Bitcoin is Anti-War
Hard money is the bane of warmongering.
In my article about Jeff Bezos, I talked about how the money printer heavily favors those close to it via the Cantillon Effect. When we delve into the mechanics, it’s easy to see how pouring money into Wall Street coffers adds to inequality, but what about the military?
Defense is the second biggest annual cost for the United States, second only to interest payments on national debt. Let’s examine the relationship between easy money and hell on earth.
War Is a Racket
In 1931, Major General Smedley D. Butler retired from the United States Marine Corps. During his time serving his country, he had helped the United States secure their interests in Mexico, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Haiti, among others. He was so troubled by money’s relationship to war that, quickly after his retirement, he went on a tour to give a speech named “War Is a Racket”. He also wrote a short book on the topic, which I highly recommend you read.
“War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious.”
“It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.”
The racket Butler described was one of powerful elites profiting from military manufacturing, and using military force to support United States and private interests, all while providing kickbacks to those who control the purse-strings and propaganda.
This wasn’t a problem unique to 1930… it is just as much a problem today. I’m not only referring to the latest situation with Venezuela, either. Since 9/11, at least 950,000 people have died as a direct or indirect result of United States military action in support of the US Petrodollar system. Actions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Pakistan, and Libya cost the lives of almost a million people, combatant and civilian both.
And what did all of this blood buy us? It bought the US a little more power, a little more value, for a little longer. Despite these actions, the US Dollar has still lost 91% of its value since 1970. Inasmuch as anyone can put a value on human life, I think we can all agree that this was absolutely not “worth it”.
When we attach the value and stability of a currency to a nation’s imperial successes, we incentivize terrible things. Not only in terms of souls lost, but also in the resources that it takes to undertake these campaigns and maintain the war machine.
Tanks Could Be Cars
I know this sounds a little flower-power, but there is some truth to it. We have already been learning about how money printing dilutes your value, but let’s apply it directly to the military.
The money that goes to the Department of Defense doesn’t dissolve into the ether, it gets given to well-connected businesses, and then it gets spent into the economy. When an F-35 fighter jet gets built, it takes (very) roughly the same amount of raw materials as 10 Honda Civics. The currently in production Ford-class aircraft carrier uses roughly the same amount of steel as 50,000 Honda Civics. This increased demand causes increased prices for anything that uses that steel, including cars, busses, and farming equipment (which then increases food prices).
US Defense spending is budgeted at ~$1 trillion for 2026 (source). Where does that money come from? In 2025, it’s expected that the US government will have collected about $5.5T in taxes, but the deficit for that same year is expected to be around $1.7T.
The new money printed to cover the difference (i.e. the debt that the bond market doesn’t take up and which the Fed is then forced to monetize) competes with the same dollar that we spend our life-hours earning.
The war machine is inflationary. It steals our time, resources, and productivity, and throws it all into a big black box labeled “Defense”, the contents of which get divvied up between a relatively small number of powerful, and very well paid, contractors.
You Want Me To Pay For War? Convince Me.
Printing money has been the preferred way to pay for wars since time immemorial. People will generally support defense spending well enough, because that’s an easy sell: “Want to feel safe in your own country? Then pay up.” But what about expansionary wars? Strategic wars? Wars to support your monetary hegemony? Those are a much more difficult sell.
Imagine a politician saying “We’re going to send your sons and daughters to die in a war that you probably aren’t too supportive of, and we’re also going to increase your taxes for the privilege.” It would be political suicide, so they don’t do that. They don’t ask your permission, they don’t take anything from you directly, they take it through invisible debasement of your money.
If a nation’s currency is based on a sound money standard, it reduces the power of the government to go to war without the people’s permission. People will tolerate the amount of taxation requisite for what they consider to be adequate safety and / or expansion. The Pentagon failed its 8th consecutive audit in 2025. That wouldn’t fly for long if every dollar spent there had come directly from the pocket of a taxpayer.
War is a fact of life, unfortunately. We will always need defense spending, and we will always need the ability to respond to true threats in the world. While I would love to say that a world on a Bitcoin standard would be all sunshine and rainbows, the truth is that the best we can hope for is accountability and transparency to the true cost of war; all of the lives ended to prop up the Petrodollar system, the trillions of invisible dollars spent forging swords instead of plowshares, and the inflation which continues to accelerate and make our lives more difficult by the day.
Vote for peace through hard money. Buy Bitcoin and be excellent to each other.