21SatStreet

10 / 10 - Conclusion In short, the five worst assets that keep Americans poor are those that masquerade as keys to progress but in reality impose debilitating costs: the high-debt college degree, underwater real estate, interest-laden car loans, credit-financed consumer goods, and fee-draining retirement accounts. To reverse this injustice, we need not wait for grand political reform. We need a cultural shift toward financial literacy, personal accountability, and transparency in every sector that markets assets. We must be skeptical of anyone who sees a crisis as a useful opportunity to expand their policies. We must teach that wealth is not merely what appears on a credit statement as equity or assets, but the ability to weather storms, seize opportunities, and live within one's means across decades. Those who promise easy salvation through high-risk credentials, heavily mortgaged homes, or packaged financial products are selling illusions. True prosperity comes from cultivating assets that generate real value: entrepreneurial skills, marketable trades, low-debt living, and prudent investment. It is difficult, I know, to swim against the tide when the conventional wisdom everywhere seems to be "buy the house in the up-and-coming neighborhood, take out the loans for the nicest graduation ceremony, lease the flashy new SUV, and sign up for that retirement planning seminar sponsored by your local bank." But if every anchor dropped into your boat is cast with the promise of future riches that never materialize, your boat will sink beneath the waves. Americans must wake up to the fact that not every asset is an asset, and that too often those with the loudest megaphones - the mortgage brokers, the college recruiters, the car dealers, the store credit reps, and the investment advisors - have a financial incentive to minimize or conceal the risks. The day someone decides to consider an asset from the standpoint of its total lifetime cost rather than its advertised benefits, they take the first crucial step away from poverty. Because once you see the hidden burdens in your assets, you liberate yourself from the false promises of easy wealth and reclaim the power to pursue your own fortunes on sound principles: safe, sensible, and sustainable. In closing, let us recall that in a world of infinite choices and limited resources, genuine progress comes from prioritizing investments that enhance productivity rather than those that merely inflate appearances. The difference between a true asset and a disguised liability is that the former increases your options when the unexpected strikes, while the latter leaves you stranded when you need options the most. If we allow students to graduate under six figures of debt with no clear path to a well-paying job, if we encourage families to believe that a bubbled-up overpriced home is a sure bet, if we tell working-class parents that a car financed at high interest rates is necessary, then we are not helping them - we are ensnaring them. That is the tragic irony of these five so-called assets: rather than lifting people out of poverty, they deepen it. And it is only by facing these realities brutally and unflinchingly that Americans can hope to chart a new course - one in which maturity, knowledge, and common sense replace the mirage of illusory assets that have kept too many poor, generation after generation, in a cycle that no "new normal" or government intervention can truly break. The time to acknowledge these truths is now, because every day we postpone that reckoning is another day Americans remain shackled to debts that do not serve as stepping stones but as nooses around their future prospects. Recognize the hidden costs, question the assumptions, demand transparency at every turn, and you will have taken the first step away from poverty toward a future where assets genuinely create wealth rather than rob it away. That, ultimately, is how a free people withstand the siren songs of easy promises and build real prosperity on solid ground.

9 / 10 - Addressing Criticisms Some critics object that it is cruel or elitist to suggest that poor families should forgo a college education, homeownership, or a dependable car when those are widely regarded as normal stepping stones. They accuse me of blaming the victim. But the most pernicious cruelty of all is to encourage someone to take on a burdensome mortgage believing it will eventually put them ahead, to promise a college loan without regard for job prospects, or to assure a young family that a new car financed at 25% APR is merely a good deal because "everyone does it." Those assertions are not acts of kindness - they are acts of exploitation, shifting the risk from the lender or institution onto the hapless borrower who lacks the cushion to withstand income shocks, industry downturns, or unanticipated expenses like medical emergencies. True compassion would be to guide families away from decisions that lock them into a future of diminishing expectations rather than amplifying their chances of upward mobility.

