I have come to understand a deception that Saifedean spread throughout the bitcoin community (a specific deception). My understanding came to me from contemplating this twitter dialogue:
( https://twitter.com/dgreene359/status/1062505723223920640)
What happened was bitcoin’s community started to get vocal about the idea that bitcoin is destined to have a deflationary purchasing power trend (ie increasing) and mainstream economics scoffed and explained that economy suffers when no one is spending their money because they are hoarding it.
Saifedean started to teach the idea of time preference…that a wiser citizen of the world would save more than today’s consumer and credit citizens.
The narrative extended to the faction of crypto-anarchists (marxists) who then start to explain why “savings”, as a general population trend, is actually a good thing. However, this point if even successfully argued doesn’t pertain to bitcoin.
Consider these definitions of savings versus investment:
Savings, according to Keynesian economics, are what a person has left over when the cost of his or her consumer expenditure is subtracted from the amount of disposable income earned in a given period of time.~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saving
Here is Well Fargo:
The difference between saving and investing
Saving — putting money aside gradually, typically into a bank account. People generally save for a particular goal, like paying for a car, a down payment on a house, or any emergencies that might come up. Saving can also mean putting your money into products such as a bank time account (CD).
Investing — using some of your money with the aim of helping make it grow by buying assets that might increase in value, such as stocks, property or shares in a mutual fund.~ https://www.wellsfargo.com/goals-investing/saving-vs-investing/
And as defined by the SEC
Now the crafty bitcoiner will cry foul and say “Of course these governments, central banks, and left leaning wiki will define their words this way.” But this already forgets the argument presented above. The “Keynesians” or the central banking faction, or academia, or mainstream economists have said, “A savings trend, by our definition, would be a bad thing” and the bitcoiner responds, “No, a savings trend can be a good thing.”
But bitcoin by the definitions that are implied by the accusation and response is not a savings-it’s an investment.
It can only be a savings, by the definition implied, in a world where bitcoin IS money (where money means it is ubiquitously accepted and transacted).
Bitcoin is an investment and putting forth an argument that holds it as a savings device conflates definitions and schools of thought when countering the point that a general savings trend is a bad thing.
