By Bitcoin 杂志 - 2 年前 - 阅读时间：19 分钟
Why I Left My Legacy News Job For Bitcoin
This is my quest for a rebirth of the American Dream, a lost ideal which glimmers in the distance.
我一直是我母亲的女儿。我的母亲是一位迷人的讲故事者、一位狂热的读者和一位无所畏惧的冒险家，我对她无限钦佩。这正是我父亲曾经告诉我他爱上她的原因，并同意她的决定，带领我们的家人漂洋过海，除了强烈的美国梦愿景之外，几乎没有什么财产。
我母亲从小的愿望就是来美国。我的父母都在共产主义波兰长大，那里饱受战争的敌对行动、政府的压迫、就业机会的匮乏和不断的入侵。我从未有幸见过我妈妈的爸爸，他在她成长的过程中给她看了经典的好莱坞电影，并播下了种子。他告诉我妈妈，美国存在着一个更美好的世界，那里有一种向上流动、机会和自由的感觉。在这里你不必为了基本必需品而排队几个小时。
我妈妈和她的家人每年都试图来美国，申请签证抽签，但直到她 38 岁，我爸爸 41 岁，他们终于有机会带着孩子搬到这里。我父亲当时认为这可能不是一个好主意，有太多的不确定性，但他们所知道的却有一种安慰感。但我妈妈坚持不懈，紧紧抓住对更好生活的希望，最终做出了决定。
My family’s dream never consisted of a mansion in Beverly Hills and a Lamborghini. She dreamed of a modest home in a safe suburb, for her kids to get an American education and perhaps a weeklong family vacation somewhere warm once a year. That was her American Dream.
I was just five when we flew from our hometown to Chicago, but I recall certain aspects of the move vividly. I remember moving into our first apartment outside the city. It had two small bedrooms and one bathroom, and in order to give my brother and I a sense of normality and privacy, she gave us, ages five and 16, the bedrooms, while my dad and her slept on a very uncomfortable sofa bed in the living room. I didn’t fully appreciate that selflessness until I was older.
在学校，同化面临着挑战。虽然我还年轻，可以很快学会一门新语言，而且我喜欢学习，但我讨厌感觉与众不同。我周围的孩子说话方式不同，穿着不同，午餐时带的食物也不同（我不会让你受我母亲包装帕兹泰特和黄瓜三明治的创伤，这本质上是肝酱，而我坐在午餐盒上，表情令人厌恶）。我被称为“怪人”、“外星人”，并被告知我的出生名字娜塔莉亚实际上是美国的娜塔莉 - 那么我做了什么？我改了名字以适应。
但除了社交挑战之外，我在学校取得了优异的成绩，将我的精力投入到学习中，并培养了一种讨人喜欢、讨权威喜欢的性格，以求生存。到了二年级和三年级，我清楚地认识到我们并不像周围的许多家庭那样富裕，而推动我生活的动力将是教育和努力工作。
I saw my parents work morning until night, sometimes multiple jobs, saving everything they could for a down payment and for their kids’ college. They saved in cash, and like many immigrants, they were good savers. My dream, I decided, was not only to be successful so that I could provide for my own family some day, but to eventually make enough money that I can buy my parents a beautiful home so they could stop working and never worry about money. The only thing I ever witnessed my parents fight about was money. And they didn’t know how to invest. It was paychecks and a savings account. Stock market? “That’s for rich people,” my parents thought. And my very well-respected suburban public school did close to zero to expose me to financial literacy.
I probably should have gone into medicine or finance — those were the surefire industries to make a great salary. But as a young girl growing up with the news constantly on at home (Barbara Walters’ interviews were among my favorites), I began to see the world through a rectangular lens and I wanted to become an interviewer and anchor. I wanted to meet important people, learn from them and share their stories with the world.
While I was in high school, my parents had put enough money aside to buy a small townhouse in the area of my high school. This time they had their own bedroom, and I remember a vivid sense of calm seeing them feel secure for the first time in a place they could make their own. I have beautiful memories of my short time in that home and it was there I dreamed of my future in television. My parents felt like they were on their way to having the American Dream, one mortgage and car payment at a time.
