The Broken Maths And Why They'll Never Fix It
The Broken Maths And Why They'll Never Fix It
The numbers in the UK came out this week and they're worth sitting with.
The UK will collect £331 billion in income tax this year. In the same period it will spend £333 billion just on welfare. More going out than coming in.
For the first time, the state spends more supporting people out of work than it raises from the people in it.
You can argue about why. Cost of living, demographic shifts, structural unemployment, pick your explanation. But there's a harder question underneath all of it:
what kind of monetary system allows this to keep happening? And why does nobody in power seem particularly motivated to stop it?
How the trick works
When governments spend more than they collect, they don't stop. They borrow. When debt piles up faster than growth, they print. When they print, the supply of money expands and every pound already in existence becomes worth fractionally less. This happens over and over again. That fraction becomes a large percentage
Nobody announces it. Nobody puts it to a vote. Your savings don't send you a notification saying "purchasing power down 4% this year." It just happens, quietly, in the background, while politicians argue about who's to blame for the bill.
This is how fiat currency works. Not as a conspiracy, just as a structural feature of money that has no fixed supply and no hard rules.
But why won't they fix it?
Here's where it gets uncomfortable.
The system isn't broken for everyone. In fact, for the people closest to the levers of power, it works beautifully.
There's an economic principle called the Cantillon Effect, named after 18th century economist Richard Cantillon, which describes what actually happens when new money enters the economy. It doesn't arrive equally. It flows first to governments, then to banks, then to large asset owners. By the time that newly created money trickles down to ordinary wages and savings accounts, inflation has already eroded its purchasing power. The rich get the new money at full value. You get it after it's been quietly taxed by inflation.
This isn't a side effect. This is the mechanism. It's been designed, it's deliberate
Control over money is control over people. A government that can print currency can fund wars without public consent, bail out failing banks while ordinary families lose their homes, and sustain spending that buys votes and loyalty without ever having to make the hard choices that sound money would demand.
It keeps entire populations in a state of financial dependency. It rewards asset ownership over labour. It punishes saving and rewards debt. And it ensures that the people at the top of the system, the ones with the power to change it, are also the ones who benefit most from leaving it exactly as it is.
Ask yourself : When was the last time a politician, a central banker, or a major financial institution genuinely campaigned to remove their own ability to create money?
They won't fix it. Because for them, it isn't broken. In fact, for them it works very well
It's not a left or right problem
Let's be honest, every government does this. Conservative, Labour, Republican, Democrat and everything in between. It doesn't matter. Because the incentive structure of fiat money is the same regardless of who's holding the keys (Pardon the pun). This isn't something you can vote your way out of
Infinite money removes the natural friction of spending money you don't have. It makes irresponsibility frictionless, hides the consequences in slow compounding inflation, and ensures that the political cost of hard choices always outweighs the political benefit of making them.
You can't fix an incentive problem by electing better people. You fix it by changing the rules.
Bitcoin changes the rules
There will only ever be 21 million Bitcoin. Not as a preference, not as a manifesto promise, as code. Immutable, apolitical, and completely indifferent to whoever's sitting in Number 11 or sitting in the treasury department
No emergency budget can expand the supply. No central bank can "inject liquidity." No government can borrow against coins that don't exist. Nobody gets the new money first, because there is no new money. The rules are written in the protocol and the protocol doesn't negotiate.
Crucially, nobody benefits from Bitcoin by controlling it. There's no back door. No printer. No Cantillon advantage for the powerful. The rules are identical for everyone, from a kid stacking sats on a phone to a nation state.
That's what sound money looks like. Not complicated. Not radical. Just honest.
So what do you actually do?
Stay informed. Ask questions. Push back. But also, take responsibility for your own financial future in a system that is structurally designed not to serve you. Like I said, they are not going to fix it, they aren't interested in a solution because the current system lines their pockets nicely and you pay for it. For the first time ever, you now have a way to opt out of their corrupt fraudulent system. Bitcoin removes their control over you and gives you the financial freedom you need. Your money, your control
Stack sats. Systematically. Quietly. One block at a time.
Remove yourself, even partially, from a system that treats your labour as a taxable resource, your savings as an inflation buffer, and your dependence as a political tool.
At Satoshoes we're not financial advisors and we're not here to tell you what to think. We make gear for people who've already started asking the right questions, and who want to wear that on their sleeve or indeed let their feet do the talking. Walk the walk, give yourself the freedom you deserve
Wear the message. Be the shepherd that leads the flock to the open fields of freedom
