@r0ach, fungible money is the problem.
Collaboration via forced consensus is the solutionSolving the defect-defect problem is the paramount issue. Gold and silver have nothing to offer.
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@And Chinas demographic problem is not as catastrophic as it is feared to be, because they and Japan have billions of people in their economic region which they will migrate to, cultivate, and invest in. It is the common cultural values that most all Asians actually believe in hard work, family, death penalty for drugs, etc... all those core values of a productive, coherent civilization we lost in the decadent West.
Interesting analysis a few minor points of disagreement/nuance. I agree that collaboration is the solution but would argue it is not forced consensus but voluntary consensus that is the solution where ever growing transparency ensures honest participation. This disagreement traces back to our disagreement on the nature of progress I outlined my position on this in
Cycles of Contention.
I also think it is a mistake to group the USA and Europe together into "the west" and similarly to group Japan and China together into "Asia". Culturally China is undergoing a transformation that will profoundly alter the country and set it on a path to future prosperity whereas Japan appears utterly locked into a medium term spiral of stagnation and decline.
See:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1373864.msg18308732#msg18308732Similarly I would argue USA is in the process of slowly decoupling from Europe.
Bitcoin shows us what can be achieved when a a small group chooses to voluntarily cohere around and promote an external ideal in a verifiable and transparent manner.
There are greater and more powerful ideals then that of sound money.