Bitcoin: Globalization for the People

Globalization - it's a dirty word. The free-trade agreements and corporate-friendly legislation associated with globalization allow businesses to thrive in new, world-wide markets for products and services. CEOs are able to call upon the cheapest labour from countries with the lowest standards of living, dodge environmental regulations, and set up their headquarters where tax laws are the most favourable.

Meanwhile, individuals are feeling the pain. The 99%, as coined by the Occupy movement, have become pawns in a game of corporate chess. For those of us lucky enough to make a decent income, goods have become cheaper (in more ways than one), but at a huge cost to others. Our co-humans around the world are hurting as they pocket their pennies for back-breaking, unsafe labour, and as they stew in the environmental catastrophes that are their cities and countries.

Why, you must be wondering by now, is it so easy for a business to employ thousands of labourers, move tonnes of goods, and exchange billions in currency, without regard for borders, yet you can't send Uncle Carlos in Argentina $20 without jumping through more hoops than a Barnum & Bailey white tiger while getting your wallet pillaged like a father with three teenaged daughters?

Imagine, for a moment, that there was some mysterious, magical method for an individual to move any quantity of money, across any border, instantly, for less than a penny (now bear with me, because you're probably beginning to think I'm crazy). Imagine if that method did not involve a central authority, and was not associated with a bank, a corporation, or a government?

If such a thing existed, people would become globalized. Just as a glacier melts to fill canyons and valleys with water, the wealth of the world would begin to flow freely, not among a select elite, but between all of us. The trickle-down economy would turn into a raging river, and yes, all of the boats would float.

What if a sweatshop in Thailand could sell their jeans, not for $1.50 each to Gap, but for $15 each over the Internet, and receive the entire $15? It would no longer be a sweatshop. What if a child in the Philippines could go to school and be fed because his aunt in Vancouver can send home $10 a week, and he could get the whole $10? Do you see how the standard of living would increase everywhere, and not just for the fee collectors and corporations?

Unfortunately no one had invented such a thing... until now.

Bitcoin: it's Globalization for the People. Got coins?

Posted in: developing countries,inevitability,why bitcoin