Bitcoin & Public Health: Addressing the Debt-Money Crises

In December, I had the privilege of attending the Africa Bitcoin Conference (ABC) successful Accra, Ghana. As a nationalist wellness prof with a inheritance successful wellness acquisition and assemblage health, this whitethorn look similar an unusual league to attend, but this travel was pivotal for maine arsenic it brought maine to my father’s commencement state for the archetypal clip and connected maine to the quality and resilience of Ghanaians, their combat for freedom, and cemented my ideas that wealth is simply a nationalist wellness issue.

While successful Ghana, I met incredibly agleam radical from engineers to grassroots assemblage educators from assorted parts of the continent and the world, including a fewer chap Canadians. I besides had the accidental to conscionable with 1 of my uncles for the archetypal time, and we walked astir Kwame Nkrumah quadrate connected a perfectly sunny and blistery day. We toured the parkland wherever Nkrumah’s Mausoleum was, and my uncle proudly walked astir with me, looking astatine each landmark and memorabilia, and we learned astir Kwame Nkrumah’s beingness and governmental reign arsenic the President of Ghana. I was capable to revisit Nkrumah’s communicative which led Ghana to independency successful 1957, a time celebrated by Ghanaians and galore Africans, arsenic this time represented anticipation and existent freedom.

A fewer days later, I toured the University of Ghana, Legon campus, a gorgeous and intellectually vibrant campus. Among different places, I walked into the field bookstore and was instantly attracted to books connected topics of decentralized authorities and cardinal banking, specifically books by Kwamena Ahwoi and Ivor Ageman-Duah.

This led maine to bespeak connected immoderate of the discussions astatine ABC astir issues related to the centralization of money. These issues made maine recognize that centralized money, specifically fiat money, which is imposed connected galore citizens crossed the satellite by governmental decree, is harmful to nationalist wellness due to the fact that it is marred by debt, corruption, assemblage power structures, and deficiency of transparent rules. How galore millions of African lives could person been saved, wars avoided, workers, and businesses freed from economical shackles if wealth was not built upon debt?

Public wellness is yet astir what we, arsenic individuals successful society, take to bash to support ourselves, families, and our communities. If we proceed to repetition our past actions, we transportation connected to physique nationalist wellness interventions connected a flawed socioeconomic instauration and treating symptoms of a breached monetary system. Thus, I person travel to the decision that we request to research the merits of caller wealth similar bitcoin truthful it tin signifier a much robust basal furniture of society.

What is Money?

Money is expected to beryllium a mean of exchange, portion of an account, and a store of value [1]. However, our wealth contiguous is acold from a store of value. Nowadays, radical indispensable gain their wealth twice: first, enactment to gain a paycheck, and secondly, figuring retired a mode to put a information successful assets oregon fiscal products due to the fact that their dollars suffer worth owed to ostentation and currency debasement. This concern impacts mundane peoples’ quality to support up with the outgo of their location and frankincense negatively impacts their lives and wellness successful devastating ways. It besides causes prices of nutrient and vigor to emergence [2]. Studies amusement that indebtedness and fiscal accent is associated with assorted adverse wellness outcomes specified arsenic depression, termination ideation, obesity, and cardiovascular illness [3, 4]. Around the satellite these wellness issues are astatine epidemic levels.

Historically, the system of fiat wealth and indebtedness has been overlooked by erstwhile probe [5]. In galore countries, wealth is centrally controlled, printed retired of bladed aerial by authorities, and serviced by indebtedness contributing to situation situations. Also, the rules of however wealth is created and circulated is opaque to the mundane individual. This hurts working-class radical who prevention successful wealth that depreciates implicit time. Therefore, determination is simply a request for wealth that cannot beryllium debased by cardinal authorities truthful radical tin sphere the fruits of their labor. Money, similar bitcoin, could promote much low-time penchant behaviors wherever radical could genuinely prevention and enactment little thereby reducing accent and antagonistic intelligence wellness problems associated with fiscal worries of the future.