我内心深处知道，我决定进入媒体行业让我的父母感到痛苦，因为很少有人能达到顶峰，而且并不是所有上镜的事情都是基于优点的。但我妈妈（虽然总是巧妙地鼓励我成为一名医生）会告诉我，即使只有百万分之一的人能够“成功”，也必须有人成为那个“人”，对吧？她会告诉我，如果我努力工作并且善待一路上遇到的人，那为什么不是我呢。向孩子灌输多么伟大的东西：努力工作，友善，一切皆有可能。
It’s important to pause and remember that during that time, the early 2000s, a local news person made a great salary and had the opportunity to impact their community. A reporter worked with a photographer, an editor, a producer — a nice little crew. There was no social media, citizen journalism, or reporting of viral tweets. So I set off on a path to take Barbara Walters or Oprah’s job and left home to go to college in California.
It was while I was away that everything came crashing down. Just before the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, my parents had taken a second mortgage out on our townhouse in order to start a business my mom dreamed of opening since our immigration: a little Polish eatery and deli market. They had barely finished stocking the shelves, eager to welcome their first customers, when the world was upended as the housing bubble finally burst. My parents had no idea it was coming. The world around them told them borrowing is good. Borrow for a home. Borrow and don’t look at the bubble being formed.
My family lost everything in that crash. They had to give up the new business, we lost our beloved home and they filed for bankruptcy. You can imagine the kind of toll that takes on one’s health and on a marriage. My mom and dad, with their hearts of gold, tried to shield me from some of the fallout, but I knew how bad it was and I was powerless to help.
我也不明白到底发生了什么以及为什么。坦白说，虽然我在其他学科上博览群书，但我对经济了解不多，也从未考虑过美联储和大银行这些年来在做什么，也没有考虑过印钞和通货膨胀的概念。我所知道的是，无论白宫是民主党人还是共和党人，一切都一年比一年昂贵，而我的父母不知疲倦地工作来维持生计，而且这项工作看不到结束的迹象。他们一直遵守规则，但意识到，在危机期间，游戏实际上被操纵了。他们不得不重新开始，他们做到了，没有要求任何人怜悯。我的父母从来没有表现得像受害者或索要施舍。他们只是表现得很累。
I wish I could teleport myself back to that time, speak to my younger self and hand her some books on economics and the history of government money. Ironically, it was the year I graduated from college in a global recession that both my family’s American Dream died and Bitcoin was born — but I, unfortunately, wouldn’t learn about it for many years to come.
I spent the next 10-plus years climbing the ranks in the TV news business. I was in the trenches, covering every issue you can imagine that plagued society: homelessness, crime, political corruption, civil unrest, you name it. The pay was terrible and reporters went from having a camera crew to being one-man bands running around doing the job of five in the same amount of time on a fifth of the income. But I was hungry.
在我职业生涯的很长一段时间里，我负责在一天内转一个、有时两个广播故事，所以如果你算上这些采访和所有这些经历，它们加起来就是对社会最大问题的大量第一手资料。我之所以提到这一点，是因为我觉得这些故事让我对这个国家所面临的核心问题有了一些看法。这些观点基于在微观层面见证和记录我们的危机的原始、未经编辑的经验。
