Most people in society think the government is making money. Like they produce something of value. I have come to the understanding; they are just issuing debt/bonds to be paid by society in the future, against a credit the federal reserve will issue today.

So, before the money printer can go brrrrrrr, the time machine must also go into overdrive, so the future can lend us their production. All this to grease whatever wheel they see fit. Which is rarely the right wheel.

Recently I read Atlas Shrugged, and went down the individualism and objectivism rabbit hole. It made sense to me, if everyone just do what is best for themselves, the rest will work out. Problem is, unless the credit, trade and regulatory markets are truly free, doing what is best for yourself is probably fucking thy neighbor. Everyone must play their hand as its dealt, so I am not judging thy.

I just recently learned that the Ayn Rand Institute, churches, financial companies, billionaires, etc. took low interest loans from the “Government” (we will come back to that) because the profit/savings behind the payroll forgiveness portion made it business appropriate. I’ve heard people justify it by saying:

“We are the taxpayer. We have had many millions of dollars stolen from us. We took some of it back”.

In fact if I thought the upside was significant enough to get in bed with the regulators, I may have accepted a PPP loan myself. I declined based on selfish reasons after reviewing the conditions of the loan.

I had a follower on Twitter rationalize it by a comparison to Ragnar Danneskjold, the pirate in Atlas shrugged, who “reclaimed” (we will come back to that too) stolen wealth from the government, and returned it to the victims.

I’m not going to judge too many SB’s. The way the government issued the loans on a first come first serve basis fire sale, as they simultaneously shut them down, made a lot of people react out of survival, not necessarily greed.

On a personal basis, I am seeing it change the rules of my local construction market. Companies who took the loans have money to burn, they need payroll over the next 24-week period. The loan forgiveness will be reduced if salaries and wages decrease. A shrewd, responsible entrepreneur will use this as a competitive advantage in a slow market, to keep his steady men busy. This is hurting some contractors in the local economy, who did not take the loan. And since the construction work that is being performed in the next 24 weeks was probably funded, designed, permitted and started prior to the COVID shutdown, it’s really not helping create new work, its only causing unfair competition.

Now to go back to loans from the “Government”. The government isn’t loaning us shit, they don’t make anything, and they are in the hole 25trillion plus. They are promising to hold your kids’ feet to the fire to service that debt, until it is satisfied.

Now to go back to “reclaimed”. Reclaim what? Whatever we collectively gave the government in the past, they evidently pissed it all away, so there is nothing to reclaim. We are creating more debt for the collective.

Regulators are constantly changing the rules of the game, making economic actors act in ways that are not market driven, but regulatory advantage driven. Let us face it, if we did not have a fiat debt based monetary system, they wouldn’t have the capability of the intervention.

Anybody who understands a debt-based fiat monetary system, fully understands that taking a forgivable public loan becomes an instant debt to the collective.

The government does not produce or have anything but expenses and liabilities. If you had no other source of capital to pay your employees, it’s understandable. If you didn’t need it, and took it, you can never complain about taxes, entitlements and big government again. You were hoodwinked, your actions have been recorded and published.

Separation of money and state is paramount for good businesses to prosper, and bad ones to die.

Sound money that cannot be produced by politicians is mandatory for a free market economy.

Sound money, aka Bitcoin, has no political ties. We need Bitcoin. It is time to defund the regulators and let actual free markets function.