I've concluded that the real problem is that bitcoiners don't understand basic microeconomics. So here's a bit of a primer. 1/

Scarcity is a function of demand, and it affects price. For any good, if demand exceeds supply, it is scarce. That is true regardless of the absolute number of units of the good available for purchase. 2/
Imagine there are 5m Steinway grand pianos in the world, of which 1m are available for purchase. The world's population is about 8bn. So if everyone in the world wanted a Steinway grand piano, they would by any reasonable definition be extremely scarce. 3/
And because of their scarcity, competition for them would drive up their price. Steinway grand pianos would be very expensive things (as indeed they really are) 4/
Bitcoiners will no doubt have followed this so far, because this is their scarcity economics: there can only be 21m bitcoins, therefore only a tiny fraction of the world population can own bitcoin, therefore bitcoin will be very, very expensive. 5/
But suppose people decide they don't want Steinway grand pianos any more, because they take up a lot of room and modern electronic keyboards can produce pretty much the same effect. 6/
There are still 5m Steinway grand pianos. The supply hasn't changed. But now 4.5 million of them are for sale, because those who own Steinway grand pianos don't want them any more. And no-one is buying them. So supply now vastly exceeds demand. What happens to the price? /7
The price crashes, of course. The absolute number of Steinway grand pianos hasn't changed, but there is now an abundance of them, because no-one wants them. So the market-clearing price falls to the level at which Steinway grand pianos are neither scarce nor abundant. /8
So "scarcity" has nothing to do with the number of available units of a good. 5m Steinway grand pianos can be scarcity or abundance depending on whether people want to hold them. Similarly, 21m bitcoins can be scarcity or abundance depending on whether ppl want to hold them.
In a well-functioning market, there is neither scarcity nor abundance, because market forces always eliminate supply shortages or gluts by adjusting the price. /10
So now we know that limiting the supply of bitcoins to 21m doesn't by itself make them scarce, let's consider 100m x 21m satoshis. /11
It should be obvious that the number of satoshis in existence far exceeds the world population. So in theory, everyone can own at least one satoshi. In absolute number terms, therefore, satoshis are not scarce, unlike bitcoins./12
However, the same market forces apply to satoshis as they do to bitcoins. At some price, supply of satoshis equals demand for them, the market clears and there is neither scarcity nor abundance. /13
This may or may not mean everyone in the world owns satoshi. The market-clearing price may be higher than some people can afford. But this doesn't mean satoshi are scarce. People being priced out of a market does not mean the good is scarce. /14
All else being equal, satoshi being available for sale shd increase overall demand for bitcoin, because it enables people who can't or won't buy whole bitcoin to enter the bitcoin market. So the market-clearing price of bitcoin should rise, at least in the short term. /15
Once all those who want to hold satoshi have bought as much as they want, the market-clearing price of bitcoin would fall back to its long-term level. /16
To summarise, therefore: arbitrary limits on the production of goods doesn't create scarcity. Scarcity is a transient phenomenon that is eliminated through price adjustment in a well-functioning market. In microeconomic terms, therefore, Bitcoin is not scarce and never will be.

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I just finished Eric Adler's The Battle of the Classics, and wanted to say something about Joel Christiansen's review linked below. I am not sure what motivates the review (I speculate a bit below), but it gives a very misleading impression of the book. 1/x


The meat of the criticism is that the history Adler gives is insufficiently critical. Adler describes a few figures who had a great influence on how the modern US university was formed. It's certainly critical: it focuses on the social Darwinism of these figures. 2/x

Other insinuations and suggestions in the review seem wildly off the mark, distorted, or inappropriate-- for example, that the book is clickbaity (it is scholarly) or conservative (hardly) or connected to the events at the Capitol (give me a break). 3/x

The core question: in what sense is classics inherently racist? Classics is old. On Adler's account, it begins in ancient Rome and is revived in the Renaissance. Slavery (Christiansen's primary concern) is also very old. Let's say classics is an education for slaveowners. 4/x

It's worth remembering that literacy itself is elite throughout most of this history. Literacy is, then, also the education of slaveowners. We can honor oral and musical traditions without denying that literacy is, generally, good. 5/x
The first ever world map was sketched thousands of years ago by Indian saint
“Ramanujacharya” who simply translated the following verse from Mahabharat and gave the world its real face

In Mahabharat,it is described how 'Maharishi Ved Vyasa' gave away his divine vision to Sanjay


Dhritarashtra's charioteer so that he could describe him the events of the upcoming war.

