I've seen seeing a lot of content lately about a character named Dave Ramsey. Not quite sure why he's popping up on the timeline so often these days, but it shouldn't come as a shock that most of it is drenched in ridicule. Dave Ramsey is the kind of guy who thinks millennials can't afford a house because they eat too much avocado toast. Ya just gotta pick yourself up by your bootstraps and stop going to Starbucks, boy howdy!
One of the videos I saw the other day was a millennial criticizing the bootstrap-boomer of it all that pointed out the stark differences between the economy now against 40 years ago. It was possible to pay for college tuition back then with a part time job. Now the standard way to go about it is to get saddled with debt, as the price of higher education has skyrocketed by orders of magnitude. Not only that the degree itself has less value today than it did back then. Good jobs are relatively sparse.
https://twitter.com/TheBTCTherapist/status/1721178477389369598
- TheBTCTherapist
https://twitter.com/GoingParabolic/status/1721274902655762651
- GoingParabolic
Yes, that is a direct quote.
There's yet another video of him talking about how now is the best time ever to buy a house and that interest rates are irrelevant. I strongly disagree with that sentiment considering the demographics issue combined with technology. Ironically it will be Boomers that crash the housing market when they all retire and move into smaller domiciles, old-folks-homes, or even the grave. Supply go up, price go down.
The technology side of the equation is even worse. Work-from-home solutions decrease the value of real estate in high-populated areas with a strong job market. When one can work from any location, why not find a cheaper place that's farther away from the main base of operations?
Automation and potentially even 3D printing could easily make building new living arrangements cheaper than ever. Where does that leave the housing market? I strongly believe that Bitcoin will actually steal the store of value narrative from both gold and real estate. While gold is 'only' a $13 trillion dollar asset class, real estate is closer to $300T. Even a tiny siphon from either of these markets would make a huge difference for all crypto assets.
None of this even factors in if hedge-funds decide that real estate is no longer the safe haven like it once was. Property owners dumping their assets on the market can only lead to one outcome.
Thus far the only piece of good advice I've heard uttered from Ramsey's mouth is the ability to refinance a loan should interest rates drop. This is kind of a no-brainer but I'm sure a lot of people out there don't even realize it's the best option given their situation. Taking on a new loan to pay off an old loan is great if the only thing that changes is the APR. A solid financial tactic to be sure.
So I decided to look into it a little bit more and found Dave Ramsey's website: specifically the advice given regarding Bitcoin. It just so happens it's riddled with inconsistency just like everything else the guy says.
Bitcoin, and digital currencies like it, are best known for two things: They’re really hard to understand and their value is all over the map. Just last week, the value of the cryptocurrency market dropped by $150 billion in 24 hours!
If Bitcoin had gone up during that time period it simply would not have been reported or a different time frame would have been picked that suited the predetermined narrative. Clearly this argument is made in bad faith. It's also a little weird that "$150 billion" was chosen because that's not really relevant to an investor who should only care about what percentage was lost. Big number is big number! It's also just a flat out lie going from the September 6, 2023 timestamp.
So, is bitcoin just another get-rich-quick scheme or a legit investment worthy of your hard-earned cash? Let’s talk about it.
The vibe is that this is a totally unbiased assessment,
right after making a totally biased assessment.
Like gold, bitcoins are worth what people are willing to pay or exchange for them.
Along with every other asset known to mankind.
But this statement sets the stage for "backed by nothing".
So we know the argument is coming without even having read it yet.
handled anonymously, making the cryptocurrency scene prime for cybercrimes
Oh nice I haven't heard that one since 2015.
These accounts act as a digital wallet—just upload your information and money and you can buy bitcoins. The process is actually scarily easy.
So even when the ecosystem is streamlined and easy this is spun as a negative.
Nice, that's a new one.
This is a weird, not to mention uncertain, payment agreement
When explaining the process of mining he goes on to talk about how it's totally random and not a consistent source of income... which of course would be totally true if mining pools did not exist, making this once again a blatant lie. Mining pools allow any miner to earn pretty much the same amount every day quite consistently. The entire business model of mining very much depends on this consistency to pay the power bill.
Plus, there’s no basis for a bitcoin’s value and it’s completely unregulated.
Ah there it is!
"Backed by nothing" confirmed
Also both complete and utter lies.
The biggest and most obvious risk of investing in bitcoin is its volatility.
Volatility is indeed the worst part of user retention in crypto. The bear market makes people rage quit and swear off crypto during every four year cycle. Many have lost their entire life savings to it because of greedy degenerate gambling tactics. However, the context of a retirement account counteracts all these bullet points.
Making the claim that the volatility of Bitcoin is bad for a retirement account is absurd. We all know the cure to volatility. It's HODLing over long periods of time. There is no longer period of time than a literal retirement account. The thing Dave says is bad about Bitcoin is actually it's best quality over long enough timelines, making it the perfect asset in a retirement portfolio.
It's easy to refute the nonsense that these doom and gloom boomers espouse, especially when it comes to an asset like Bitcoin that they don't understand whatsoever. However, the main point that needs to be made is that these people have clout. They have respect and they have reputation and lots of people trust this exact type of provable misinformation being spewed forth from their platforms. It's all lies, but none of that matters: people believe it. They believe the Dave Ramsey's, Warren Buffet's, and Peter Schiff's of the world. There's no denying it.
The only real question is how we respond to this type of behavior. Can we really do anything about it? Do most people simply need to learn their lesson the hard way before figuring out that censorship resistance is a guaranteed necessity within the current environment? Maybe it just really "is what it is". All we can do is try to build a better world for everyone and hope they one day see the light.