8 / 10 - The Solution There is no simple remedy, but there is a straightforward first step: treat every asset with a measure of skepticism and examine its full cost - debt service, opportunity cost, maintenance, depreciation, and fees - before acquiring it. Just as we would not invite a health insurer to decide who gets to see a doctor without asking whether the insurer has a financial incentive to deny coverage, we should not let realtors, college recruiters, car dealers, furniture stores, or financial advisors define our financial futures without demanding transparency. We must insist on clear, unbiased data: - What is the median earnings differential by major, adjusted for debt? - What was the long-term property appreciation rate in this neighborhood over the past 20 years? - What is the total interest cost on a 60-month car loan at various down payment levels? - What is the exact APR on that store credit card, including late fees, grace period changes, and penalty rates? - What are the true expense ratios on each mutual fund or annuity, and how will those fees reduce the projected retirement payout? If insurance companies, banks, and brokers refuse to provide straight answers, then we should take our business elsewhere, no matter how inconvenient - exactly as we would with any other business that treats us unfairly. Of course, individual prudence is only part of the equation. In community after community, often those with the highest levels of poverty, schools have collapsed into ideological voicelessness, unwilling to teach practical skills such as budgeting, contract law, or the mathematics of interest. Instead, classrooms teem with lectures on philosophical self-esteem, diversity, and historical grievances that have little bearing on everyday economic decisions. If we are to break the cycle of asset-induced poverty, we must complement personal vigilance with public education reforms that restore the teaching of civics, consumer economics, and critical thinking. I recall a study in which students who learned the basic rules of compound interest in 9th grade were years later significantly more likely to save money and avoid high-interest debt than peers who had not received that instruction. Yet too many schools regard such knowledge as vocational, trivial, unworthy of academic attention. Meanwhile, politicians tout initiatives like loan forgiveness or home buyer tax credits that merely paper over the underlying problem by transferring someone's debt onto the taxpayer. That is a short-term fix that begets long-term moral hazard. Instead, if we want to ensure that college degrees, homes, cars, and retirement accounts truly become assets rather than liabilities, we must teach young Americans to ask hard questions from the outset: What is the total cost, and can I afford it if conditions change? How does this fit within a broader plan for economic resilience? Alternatives exist - such as apprenticeships, vocational training, public transportation, renting, or low-fee index funds - that can achieve some of the same goals at far less risk. When we answer those questions honestly, we begin to unravel the illusions that have kept so many families locked in a perpetual cycle of pursuit and regret.

7 / 10- The Common Theme When we look at these five pitfalls - expensive degrees with poor ROI, underwater homes in depressed neighborhoods, high-cost low-value automobiles, consumer goods on high-interest credit, and fee-laden retirement accounts - we recognize a consistent theme. Each purported asset diverts resources from genuine wealth creation into the pockets of lenders, regulators, or well-paid middlemen. In a rational world, a family would think long and hard before taking on six-figure student debt for a degree that offers no reliable job prospects. A rational individual would not buy a house that costs more than the income the local economy can sustain. A rational worker would not pour 10% of take-home pay into a car that loses 20% of its value the moment it leaves the dealer's lot. A rational head of household would not sign up for credit card entitlements they cannot possibly pay off. A rational saver would not allow Wall Street advisers to bleed off a percentage of every dollar saved for retirement. Yet human beings are not always rational, especially when under pressure to appear successful, to conform to social norms, or to avoid short-term embarrassment. We tell ourselves that college is always worth it, home ownership is the American dream, you've got to drive to work, everyone has a TV, saving for retirement is mandatory. But we forget that dreams have actuarial tables. Once debts accumulate, obligations remain, and fees erode any hope of rising out of poverty. Politicians and pundits speak of raising the minimum wage or expanding welfare as if those solutions will magically erase the burden of bad debts or declining assets. But history teaches us that policies which subsidize harmful behavior - as when government guarantees student loans with no check on career choice, or when local governments offer mortgage tax breaks on already overpriced houses - simply encourage more risk-taking until the bubble inevitably pops. When that bubble bursts, it is not only the banks that lose. It is the individual who made life choices based on inflated expectations. The dynamic is identical to what we have seen in Greece, Spain, and Argentina. As long as lenders are willing to pretend that a degree or a mortgage or a car loan is an asset regardless of context, the borrower will keep borrowing until he cannot. And by then, all that remains is the wreckage: a shredded credit report, a waterlogged house, a repossessed car, a degree that cannot pay the rent, and a retirement account that can barely keep pace with inflation.

