EP26: Jeff Booth Confronts Inflation & Technology

“System problems with the type of magnitude the world is dealing with cannot be fixed by the system creating the problem. A different way of thinking is required.”

- Jeff Booth

 

I have spent the past decade trying to understand why the mental health crisis worsens while stigma reduction efforts and funding for mental health services are on the rise.

I used to think the problem was a lack of money, but what if the problem was the monetary system itself?

 

With inflation wreaking havoc across the globe and adding incredible stress and anxiety to millions of families, I thought it would be worth re-sharing my conversation with Jeff Booth from April of this year.

Jeff and I discuss various themes from his recent book The Price of Tomorrow: Why Deflation is Key to an Abundant Future, and how money, as it is currently structured, is serving to fragment our collective well-being.

 

Jeff’s key arguments:

• Our Economic System is Sick. Our debt-dependent economic growth has created an economic system that is not fit for purpose. As technological advancement accelerates into unprecedented territory, our need for inflation to support this system is being confronted by the natural force of deflation. We need to urgently rethink our approach.
• Technology is an Unstoppable Deflationary Force. The emergence of new technologies, such as self-driving cars, virtual reality, and additive manufacturing, will soon create unstoppable deflationary pressure on this system. Coupled with innovation in renewable energy and artificial intelligence, this deflationary pressure cannot be stopped through our model of currency debasement and debt.
• The Dangers and Possible Solutions. Our current approach is widening inequality and will inevitably lead to the discontent that sows the seeds for totalitarianism. While history tells us that policymakers will probably turn to further money printing and universal basic income as responses, a fuller reset is inevitable. We need to decentralize and fix our monetary system, and we need to confront the deflationary reality now rather than later.

   

  Jeff has become a passionate advocate for Bitcoin as a tool to move us towards a fairer system based on truth and a free market of ideas, a system that moves us from scarcity to abundance.
  
  Fix the money, fix the world?
  
  Mark