Cory Doctorow: Young People Steal Like Crazy

Young people in their 20s steal like crazy. They know the deck is stacked against them, they are bright, and they have no executive function. Cryptocurrency lights up those tender pleasure centres like cocaine.
— Cory Doctorow

When you're young and anxious to get ahead, compound interest can seem painfully slow. "It will take HOW long to double my money?!" Add to that impatience the fact that nearly half of Generation Z and millennials are "obsessed with the idea of being rich."

One result of this generational anxiety and materialism is the surging popularity of cryptocurrencies. While crypto was initially heralded as a way to democratize finance, critics argue it does the opposite.

The truth is that crypto often exacerbates inequality. It gives the rich, technically literate, and criminally minded an easy way to separate suckers from their money.

One way that small crypto investors lose is through outright theft. Cryptocurrency investors lose more to thieves than do investors in any other type of asset, including traditional finance.

Price manipulation is another threat. From the beginning, market manipulation has been identified as the driving force behind many of Bitcoin's dramatic price movements. The emergence of speculative assets, such as the $TRUMP memecoin, highlights the potential for massive financial damage to unsuspecting investors.

Today's quote by Doctorow comes from his page-turner of a book, Red Team Blues. You can also check out Doctorow's newsletter of daily links at https://pluralistic.net/.

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