我采访过穷人、富人和名人。我报道过从地方到全国的数十次选举和竞选活动。我记录了人类胜利的庆祝和最严重悲剧的撕心裂肺的痛苦。但最重要的是，我亲眼目睹了人们感觉美国梦正在消亡，中产阶级正在受到侵蚀，而我的父母迫切希望成为其中的一部分。
1970世纪XNUMX年代，中产阶级 占比超过60% 在我们国家的总收入中，他们是支柱，而上层阶级则占了29%的收入。如今，中等收入者的比例已降至不足 43%，而上层阶级的工资几乎占收入的一半。更糟糕的是，美国只有 10% 的家庭这样做。 占有我国近70%的份额 今天的财富。贫富差距越来越大，作为一名记者，我实时目睹了近十年来这种不断消亡的情况。
我曾多次报道过，大量的公共资金被分配到某个问题上，但多年来却眼睁睁地看着它迅速膨胀，这仍然让我感到难以置信。每个政客都声称自己与众不同，他们都热切地同意在镜头前分享他们的谈话要点，并承诺解决“其他人”或其他团队造成的问题。我很少（如果有的话）看到问题得到解决，我知道这一点是因为我会从一个城市到另一个城市一遍又一遍地报告同一问题。
我开始不信任政客，无论党派如何，并看到新闻业的力量充当监督者的角色。在我的第一次直播新闻市场中，我报道并帮助揭露了涉及当地市长的丑闻以及与房地产开发商的舒适付费关系。我揭露了诈骗当地企业主的腐败交易，最终涉案人员因 30 多项公共腐败罪名被起诉。有趣的是，快进七年，我最近在洛杉矶报道了一个非常相似的故事，涉及同样的付费游戏荒唐事。
难怪很大一部分美国公众对各级政府的政客及其意图抱有如此负面的看法。我们是如何发展到这样一个地步：普通人怀疑他们的代表的决定更多地是由他们竞选活动中的人的口袋驱动的，而不是公共服务的精神和责任？这种感觉，仿佛能划破红蓝。我并不是说所有政客都是不值得信任或恶意的，事实上，我确信许多政客都有或至少是出于最好的意图。但这个制度的设计初衷就是为了暴露人性中最坏的一面，并奖励无效的行为。政客常常相当于假先知。
当唐纳德·特朗普 (Donald Trump) 在 2016 年获胜时，我的一些同事和同事感到震惊。但他们的惊讶是那次选举中唯一令我震惊的事情。唐纳德·特朗普为何获胜？无论是恨他还是爱他，他都触动了数千万选民的心，他称这是一群富有的政客（其中许多人已经执政 30 多年）的“沼泽”，并表示，虽然美国确实曾经伟大，但在许多方面但现在已经不再是这样了，对于这个小家伙来说已经不再是这样了。人们愤怒、厌倦，并呼吁改变。无论他的选择是正确还是错误，都没有抓住重点。
当我采访“小家伙”时，我总是想起我的父母。当你将问题分解到人类基本经验的微观层面时，我们大多数人都有很多共同点。我们渴望联系、归属感、改善处境的机会，并且希望感到受到尊重和平等。我遇到的大多数人对成为下一个杰夫·贝佐斯的渴望为零，但我遇到的每个人都希望让自己的孩子过得更好，并为每个人的孩子留下一个更美好的世界。那么，为什么很多人觉得这种情况没有发生，或者在美国这比应有的情况更难呢？
我觉得这是因为我们的货币体系严重崩溃。供应量无限，但只占一小部分。我们的钱正在慢慢腐烂，病入膏肓，它所播下的内乱和分裂是再也不能忽视的症状。我们正在创造更多的钱，更多的亿万富翁，但我们并没有为大多数人创造更多的财富和机会。只有受人为压低利率和世界储备货币贬值的操纵货币体系才能造成这种损害。
这不是红色或蓝色问题。你们收到的那些刺激支票只是金钱不法行为的盛大自助餐中的碎屑，我们在 2020 年 XNUMX 月看到了现实，我们生活在一个家庭和企业的储蓄如此之少的国家，以至于政府 必须 swoop in with promises of free checks to keep the engines running. The pandemic exposed and exacerbated our country’s financial issues, but the problems were glaring even before it. Our nerve endings are exposed and being activated in shockwaves with every news story that ripples through social media.
But let’s not forget what we all have in common. We all want better education, safe communities, more diversity, a place we’re proud to call home, and for the time we put into our jobs to be valued and fairly compensated. We want a sense of peace that the future will be okay. So the solution is in making sure the money we earn holds its value into the future and isn’t stolen out from under us.
我相信我们之所以分裂和不安是因为我们受到了伤害。当瑟曦在红堡喝酒时，我们在跳蚤窝里互相打斗。如果您足够幸运，属于那些从不担心未来财务状况的人，也许您一路上遇到了困难，或者在健康或人际关系方面做出了个人牺牲，以实现成功和财务自由。或者，也许你只是同情那些因金钱和未来而感到压力的集体所受到的伤害。
It was 2017, in one of my local news markets working in a state capital, that I first learned about Bitcoin. At the time I didn’t fully appreciate its incredible potential to be a vehicle for equality and abundance. Some of my colleagues were confused why I would even pursue stories on some volatile internet funny money. But I was very much intrigued and even bought some.
