Dear fellow Bitcoiners,
I would like to recommend that you learn about Ayn Rand's philosophy of economics and morality. Religion would have you think that you are a bad person by acting selfishly, but Ayn teaches us that selfishness is merely self preservation. Altruism (charity, welfare, alms, tzedakah) is a form of self-sacrifice, and as it turns out is harmful for both yourself AND for the people that you give money. A person never gets something for nothing, and when they receive money and give nothing in return, they give up some self-worth instead.
This explains why countries that have a communist history have such high suicide rates:
Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Latvia were until recently part of the communist Soviet Union. Hungary was communist, and South Korea fought off a communist revolution that split the country in two. China is still communist. ALL of these countries are rated in the top 10 by suicide rate.
Communism is based on the idea that anything that a person produces is property of the government they are living under. Communists believe that the government has the right to take your property from you and give it to the "needy," but then the only people who get free money are those who try to appear to be invalids. Communism creates a society of people who convince themselves that they are disabled- incapable of living except through others.
Why should you care about this? You may have heard about the attacks on the 1%-- that they make too much money. But they have earned that money by creating value for society; they did not take it from you, nor do you have the right to take it from them at gunpoint using the government to raise income tax rates.
If you are interested in learning more about Ayn Rand's philosophies, I would recommend that you read "Atlas Shrugged". It is a long book, but well worth it. A shorter, and less politically charged book, would be "Anthem," which I found to be a fun read.