But, even before questions of war could begin, Dhritarashtra asked him to describe how the world looks like from space.

This is how he described the face of the world:

सुदर्शनं प्रवक्ष्यामि द्वीपं तु कुरुनन्दन। परिमण्डलो महाराज द्वीपोऽसौ चक्रसंस्थितः॥
यथा हि पुरुषः पश्येदादर्शे मुखमात्मनः। एवं सुदर्शनद्वीपो दृश्यते चन्द्रमण्डले॥ द्विरंशे पिप्पलस्तत्र द्विरंशे च शशो महान्।

—वेद व्यास, भीष्म पर्व, महाभारत


Meaning:-

हे कुरुनन्दन ! सुदर्शन नामक यह द्वीप चक्र की भाँति गोलाकार स्थित है, जैसे पुरुष दर्पण में अपना मुख देखता है, उसी प्रकार यह द्वीप चन्द्रमण्डल में दिखायी देता है। इसके दो अंशो मे पीपल और दो अंशो मे विशाल शश (खरगोश) दिखायी देता है।


Meaning: "Just like a man sees his face in the mirror, so does the Earth appears in the Universe. In the first part you see leaves of the Peepal Tree, and in the next part you see a Rabbit."

Based on this shloka, Saint Ramanujacharya sketched out the map, but the world laughed
#ஆதித்தியஹ்ருதயம் ஸ்தோத்திரம்
இது சூரிய குலத்தில் உதித்த இராமபிரானுக்கு தமிழ் முனிவர் அகத்தியர் உபதேசித்ததாக வால்மீகி இராமாயணத்தில் வருகிறது. ஆதித்ய ஹ்ருதயத்தைத் தினமும் ஓதினால் பெரும் பயன் பெறலாம் என மகான்களும் ஞானிகளும் காலம் காலமாகக் கூறி வருகின்றனர். ராம-ராவண யுத்தத்தை


தேவர்களுடன் சேர்ந்து பார்க்க வந்திருந்த அகத்தியர், அப்போது போரினால் களைத்து, கவலையுடன் காணப்பட்ட ராமபிரானை அணுகி, மனிதர்களிலேயே சிறந்தவனான ராமா போரில் எந்த மந்திரத்தைப் பாராயணம் செய்தால் எல்லா பகைவர்களையும் வெல்ல முடியுமோ அந்த ரகசிய மந்திரத்தை, வேதத்தில் சொல்லப்பட்டுள்ளதை உனக்கு

நான் உபதேசிக்கிறேன், கேள் என்று கூறி உபதேசித்தார். முதல் இரு சுலோகங்கள் சூழ்நிலையை விவரிக்கின்றன. மூன்றாவது சுலோகம் அகத்தியர் இராமபிரானை விளித்துக் கூறுவதாக அமைந்திருக்கிறது. நான்காவது சுலோகம் முதல் முப்பதாம் சுலோகம் வரை ஆதித்ய ஹ்ருதயம் என்னும் நூல். முப்பத்தி ஒன்றாம் சுலோகம்

இந்தத் துதியால் மகிழ்ந்த சூரியன் இராமனை வாழ்த்துவதைக் கூறுவதாக அமைந்திருக்கிறது.
ஐந்தாவது ஸ்லோகம்:
ஸர்வ மங்கள் மாங்கல்யம் ஸர்வ பாப ப்ரநாசனம்
சிந்தா சோக ப்ரசமனம் ஆயுர் வர்த்தனம் உத்தமம்
பொருள்: இந்த அதித்ய ஹ்ருதயம் என்ற துதி மங்களங்களில் சிறந்தது, பாவங்களையும் கவலைகளையும்


குழப்பங்களையும் நீக்குவது, வாழ்நாளை நீட்டிப்பது, மிகவும் சிறந்தது. இதயத்தில் வசிக்கும் பகவானுடைய அனுக்ரகத்தை அளிப்பதாகும்.
முழு ஸ்லோக லிங்க் பொருளுடன் இங்கே உள்ளது
https://t.co/Q3qm1TfPmk
சூரியன் உலக இயக்கத்திற்கு மிக முக்கியமானவர். சூரிய சக்தியால்தான் ஜீவராசிகள், பயிர்கள்