Crypto is quite controversial — almost a concept that is too much for the average joe.
People argue about the very existence of it — whether it deserves to be a zero or deserves to be at $100,000 and everything in between.
Then there is the angry Gen Z and Millennial cohort who love to say:
“Well of course the economy is screwed because nobody wants to pay a decent salary, and nobody wants to work.”
They go on to say that “paper money is worthless if there is nothing to buy because nothing is produced.”
If one is to believe the economy is compromised, then it suggests that an alternative ideology must be embraced.
Crypto has entered that void.
The origins of these thoughts come from the U.S. outsourcing manufacturing to far-flung places around the globe and to compensate for that, the US central bank has undergone quantitative easing like there is no tomorrow.
Instead of paying high wages in the U.S., that bill is cut by taking advantage of offshore wages.
The Mad Hedge IT staff is mainly based in emerging markets so it’s not like I can say I am not dipping my toe in wage arbitrage either.
Many companies are doing it — it’s almost normal these days.
One of America’s dirty secrets is the growing contempt for the status quo as many young people feel like the world is against them.
Property cost 10x what their parents paid while real wages have decreased even if they have increased nominally.
The cost of living is becoming insane or rather is insane.
Even with a well-paying job, many find themselves living paycheck to paycheck and in credit card debt.
This has triggered many to invest in crypto while trying to manage student debt the best they can.
A 9-5 is never going to allow anyone to become "well off" like the case in past American generations which is why I brought up the alternative ideology.
It’s real and it’s happening as we speak.
Young people are searching for that launchpad that will take them to luxury and the most valid test case is increasingly becoming different types of crypto.
It’s that right now one can earn a few nickels from a savings account thanks to the brilliant 0.01% interest rates banks give.
Many earned more investing in crypto coins this year than the last 10, 20, 30 years of life in a savings account.
Granted, 401k gets about 10% a year but this is nowhere enough to retire with uncontrollable living costs.
Take a better case of a 30-year-old employed as a purchaser for a medium-sized company for 10 years and he or she managed to buy a condo but not a single-family house yet while being financially still well off.
It is possible to ride that corporate ladder, just not as fast and easy as it was 30 years ago and only in selective cities.
This is a more optimistic take on the current situation, yet I would bet crypto is still a legitimate option for someone with this financial profile because even with a better scenario, finances aren’t good enough if you extrapolate it far into the future relative to the economic challenges they face ahead.
We live in a culture of get-rich-quick that has been exacerbated by technology and platforms that have us chronicling our lives every millisecond.
Even if the grind has been largely positive for 10 years of working full time, many are still viewing crypto as the last resort to a timely retirement.
Time is of the essence, why?
The IRS could come in and make the asset unattractive.
At this point I do believe it is getting too big to fail and at $2 trillion market cap, is the IRS willing to wipe that off the books of mostly Gen Z and Millennials who mostly have marginal net worth?
That would be adding insult to injury, but don’t call me a snowflake for saying it.
But young people need a way to actually... own part of this world too whether it’s a digital code or something else.
This idea is increasingly rubbing up against the status quo of the asset smash and grab fest that fiat-based assets and low interest rates facilitated and many young people were just that, simply too young to participate in.
Don’t blame it on anyone.
The 99% are just trying to get by.
That goes to say that as a whole, the US has the best standard of living of anywhere in the world for average people in the population, the same can’t be said if one were to have been born in Bangladesh, India, or Sub-Saharan Africa.
And rich countries have no incentive to support crypto full stop because the U.S. has the U.S. dollar which is still the reserve currency of the world instead of a banana republic like El Salvador who has aggressively pivoted into crypto assets.
Many young people want the system to take a turn around and accommodate them, but that will not happen.
If crypto does lead to a huge transfer of wealth then it'll still be going to those with enough spare cash to take the risk of investing. Most people who really need the resources are not investing in crypto, they're paying for food and shelter, so they aren’t stuck on the street with no roof over their head.
The getting is good NOW, and growth rates will severely moderate if the government feels too left out of the bonanza.
No need to over or under-hype this phenomenon.
An asset with unbelievable growth rates now that are invested in by people who have liquid cash whether it be institutions, college kids, or the middle class.
Crypto is not a secret passport to extravagant dreams.
It’s simply a strengthening asset in the early innings of a growth cycle and the lack of regulation acts as a supercharger like it did to Facebook, Google, Apple, and Microsoft when they were in the early innings’ of their growth phase.