All I really knew is it was programmed to ensure only 21 million bitcoin would ever be created, and there was a decentralized network of people around the world that maintained a record of all Bitcoin transactions in a transparent and carefully engineered system of verification. There was no government controlling the supply and no third parties involved in any of the transactions. Oh, and I also noticed the value and amount of users rising exponentially. What I didn’t realize was that, subconsciously, I was predisposed to the principles Bitcoin stands for. I was on a quest for the Renaissance of the American Dream and didn’t realize I had stumbled upon the solution.
March 2020 sent me down the “rabbit hole” as Bitcoiners affectionately call it. We were on the precipice of what felt like the fourth turning confronting this pandemic and the economy came to a screeching halt. That’s when I picked up “The Bitcoin Standard” by Saifedean Ammous, encouraged by a longtime friend and mentor. Suddenly, the veil began lifting from my eyes. I saw clearly for the first time the problem, manifesting in all the issues I had been covering in my reporting, as well as a possible solution. I began to devour every resource on economics and Bitcoin I could find, spending hours before and after my news shifts and on weekends to learn and contact the legends in the space to share their knowledge.
There are very real reasons why your food and gas are getting more expensive, why a four-year tuition costs more than homes, why retirement is harder to plan for, and why you’re taxed more than ever while everything those taxes are supposed to address, from roads to schools to homelessness, is just getting worse. And isn’t it funny when politicians slosh the public’s money around and offer their public relations sound bites, always blaming something or someone else, and get promoted despite incompetence and lack of measured progress? Meanwhile, their public salaries, their benefits packages and their privileges to cozy up with those with money reflect the polar opposite of what is happening with society at large.
Bitcoin returns us to an economic system based on value and sound, incorruptible money. But until you realize our current money is broken, you will be blind to see how Bitcoin fixes it and the myriad of issues money touches. If you focus on its metaphysical nature of being solely digital and hold on to the false safety of “cash” in your bank account, you will be doing the equivalent of rejecting the internet at its infancy. Do you want to cling to snail mail while people are communicating at lightning speed by email already? The world has gone digital. And what’s wonderful is you don’t have to understand how the internet is technically engineered and coded to appreciate it and get tremendous value out of its use.
I truly believe America is in a situation of such division and angst because most people can’t envision anything outside the current system. We are trapped in a paradigm and have built walls around ourselves and our tribes as a defense mechanism and we don’t realize these walls aren’t real. Bitcoin challenges you to justify these walls by offering a consciousness of what can exist outside the current construct of governance and society. Bitcoiners realized there is a rich, abundant world outside the walls of the current system and Bitcoin showed them there’s no reason to stay and fight among one another for the scraps left within the walls when we can build something outside them that is far greater, more prosperous and more accessible to everyone who wants to take part.
So in many ways Bitcoiners appear unfazed, operating on a wavelength of lightness, astute awareness and hope, because we have opted out of the broken system and are inviting everyone to join.
我和你们许多读到这篇文章的人一样，没有意识到这么多问题都集中在我们的货币体系和政府的权力上，以达到他们想要或认为必要的程度。当然，富人受益，政客也受益。如果您拥有房地产和股票等资产，并且距离印钞机很近，那么 呜呜呜 其实感觉很温暖。但你的孩子能用他们的薪水买得起同样的房产吗？事实是，当前的系统让小家伙被抢劫了。我的家人被抢劫了几十年。
你的钱甚至不值几年前的钱。我不再觉得它除了债务和军队之外没有任何支持，我认为这只是毫无意义的暴力威胁。如果你想证明它得到了政府的充分信任和信誉的支持，那就问问你周围有多少人对今天的政府有充分的信心。我们周围的一切都变得越来越贵。美国从世界上最大的债权国变成了世界上最大的债务国，而我们之所以能摆脱印钞瘾，只是因为二战后决定让美元成为全球储备货币。现在其他人都和我们一样上瘾了。
曾经在美国，我们建立了真正的财富和统治地位。但自从我们取消了美元的黄金支持（WTFhappenedin1971.com), it empowered and fueled something destructive: the rapid debasement of the world’s reserve currency. We began to produce the type of imaginary wealth we see today where everything we buy is from China, hardly anyone owns their home or car outright, credit cards are candy, and even two incomes aren’t always enough. We are a nation in a pandemic of debt.
