Originally Posted by
Nicholas Laureys
The Russians call this банка России (banka Rossii), a play on words speaking to the fact that a jar (banka) is a safer place to put your cash than a bank. And when the 2008 crisis hit, yeah, Russians were withdrawing cash in hordes and buying as many durable goods as possible, like appliances. Experience is probably a more faithful lover than theory.
And hopefully Francesco is following along; you don't need Bitcoin to evade the tracking of the jackbooted the thugs when you've already got cash. But for everyone else listening in, note, as Jenni and others have mentioned, that you need to become an entrepreneur with significant non-W2 income for all of this to work. As long as your paycheck filters through the grubby, DIE-worshipping hands of the government first, in the form of W2 income, yeah, you're probably a dressed-up tax serf getting hit up for protection money every two weeks.
In Russia in 2001 and even as recently as '06, the cops were known as people you AVOIDED, lest you get hit up for bribes or other various blackmail due to your violations of teh LaW. I was incredulous then to think that a policeman was NOT someone you walked up to politely asking for directions, as a tourist would in a 2000's commercial for Times Square. But as seems to be happening more recently lately, the joke was again on me, and the Russkies were somehow ahead of the curve: cops should in the majority of cases be AVOIDED at all costs.