6 / 10 - Asset #5: Fee-Laden Retirement Accounts The final and perhaps least appreciated asset that contributes to perpetual poverty is the retirement account itself when it is loaded with hidden fees, misguided investment choices, or predatory management. It may seem odd to suggest that one's 401k or IRA could work against you. After all, saving for retirement should be lauded as prudent behavior. Yet the average retail investor - someone without the time or expertise to parse mutual fund prospectuses - often ends up paying 1 to 2% per year in management fees, front-end loads, or hidden expense ratios. If a modest investor contributes $5,000 per year for a decade, looking forward to a comfortable nest egg, they might find that at retirement age their account has compounded to only half of what an equivalent low-fee fund would have delivered. Moreover, many retirement brokers incentivize clients to roll over pensions into annuities or high-fee IRA products, earning referral fees at each rollover. In some cases, Wall Street brokers become financial advisors to unsuspecting working-class families, recommending investments that promise guaranteed returns which are in fact deeply opaque derivatives or proprietary funds that allow the broker to extract 4 to 5% of assets under management every year. Only when the investor retires and sees a monthly distribution that is far less than expected do they realize that tens of thousands of dollars have been siphoned off in fees and commissions. Worse, just as the dot-com crash of 2000 or the mortgage meltdown of 2008 taught us, investment risk is not uniform. Small investors who cling to guaranteed products find their accounts frozen, their funds illiquid, and their financial futures endangered when the insurer or brokerage firm stumbles. In other words, a retirement account that most working Americans assume will deliver comfort in their old age can instead become a millstone of high fees, employer match limitations, and even corporate mismanagement - myriad ways in which the promised asset fails to do its job, leaving its owner once again treading water in later years.

5 / 10 - Asset #4: Consumer Goods on High-Interest Credit The fourth asset that can paradoxically trap Americans in poverty is a diverse category of consumer goods purchased on high-interest credit cards or store financing. We have all seen advertisements: "No interest financing for 18 months," "Buy now, pay later" on appliances, electronics, or furniture. What seems like a godsend, allowing a poor family to get a refrigerator or a bedroom set now for only $50 per month, quickly transforms into a financial pitfall. When payment terms mean those $50 monthly payments account for a total of $900 on an item that might cost $600 in a cash sale, along with late payment fees, interest rate surcharges, or penalty APR rates that kick in if even a single payment is missed, then the family ends up paying well over 50% more than the retail price. Of course, the revolving credit account, once mismanaged, can carry an interest rate of 24 to 30% - terms akin to payday loans. Meanwhile, retailers partner with credit agencies that do not require proof of income or a job. Any adult with a social security number and checking account can qualify. The result is debt that escalates far faster than income, leading to a cycle of missed payments, credit report damage, and unrelenting collection calls. Meanwhile, family members, partners, or even grandchildren who become authorized users see a revolving line of credit as an entitlement rather than a potential trap. They rack up small purchases - just $10 here, $20 there - until the bill arrives as a $1,200 shock. What intellectual logic allows a family to finance an expensive flat-screen television when they cannot afford rent? The logic resides in an advertising industry that sells more than just a product - it sells the emotion of being like everyone else. In neighborhoods where keeping up with the Joneses is literally an imperative to avoid shame, the promise of immediate gratification through deferred payment seems irresistible. Yet the moment that bill arrives, all the feelings of security vanish. What the family thought they had - a functional television, a sturdy couch, a modern washing machine - becomes a Pandora's box of debt, late fees, and credit score damage that can take years to repair. In fact, by the time most Americans realize that consumer goods on high-interest credit do not liberate them, they have already dug a hole so deep that attendees at credit counseling sessions warn that the trap is set and the walls have caved in.

