In "The Fiat Standard," economist Saifedean Ammous argues at length that the United States federal government has been propagandizing the masses into choosing "cheap industrial substitutes" and "massively reducing (its) meat consumption" since at least 1916.

As Ammous wrote:

"...the ADA (American Dietetics Association) is responsible for formulating the dietary guidelines taught at most nutrition and medical schools worldwide, meaning it has for a century shaped the way nutritionists and doctors (mis)understand nutrition. The astonishing consequence is that the vast majority of people, nutritionists, and doctors today think that animal fat is harmful, while grains are healthy, necessary, and safe!"

In other words, even though a meat-centered diet is superior to a grain-centered one, the government and its quasi-private partners succeeded in persuading millions of people into opting for the latter.

Ammous raises the topic of dietary guidelines as just one example of how a fiat standard distorts an industry, but there's another lesson in this story that Bitcoiners have to grapple with:

Even if your product is the best on the market, governments (and other entities) are capable of spreading narratives that persuade citizens to choose an inferior alternative.

If it happened with food, it could happen with money.

A CBDC PUNCH-COUNTERPUNCH

On July 10, 2023, Karin Strohecker published an article in Reuters titled, "Twenty-Four Central Banks Will Have Digital Currencies By 2030, Survey Shows." Apparently, a couple dozen central banks have been making "great" progress in their development of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Strohecker wrote that these central banks have been "working on digital versions of their currencies for retail use to avoid leaving digital payments to the private sector (emphasis added) amid an accelerating decline of cash."