Excellent article overall, and I will add that Bitcoin was never intended to be an investment vehicle. It was designed as an alternative to "analog" currency. In a sense, it may even be fair to say it was intended as a counterpunch to the stuff you are talking about here.
I regret not mining it when I first heard about it, which was when it first appeared. I seriously thought about it at the time, too. But I bet I'd have ended up one of those people who "Lost the keys", so to speak!
I agree completely with just about everything you say here, but I'll add that this country has overcome worse.
The most important thing to do is to not give in, or to give up.
When the Depression hit, FDR showed up. Then WW2 happened, and it didn't just become an existential moment, it damaged the psyches of millions. My parents (Dad served in the Pacific) were a little crazy, and so were lots of others. War does that to people.
Yet they all still managed to create the closest thing the nation has seen to prosperity. A lot of that was done with government programs.
The truth is, the country has only known one brief period of broad prosperity (which still left millions behind, especially people of color). That period was after WW2 to just after the Reagan years.
Reagan tore it all to shreds, and we've been trying to recover ever since then, but the Ayn Rand acolytes have been winning the day.
The answers are not all that difficult from a political standpoint.
When I was young, the highest tax rates were up around 70%. Even higher for some. Now the highest rates are around 30%.
Tuition cost me about $350 at a state public university. Now it's about $18,000.
I was on food stamps in my senior year of college while I worked and studied. Now, if you can get them, you're brandished as a leech.
There is SO much money floating around this country. A good old redistribution of wealth is desperately needed.
I leave you with this:
I'm not actually saying we should eliminate wealth or the chance to attain it - but we do need to do the basic task of recalibrating the tax code so that there are no more billionaires.
In fact, if you can afford to spend $1 million on a baseball card, you have too much money.
We should consider, as a nation, wealth limits. Come up with a number, and stick to it, and use the money from that to set up career and job programs so people don't feel so damn lost.
