Quote from: MoonShadow on June 26, 2011, 06:10:43 AM

That's quite an assumption to make about your detractors. I consider it more likely that you don't understand a system that you advocate. You might know bitcoin inside and out, but you still don't understand that which you speak.

it's not an assumption; as i said, it's an observation based on what's manifested. perhaps people here are just poor at communicating their understanding, but i see no indications of a detailed understanding of the operation of central banks.

you may be right about the particulars of deflation in 1800s america; the united states is not my home or my speciality. if so, i retract that particular point, but very little depends on it. my larger point is still that very few actually suffered substantially from inflation from 1913 onward, because most people who had a bank account were able to match or outpace inflation.

the more general point is that the amateur economists in this forum seem implicitly to be comparing (1) bitcoins with (2) dollars held under a mattress. the more accurate comparison, however, is with (3) dollars held in a bank account, earning interest. the chart for most 'savers', even those who never opened a brokerage account, would not be close to the original poster's once interest were taken into account.

it is only recently that it was hard to match inflation in a bank account, and the reason for that has more to do with the unique failures of central banks over the last few years than the generalised problems that people here want to assign to all central banks everywhere, throughout time.

of course, that's a classic mistake that many anti-government extremists make ('i can point to a bad thing that a government did, therefore governments should not exist'). perhaps i shouldn't draw myself into another debate with a horde of anti-governmental extremists, however. i realise that i am in the minority in this forum by not belonging to that group.