Sharing the perils of money printing, inflation and our Federal Reserve’s interference in the economy is something I will go into in content independent of this article. Suffice it to say, when I learned about Bitcoin, it wasn’t so much Bitcoin that opened my eyes, but the spotlight it shined on the problems that had affected my life and the problems I saw playing out in my stories every day. If we didn’t need Bitcoin, that would be great, but we do. We desperately need money that can’t be tampered with or inflated by any government or bureaucrat. And when we come out of this COVID-19 pandemic, we will be confronted with the consequences of the stacks of money we created out of thin air, digging us further into debt, and we need to prepare for it.
政府资金助长了裙带和虚假的资本主义。这个术语指的是官僚甚至专家和记者将这种情况归咎于资本主义，在这种情况下，他们人为地压低利率（与资本主义相反），鼓励债务（与资本主义相反），使美元贬值（与资本主义相反），制造泡沫（与资本主义相反）。资本主义），并最终将大银行和大公司从政府资金最初创造的问题中解救出来（你明白我的意思）。
We need fewer bailouts funded by hardworking Americans that shield irresponsible central bankers of their recklessness. We need more Bitcoin, a bailout for us all.
因此，去年我意识到我有一个新的使命和新的目标：帮助人们认识到为什么他们的生活质量正在恶化，以及为什么如果你愿意的话你不能把钱存入银行为你的未来存钱……最重要的是有救生筏。原来我在过去的十年里一直在不知不觉中为这一刻、这场金融革命做准备，它也代表着我希望最终实现我家人的美国梦。他们将通过我实现这一点，我希望证明他们来到这里并如此无私地重新开始的牺牲是合理的。我怎么能做别的事呢？
Bitcoin isn’t internet funny money. It’s not a Ponzi scheme and it’s not a scam. It uses less electricity than your washing machines and your Christmas tree lights. Buy or don’t buy it, but I urge you to learn about it and how it’s trying to immunize us from the financial virus that has overtaken our country.
I have spent more than a thousand hours studying Bitcoin and the history of money. I have probably done some good in the stories I’ve reported over the years, but the good I believe I can do by helping spread financial literacy is far greater. Your money should be enough. The time, your most precious and finite resource, that you spend earning your money should be enough.
Bitcoin 足够。 Bitcoin has given me back the ability to dream a new American Dream.
这是民有、民治的解决方案。它不是由大公司、风险投资家或大政府资助的。它是 100% 有机的。上次发生这种情况是什么时候？它为人们提供了控制自己的金钱和财富并围绕价值重组自己的承诺。它是无党派的、跨国的。它不会让任何一个种族比另一个种族受益。这是平等主义的。在我看来，这是自由、自决的最纯粹的表达。
I am not rich on Bitcoin. I didn’t buy enough, early enough. But I am not in Bitcoin to get rich. I don’t need a yacht or a closet full of red-soled shoes. I’m in Bitcoin so that I can start thinking about my future again without worrying so much. I’m in Bitcoin so that I don’t feel like I have to work until I’m dead.
You should want Bitcoin to survive, because if it does, it will harness technology and innovation to create a future of financial security, social mobility, connectivity, equality and prosperity that we have never experienced as a nation and as a world.
我可以作为公正的证人继续报道我最关心的问题，假装我不知道是什么造成了这些问题，或者我可以站起来，利用我在过去十年中建立的声音和技能并承担这种风险这让我的家人带着梦想来到了一个新的国家。如果不出意外的话，我希望能够激励其他人更深入地探究为什么他们的钱正在失去其力量，并研究一个精心设计的开源金融网络，旨在让人们重新掌握未来的力量。
But the risk isn’t in Bitcoin. It’s in jumping out on my own with no support, no assistance, no guarantees and no formal education in an emerging industry. I’m building an airplane on the way down that I hope will carry me to a future in which I help myself and, more importantly, help many others. It feels so much like what my mother did 30 years ago when she convinced my dad to move our family here, asking for nothing but the freedom to start over and create a future full of opportunity for her children.
这是娜塔莉·布鲁内尔的客座文章。所表达的意见完全是他们自己的，并不一定反映 BTC, Inc. 或 Bitcoin 杂志.
原始来源： Bitcoin 杂志