4 / 10 - Asset #3: The Automobile Closely related to real estate is the third asset: the automobile. In rural or suburban America, often where public transportation is non-existent, owning a car is less a choice than a necessity. Yet cars are not only costly to purchase, they are also expensive to maintain. Consider a family that buys a used car for $10,000, financed at 8% interest over 5 years. The total cost of that car, including principal and interest, approaches $12,000. Add to that insurance premiums of $1,500 per year, fuel and maintenance of roughly $2,500 annually, and registration fees of $200. An asset worth $10,000 at purchase actually costs the family over $5,000 per year to keep on the road. If that family's annual income is only $30,000, the car represents a staggering fraction of total disposable income. Now suppose that used car needs a major repair 2 years in - an engine replacement that costs $3,000, while the family still owes $6,000 on the loan. Facing the choice of paying $3,000 out of already slim savings or defaulting on the loan and losing the car and thus their only reliable way to work, many families have to choose short-term survival over long-term financial health. At best, they end up downgrading to an older clunker with even lower reliability. At worst, they surrender their car, lose their job because they can no longer commute, and slide further behind in rent, utilities, and other basic expenses. In many states where the juggle of household bills is already unforgiving, not owning a car can be a death sentence for a worker who must drive anywhere from 30 to 60 miles per day to earn that precarious $10 or $12 per hour. Yet for all the talk of livable cities and public transit, nothing replaces the autonomy provided by a personal vehicle in most of the United States. And so cars, ostensibly an asset, become the titanic weight that drowns many struggling families.

3/10- Asset #2: Residential Real Estate The second asset that keeps Americans mired in poverty is residential real estate, specifically homeownership in neighborhoods whose property values decline faster than the homeowner's ability to pay expenses. Home ownership has long been advertised as the ultimate safe asset. "Your home is your wealth," realtors say. "Buy early and watch it appreciate." But property appreciation is not automatic - it is contingent on local economic conditions, demographic trends, and future employment prospects. Even those families with stable jobs saw housing bubbles pop, property values erode, and mortgage payments become unmanageable. In Detroit and Cleveland, neighborhoods that once housed middle-class families now host boarded-up houses that sell for a few thousand dollars, or in some cases even less than a thousand. Many homeowners owe more on their mortgage than the house is worth - what economists call negative equity or being underwater. If you have $200,000 in debt on a property now worth $120,000, you are effectively poorer than when you bought it. Worse yet, foreclosure on an underwater mortgage not only wipes out any hope of recouping equity, it also devastates personal credit for years. Low-income families who believed home ownership was the guarantee of stability found instead that in downturns they could neither afford rising property taxes nor keep their homes. The widely cited subprime crisis of 2007 to 2008 was just the most spectacular example in recent memory. Those homes, assets only on paper, become liabilities - unpaid taxes, deteriorating structures, and stains on credit reports. Worse still, homeowners who stay in declining neighborhoods end up paying for the upkeep through higher insurance premiums and rising utility costs, often without any realistic expectation of a future payoff.

2/10‐ Asset #1: The Four-Year College Degree "Go to college," we are told from the time we learn to read, "and you will get a better job, earn more money, and enjoy a higher standard of living." And indeed, in aggregate, those with bachelor's degrees do earn more on average than those with only a high school diploma. Yet the average wage premium masks dramatic variation by field of study, type of institution, and the debt required to obtain that degree. Consider, for example, the student who attends a private college with annual tuition of $50,000, financed almost entirely with loans. Two students realize that even after interest capitalization, they may graduate owing $80,000 or more. If that student majored in a STEM discipline, landing a well-paying engineering job might indeed justify such debt. But if the major was philosophy or communications and the student ends up in a part-time retail job for which a high school diploma would have sufficed, that $80,000 debt becomes a lifelong burden. Interest payments on the loans reduce discretionary income, discourage saving, and delay discretionary life choices like marriage or home ownership. Meanwhile, the launched expectation that the college-educated would automatically command a high-paying career fails to materialize. Census data from 2018 shows that one in six college graduates is underemployed, working in a job that does not require a bachelor's degree, and many of those underemployed graduates still struggle to make monthly loan payments. Thus a college degree, once the gold standard for social mobility, can become an albatross locking its bearer into debt bondage. Politicians talk about free college or income-based repayment plans, but those proposals do not change the reality that many more students pursue expensive degrees without considering alternatives: community colleges, vocational training, or work-study programs that keep debt minimal. The result is a generation saddled with debt that they cannot realistically pay off with wages expected today, especially when so many entry-level positions have stagnated at $30,000 or less per year.

