The Audaciously Hypocritical Mr. Musk
In this age in which consistency of thought is an anomaly and standing by principle is an arcane relic, Elon Musk still has managed to stand out among the mob.
After months if not years of endorsing Bitcoin as an alternative to the fiat currencies of the globe, Musk took to the cockpit of the climate change hysterics’ space ship and denounced Bitcoin mining as potentially injurious to the environment because of the energy required to produce coins. Never mind that mining Bitcoin–that is, the practice itself–has allowed some relatively poor, yet very tech savvy guys and gals, even in third-world, basket case countries like Venezuela, to attain wealth. Whatever! Those are humans who Musk and his woke ilk are more than happy to sacrifice on the altar of ecological virtue signaling. Aztecs of our day indeed.
Imagine Musk swallowed a magic pill of logic, reason, and basic self awareness for a moment. It might just dawn on him that making such pronouncements about excessive energy consumption by a cryptocurrency community–well, I don’t know–PALES IN COMPARISON TO THE MILLIONS OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES TESLA HAS SOLD AND THUS NEED TO BE CHARGED. This is not to mention the electricity expended to MAKE THE CARS IN THE FIRST PLACE.
How about Musk’s precious baby–of course I’m not talking about his human progeny–I’m speaking of SpaceX. Oh Elon! How much energy and carbon is emitted building and launching (and sometimes crashing) those rockets so that we can have the uber-rich like yourself contemplate landing on Mars only to die there shortly after arrival? I suspect it is a lot.
For the sake of my own consistency, let’s look at some numbers:
That’s right fans: gold mining and gold recycling expends more than 250 percent more energy than Bitcoin mining. Not that I’m adverse to gold, but it is important to compare. And then there’s the extant banking system at present and the governments that support it. Yikes! On that spectrum, Bitcoin miners are a low watt light bulb next to an A/C unit, a washer/dryer, and a dishwasher. Forgive me, electricians, if my analogy limps there.
But, the kicker is that the energy expended in paper currency and minting of sovereign funny money is over a fifth of that utilized by Bitcoin. Okay. But, ala dear Bastiat, go beyond the seen to examine the unseen. Bitcoin mining costs just 16 percent of the cost of printing said funny money, and only God (unamused), the Devil (reveling), Janet Yellen and Jay Powell know how those costs have increased since the beginning of Co-Vid hysteria and government takeover. Those costs go to taxpayers whose wealth is being diverted to produce money which they are mandated to use by law, and that government then (audacious in its mendacity and thievery) crushes through inflation once its in our sap hands, 401Ks, and savings accounts. Moreover, think about the infinite ways in which that wealth could have been directed in the free market to enhance entrepreneurship and thus rising, general standards of living. Instead, it’s simply wasted by the criminal cartel most call the state.
Just before the effects of the pill wore off, Elon might then ponder for a moment that there is no Tesla or SpaceX for that matter without gigantic government contracts and legislated rebates. These are more governmentalities than private businesses. Could the same institution printing (stealing) its way out of accountability have placed some pressure on dear Elon to denounce Bitcoin? It is, after all, the greatest danger still extant to the bezzle that is the state. Real, hard currency that actually retains its value and even increases in worth is the silver bullet to the government monster.
I leave the reader to ponder.
