t bitcoin for criminals and scam artists?
Which other cryptocurrencies should I buy?
Not everything is about money you know!
Okay, the last one is more of a critique and comment than a question.. But I’ll address that soon.
If I get these sorts of questions or comments, I a good deal of confidence that the person asking them is coming from a place of financial privilege. It is more than likely that this person is deeply unaware of how difficult other people’s lives are precisely because the quality of the money provided to them by their central bank or government is abysmal.
How do you know if you have Financial Privilege?
My mind was blown when I learned about the state of people’s financial infrastructure around the world. If you think you or someone around you is benefitting from financial privilege, here is how you can check it.
You have a bank account (1.6 Billion people don’t)
You pay a relatively small fee for your bank account ($5 - $60 per year is small)
You have overdraft (some people can’t go into the negatives)
You have a credit card, or could get one
You have access to “cashback” or points programs
You have a line of credit, or could get one
You have a mortgage, or could get one
You “could” claim bankruptcy, if you had to
Your government would give you an educational loan
You have a government issued identity that allows you to open a bank account
You can access banking apps on your phone
You have a smart phone able to download financial apps
You live in a country with single digit inflation (50% of the world lives in double, triple, or quadruple digit inflation)
You can access investments through your banking institution
Your country offers you a pension
Your country offers you employment insurance
You can send money digitally
Having and holding other currency is not a crime
The majority of your income does not depend on family overseas
When you go to an ATM or bank, they have cash on hand to give you
Your paycheque is deposited into your bank account
Some of these might not apply to you, and of course, I recognize that even though you have access to some of these features of the financial ecosystem, your life may be financially difficult in other ways. I do not mean to trivialize overdraft fees, or drawing from welfare or EI. Those are challenges in and of themselves. I only aim to contextualize your financial situation as being embedded in a widen spectrum of financial challenges.
Again; Bitcoin is NOT an Investment
So when I’m in discourse with others and trying to articulate why I am spending my career building bitcoin and proliferating its use, I try to help them understand that bitcoin is not an investment. For me and many others, it is just money. Let’s say that again a different way, it is JUST money.
Bitcoin is “just” money
When I look at other people that are suffering from deprecated financial situations, I think of it as unjust. Their circumstances are not fair. The odds are stacked against them, and then some. It’s not right. It’s immoral and unethical and the part of the those imposing their egregious use of financial power and authority. May that be the local thug, the corrupt municipality, the oligarch, or the authoritarian dictator.
If you did not catch it — “Bitcoin is ‘just’ money” has a double meaning.
It’s both bitcoin’s most simple definition and a description of its moral standing.
I would prefer if we discard the talk about bitcoin as a means of getting rich quick, and instead speak about how it can be used as a countermeasure against those living under hyperinflation.
Instead of “lets get rich quick”, it can be “lets not descend into total and absolute abject poverty”.
Instead of “lets make some money” it can be “lets try to preserve whatever savings and wealth we have accumulated (the fruits of our labours).
Instead of “can we make a quick buck”, it can be “we can save something for the future of our children”.
Bitcoin and Justice
Bitcoin is “just” money because it puts financial freedom and responsibility in the hands of the individual. Bitcoin says “no” to nobody. No matter the race, religion, or creed. It’s a tool of empowerment that has the potential to right the wrongs of the world. Not all of them, but some of them.
Bitcoin helps Fodé Diope fight financial colonialism in 15 African nations
Bitcoin helps people living in the Gaza Strip survive in the midst of economic apartheid
These are just a few essays that make up the larger book that is “Check your Financial Privilege”. The stories captured within this book help me center myself and remind me that every effort to build bitcoin, educate others on bitcoin, and proliferate bitcoin is one that helps tackle economic injustices.
Thank you for reading my newsletter, right now, I’m just audience building. Some of my newsletters will like this one where I explore a book that I’ve read that has impacted my thoughts. Others will be counter to much of the message I’ve laid out herein, where I talk about opportunities and strategies to make money. My hope and aim at the end of the day is simply to cultivate bitcoin culture. That is, a culture of people using, owning, and opting into bitcoin in lieu of world-currencies.
When bitcoin is strengthened in any corner of the globe, every other edge that uses bitcoin gets that much stronger. In some ways, bitcoin is a profound reminder that we are all (or can be) connected and interconnected. Bitcoin makes the stranger on the other side of the world your economic neighbour.
Next time someone asks you what Bitcoin is, you can say “It’s Just Money”.