Edgar T King on Nostr: Maybe the combination of your perspective of prisons and how it relates to: our fiat ...

Maybe the combination of your perspective of prisons and how it relates to: our fiat system

Another suggested topic I would like to cover briefly is how the prison system relates to our fiat system.

I will refer to prison being a microcosm, again. Much like life on the outside many people on the inside work and use dollars. Some states pay inmates a base stipend to ensure they can purchase hygiene items. If they have enough fiat they can also purchase food above what is provided, leisure items, art supplies, etc...

Now you always have those that have alienated themselves from family and other inmates, refuse to work, malinger, or want to live a lifestyle above what money they receive ($). They will turn to "trading and trafficking" which is another way to say barter-system. There will always exist a "black-market" inside and outside of prison. Inside the system any value exchange outside the permitted system is black-market, there is no grey-market.

If you've ever watched a prison-show on TV, you'll know that drugs are an ever-present issue that are traded. You could consider the one who control the inflow of drugs as an equivalent to crypto (excluding btc). If you cut the head off the snake, so to speak, the customers have to wait for the new "shitcoin" to roll out.

Some prison systems will shoot themselves in the foot and give every inmate the ability to acquire a valued item to trade, like a pre-stamped envelope. This can become a decentralized currency, that everyone will have access to, and there would be no way to stop trade using it as a token of value. (like btc). Similarly, they have the ability to gain that value with no input of fiat money. But, inevitably someone has to make that initial conversion of fiat into that decentralized currency,... what could be considered a "miner" would be an inmate who finds a way to steal those items without being caught, he brings the valued item into the system without a direct fiat exchange. (kind of a proof of work concept).

This is my opinionated comparison of our fiat system with the system inside prisons, your mileage may vary.

Now on the opposite side (the cost) of the spectrum, the prison system is a fiat suckhole. You can go to various prison system websites and see how much they spend to keep people incarcerated. If they are a state-run prison, you can also find the salaries of the employees. Private-run systems are less "transparent" about how much they pay their workers. It becomes frustrating to see how much money is spent to keep people in prison, provide them services, provide them programs, give them overpriced medical care, etc... the argument could be raised that they "deserve" all those things and more, but that is an entirely different conversation.

I hope this has been a fruitful rambling, and given you at least one new thought to ponder.

#grownostr
#prisonthinking