Bitcoin is nationalist bundle codification that allows for an unfastened peer-to-peer strategy of wealth that anyone tin articulation and is ruled by rules and not rulers. More specifically, it is simply a caller monetary web that is deflationary and antagonistic to the prevailing inflationary strategy of fiat wealth that operates astir the world. If you haven’t already, I invitation you to re-visit Bitcoin and inquire yourself wherefore you whitethorn beryllium dismissing it. Bitcoin is not “crypto” and is not the origin of the scams connected fraudulent exchanges similar FTX. To larn astir wealth instauration and the ills that it spawns successful society, I promote you to work books like:

1. The Fiat Standard by Saifedean Ammous.
2. Bitcoin is Better by Daniel Hershberger.
3. The Hidden Cost of Money by Seb Bunney.
4. The Price of Tomorrow by Jeff Booth,
5. Fiat Ruins Everything, by Jimmy Song, and
6. Broken Money by Lyn Alden.

Debt-based wealth is simply a nationalist wellness issue, and we indispensable commencement recognizing it arsenic such.

The Health Impact Pyramid and The Base Layer

In 2010, Dr. Thomas Frieden, an American infectious illness doc and nationalist wellness doc published “A Framework for Public Health Action: The Health Impact Pyramid,” a mentation that is wide utilized successful wellness promotion contiguous [6]. In it, the five-layered pyramid reveals a hierarchy of nationalist wellness and wellness interventions. At the basal furniture are socioeconomic factors that are foundational to making the top colonisation impact. Frieden goes connected to accidental that “interventions focusing connected the little levels of the pyramid thin to beryllium much effectual due to the fact that they scope broader segments of nine and necessitate little idiosyncratic effort.”

Given the value of socioeconomic factors, I judge that nationalist wellness and wellness attraction professionals should intervene to amended this basal furniture of colonisation wellness by examining the underlying wellness of fiat wealth and advocating for amended money. If fiat wealth is so breached it cannot adequately enactment nationalist wellness intervention. “Income” oregon “living wages” are often advocated for; however, these factors are downstream from money. Effectively, if we support advocating for secondary factors to alteration erstwhile the basal furniture of wealth is broken, it is similar a doc treating the symptoms of a illness without archetypal addressing the basal cause.

Public Health Advocacy

Almost 100 years ago, earlier Frieden’s work, the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA) was established arsenic a sovereign dependable successful the federation with connections to the planetary assemblage [7]. Around the world, akin organizations exist, similar the American Public Health Association, Africa Healthcare Federation, European Public Health Association, Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations, Public Health Association of Australia, and Public Health Association of New Zealand to sanction a few. These organizations play an progressive relation successful shaping argumentation and nationalist sermon successful the tract of nationalist wellness and wellness care. For example, CPHA plays a large relation successful advocacy for bringing consciousness to issues that warrant nationalist attention. Over the past 7 years, CPHA has called attraction to respective issues including naming intelligence health, clime change, and adjacent racism a nationalist wellness issue. Increasingly, issues related to the societal determinants similar anti-racism person received a batch of attraction some nationally and locally fixed its associations with colonialism and inequality. This and accrued nationalist designation of inequality successful Canada has contributed to the renaming of salient places successful the state similar Ryerson University, which is present known arsenic Toronto Metropolitan University and astir precocious determination were talks led by Toronto’s City Council to rename Young-Dundas Square to Sankofa Square [8].

As a Ghanaian Caribbean Canadian, this truly strikes maine arsenic a superficial mode to code societal inequality successful Canada. Sankofa is simply a word that derives from the Akan Tribe of Ghana that is depicted by a vertebrate that is looking backmost with an ovum that signifies the future, saying “Always retrieve the past for therein lies the future, if forgotten we are destined to repetition it.” [9] Renaming humanities and salient places successful the metropolis whitethorn beryllium due should determination beryllium capable community-backing; however, if it fails to code the basal dysfunction astatine the basal layer, debt-based money.

If we are to bespeak upon history, cowrie shells were erstwhile utilized arsenic wealth successful West Africa. Eventually, European traders infiltrated the strategy and debased the cowrie shells which reduced their economical worth [10]. While the European traders disturbed the section economies, we request to look astatine the larger contented that careless of race, man’s bosom is ne'er satisfied and is lured to privation more. This aforesaid trait is existent successful our existent centralized monetary systems successful Canada and astir the world. We request wealth that cannot beryllium debased by different quality being.

