I never recommend books before I finish reading them, but I have to make an exception for nostr:nprofile1qqsr3gwdr05shx5f35jpthqsrhcgwrc4kuh2y0xmpt0647kgp5p06zgprpmhxue69uhhqun9d45h2mfwwpexjmtpdshxuet56m0w9j and his book Modern Chains. Only through the introduction (!!) and outside the Bible I think will be the most important book I’ve ever read to date. “Number go up” bitcoiners won’t be interested because they overlook the much more important moral and ethical foundations. However, the real ones will be thoroughly enriched through this book.
I’ve never heard anyone make the moral and ethical case against our monetary system in clearer words that resonated in my bones. Couple short excerpts below from just the first 10 pages:
“A person recognizes moral truth long before the mind untangles technical nuance” (!!)
“Calling our system ‘broken’ surrenders moral clarity and obscures the deeper reality: the system functions precisely as designed, to dominate and extract human effort. The only things genuinely broken are the people it consumes and discards”
“The ethics of money is not secondary: it takes precedence. Economics explains the ‘what,’ while morality defines the ‘why.’ Morality is primary: it takes precedence, comes first. Morality is the soil in which economic seeds are planted, and the quality of that soil determines the quality of the fruit”
“We will avoid dense data sets and intricate financial models; instead, we will pull back the curtain on a fundamental issue; if a system forcibly extracts our productivity, then no amount of economic theory can redeem it”
“Superficial analysis of economics alone cannot excavate the deeper moral foundation; for that we need a philosophical shovel”
“Debasing the money debases human dignity; it stifles our freedom, and as this book will show, freedom is far more than a political ideal; it is the bedrock of our humanity”