1/10- I wanted to share this powerful piece titled "The 5 Assets That Keep Americans Broke" by Thomas Sowell. It really made me reflect on the conventional wisdom we've all been fed from a young age about what constitutes "the good life" - go to school, get a job, buy a car, buy a house, and so on. What struck me most is how these five "assets" share a common thread: they're all products designed and marketed by the banking system. We've been brilliantly conditioned as a society to believe these are the essential pillars of success - that without some or all of these, we're somehow falling behind or destined to fail. But the cracks in this financial paradigm are starting to show. People are slowly beginning to wake up to the reality that these supposed stepping stones to prosperity can actually become anchors weighing us down. This is why I'm grateful for Bitcoin, which will fundamentally reprices goods and services while helping us realign our values and principles as a society toward more sustainable wealth-building strategies. Five Assets That Keep Americans Poor When discussing what keeps ordinary Americans from escaping poverty, it is natural to focus on wages, unemployment, or government assistance programs. Yet strikingly often, poverty is perpetuated not merely by a lack of resources, but by the very assets people believe will lead them out of hardship. An asset is typically defined as something of value owned by an individual - an education credential, savings, or even durable goods like cars and appliances. But if the acquisition of an asset entails debt, maintenance costs, or unrealistic expectations, it can become a trap rather than a pathway to prosperity. In my decades of studying economic behavior, I've come to recognize five particular assets commonly lauded as building blocks of the American dream that more often serve as millstones around the neck of the working poor.

I shared this last week in a chat but, I would like to share this on here. It was back in late 2017 about the same time as this video came up that I'm sharing. This was the gateway to my bitcoin journey. I can't say when I started it was purely bitcoin since I meddled with alts but it was jump-started my curiosity. Mind you I was 22 years old and in college. At that time I remember going through some trials and when this came up on my YouTube feed I was already thinking that I was going to make a quick buck of bitcoin. Since then I've learned and unlearned alot about bitcoin, investing , money, and life. https://youtu.be/bTV-bSAL6qM?si=ICZwbqidRcWdzI-C

This here is from a conversation from a good friend of mine that we had awhile back and I thought was explained very well on how the future looks like. One that is based on time value and energy rather than fiat credit based: This will be hard for many to grasp because the root issue lies in how the monetary system and the dollar work. Once someone takes the time to truly understand this, they will see what others see—the root of many problems is money itself. As to summarize what Jeff Snyder said The integrity of a society is proportional to the integrity of its money. Bitcoiners often say, "Change the money, change the world." If you trace the root of all problems, you'll end up at money. The current debt-based system is counter to human nature. It offers rewards before work, while it should be work first, then the reward—like the concept of "proof of work" in Bitcoin. We see this in nature, too. God worked for six days and then rested. But today, we want to rest first, then work, which leads to dependency and costs us more in the long run. In today’s world, the focus is on who has the apples. If I don't have apples, I borrow them. With no effort, I can get a loan, but I end up paying more. We’re shifting to a world where it’s no longer about chasing apples, but about who has the apple trees. The value will come from the effort and time invested in growing those trees, and we’ll need to plant many to truly thrive. Humans are naturally efficient, but the debt-based monetary system has made us inefficient, more like animals chasing instant gratification. In a debt-based system, value is subjective. In a sound monetary system, value becomes objective. When value is subjective, we try to gain it; when it’s objective, we try to give it. Think about the most valuable thing you own—probably your phone. It makes your life more efficient—pictures, GPS, booking flights, renting cars, buying online, and even this conversation. But what makes your phone valuable? It’s not just the device; it’s the electricity and computing power that back it. Similarly, Bitcoin is backed by computing power and sustained by the energy of the network. Under a Bitcoin standard, energy becomes money. Today, people save dollars; in the future, people will save energy. Here’s a real-world example: my parent's house in cost 28 bitcoins in 2020. Today, it costs 7 bitcoins. Imagine what it will cost in four years. Why buy now, when in the future, I could potentially afford more house with less Bitcoin? This changes how people think about purchases across the board. Bitcoin's value will shift how we trade, and people will only want the best products. Middlemen will disappear because they add inefficiency. Stealing won’t make sense either, because a stolen item might be worth more now, but a legitimate item could cost less in the future. People will wait for better value, and time will become a new commodity. In short, Bitcoin offers a way to "buy time" in a way that sounds crazy now, but could soon become a reality.

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