The Future of Public Health and Money

As nationalist wellness professionals, it is important for america to excavation into the issues we basal down and recognize the relation that wealth itself plays successful the societal determinants that interaction health. Currently, successful Canada, cosmopolitan basal income is simply a blistery topic, and aggravated probe and statement is underway to suggest a nationalist model [11]. Such proposals by past statesmanlike candidates successful the United States and elsewhere person besides brought this up to code inequities. Election years are presently upon us, present successful the United States and successful 2025 successful Canada and nationalist wellness and healthcare professionals should person an progressive dependable successful protecting decentralized money, i.e., bitcoin, truthful the escaped marketplace tin take the champion wealth for society.

Public wellness and wellness attraction professionals should see the pursuing 3 large points:

1. Learn astir the past of money: Read books, watch, and perceive to podcasts that research the improvement and innovations of wealth and however centralized fiat wealth tin pb to mediocre outcomes for society. Some notable podcasts see Natalie Brunell’s “Hard Money” show; Preston Pysh’s “Bitcoin Fundamentals”; Robert Breedlove, “What is Money?”; Peter McCormack’s “What Bitcoin Did”; and videos by Luke Broyles and BTC Sessions (Ben Perrin). Also, see joining your section Bitcoin meetup radical to larn much astir Bitcoin with radical successful your assemblage oregon see volunteering with nonprofits similar Bitcoin is Better that aims to present Bitcoin arsenic dependable wealth to the moving class.
2. Naming Debt-Money arsenic a Public Health Issue: As we participate predetermination years present successful countries specified arsenic the United States and Canada, nationalist wellness and wellness attraction professionals should see raising their voices to sanction debt-money arsenic a wellness issue. The detrimental effects of a centralized fiscal strategy connected the socioeconomic presumption of individuals, which straight impacts wellness outcomes, should beryllium explored, acknowledged, and addressed.
3. Promoting Public Discourse connected Bitcoin: Public sermon should see conversations astir what policies are needed to support each citizens’ entree to a decentralized strategy similar Bitcoin. More specifically, we should openly analyse what wellness outcomes and societal equity would look similar if determination was a planetary system that drew its economical vigor from a basal of lone 21,000,000 divisible units. Could life, and specifically nationalist health, beryllium better?

References

1. Manuel Tacanho, (2022) https://mises.org/wire/money-what-it-more-important-question-why-it Date accessed February 17, 2024
2. Ainul Mohsein, A.M., Taib, F.M, & Sani, S.A. (2019). Rising Cost of Living: The Role of Fiat Money and Money Creation. International Journal of Accounting, Finance and Business (IJAFB), 4(22), 116-125
3. Swarup, S. S., et al. (2024). "Cardiovascular consequences of fiscal stress: A systematic reappraisal and meta-analysis." Current Problems successful Cardiology 49(2): 102153.
4. Turunen, E., Hiilamo, H. Health effects of indebtedness: a systematic review. BMC Public Health 14, 489 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-489
5. Friedline, T., Chen, Z. & Morrow, S. (2021). Families’ Financial Stress & Well-Being: The Importance of the Economy and Economic Environments. J Fam Econ Iss 42 (Suppl 1), 34–51. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-020-09694-9
6. Frieden, T.R. (2010, April). A model for nationalist wellness action: The wellness interaction pyramid. American Journal of Public Health, 100 (4), 590–595. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2009.185652
7. Canadian Public Health Association, https://www.cpha.ca/vision-and-mission, Date accessed February 17, 2024
8. Toronto City Council Approves “Sankofa Square” arsenic caller sanction for Yonge-Dundas Square and initiates plans to rename different City assets that see the sanction Dundas:https://www.toronto.ca/news/toronto-city-council-approves-sankofa-square-as-new-name-for-yonge-dundas-square-and-initiates-plans-to-rename-other-city-assets-that-include-the-name-dundas/ Date accessed February 17, 2024
9. Kwarteng, Appiah Kubi (2016), Journal of Applied Christian Leadership: Vol. 10: No. 1, 60-69.
10. The Shell Money of the Slave Trade, Jan Hogendorn, Marion Johnson https://www.cambridge.org/us/universitypress/subjects/history/regional-history-after-1500/shell-money-slave-trade
11. When could Universal Basic Income commencement successful Canada, Christl Dabu, https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/when-could-universal-basic-income-start-in-canada-1.6770762, Date accessed February 17, 2024