In December, I had the privilege of attending the Africa Bitcoin Convention (ABC) in Accra, Ghana. As a public well being professor with a background in well being training and neighborhood well being, this may increasingly look like an odd convention to attend, however this journey was pivotal for me because it introduced me to my father’s beginning nation for the primary time and related me to the sweetness and resilience of Ghanaians, their combat for freedom, and cemented my concepts that cash is a public well being difficulty.
Whereas in Ghana, I met extremely vivid individuals from engineers to grassroots neighborhood educators from varied components of the continent and the world, together with a number of fellow Canadians. I additionally had the prospect to fulfill with certainly one of my uncles for the primary time, and we walked round Kwame Nkrumah sq. on a superbly sunny and scorching day. We toured the park the place Nkrumah’s Mausoleum was, and my uncle proudly walked round with me, every landmark and memorabilia, and we discovered about Kwame Nkrumah’s life and political reign because the President of Ghana. I used to be capable of revisit Nkrumah’s story which led Ghana to independence in 1957, a day celebrated by Ghanaians and plenty of Africans, as this present day represented hope and true freedom.
Just a few days later, I toured the College of Ghana, Legon campus, a beautiful and intellectually vibrant campus. Amongst different locations, I walked into the campus bookstore and was immediately drawn to books on subjects of decentralized authorities and central banking, particularly books by Kwamena Ahwoi and Ivor Ageman-Duah.
This led me to mirror on a number of the discussions at ABC about points associated to the centralization of cash. These points made me notice that centralized cash, particularly fiat cash, which is imposed on many voters the world over by governmental decree, is dangerous to public well being as a result of it’s marred by debt, corruption, colonial management constructions, and lack of clear guidelines. What number of thousands and thousands of African lives might have been saved, wars averted, staff, and companies free of financial shackles if cash was not constructed upon debt?
Public well being is finally about what we, as people in society, select to do to guard ourselves, households, and our communities. If we proceed to repeat our previous actions, we feature on to construct public well being interventions on a flawed socioeconomic basis and treating signs of a damaged financial system. Thus, I’ve come to the conclusion that we have to discover the deserves of latest cash like bitcoin so it could actually kind a extra sturdy base layer of society.
What’s Cash?
Cash is meant to be a medium of trade, unit of an account, and a retailer of worth [1]. Nevertheless, our cash right now is way from a retailer of worth. These days, individuals should earn their cash twice: first, work to earn a paycheck, and secondly, determining a method to make investments a portion in belongings or monetary merchandise as a result of their {dollars} lose worth attributable to inflation and forex debasement. This case impacts on a regular basis peoples’ capacity to maintain up with the price of their dwelling and thus negatively impacts their lives and well being in devastating methods. It additionally causes costs of meals and power to rise [2]. Research present that debt and monetary stress is related to varied antagonistic well being outcomes akin to despair, suicide ideation, weight problems, and heart problems [3, 4]. All over the world these well being points are at epidemic ranges.
Traditionally, the economic system of fiat cash and debt has been ignored by earlier analysis [5]. In lots of nations, cash is centrally managed, printed out of skinny air by authorities, and serviced by debt contributing to disaster conditions. Additionally, the foundations of how cash is created and circulated is opaque to the on a regular basis particular person. This hurts working-class individuals who save in cash that depreciates over time. Due to this fact, there’s a want for cash that can not be debased by central authorities so individuals can protect the fruits of their labor. Cash, like bitcoin, might encourage extra low-time desire behaviors the place individuals might actually save and work much less thereby decreasing stress and damaging psychological well being issues related to monetary worries of the longer term.
Bitcoin is public software program code that permits for an open peer-to-peer system of cash that anybody can be a part of and is dominated by guidelines and never rulers. Extra particularly, it’s a new financial community that’s deflationary and counter to the prevailing inflationary system of fiat cash that operates around the globe. For those who haven’t already, I invite you to re-visit Bitcoin and ask your self why you could be dismissing it. Bitcoin is just not “crypto” and isn’t the reason for the scams on fraudulent exchanges like FTX. To find out about cash creation and the ills that it spawns in society, I encourage you to learn books like:
- The Fiat Customary by Saifedean Ammous.
- Bitcoin is Higher by Daniel Hershberger.
- The Hidden Value of Cash by Seb Bunney.
- The Value of Tomorrow by Jeff Sales space,
- Fiat Ruins Every thing, by Jimmy Track, and
- Damaged Cash by Lyn Alden.
Debt-based cash is a public well being difficulty, and we should begin recognizing it as such.
The Well being Affect Pyramid and The Base Layer
In 2010, Dr. Thomas Frieden, an American infectious illness physician and public well being doctor revealed “A Framework for Public Well being Motion: The Well being Affect Pyramid,” a idea that’s broadly utilized in well being promotion right now [6]. In it, the five-layered pyramid reveals a hierarchy of public well being and well being interventions. On the base layer are socioeconomic components which are foundational to creating the best inhabitants impression. Frieden goes on to say that “interventions specializing in the decrease ranges of the pyramid are usually more practical as a result of they attain broader segments of society and require much less particular person effort.”
Given the significance of socioeconomic components, I consider that public well being and well being care professionals ought to intervene to enhance this base layer of inhabitants well being by inspecting the underlying well being of fiat cash and advocating for higher cash. If fiat cash is certainly damaged it can not adequately help public well being intervention. “Revenue” or “dwelling wages” are incessantly advocated for; nevertheless, these components are downstream from cash. Successfully, if we preserve advocating for secondary components to vary when the bottom layer of cash is damaged, it is sort of a physician treating the signs of a illness with out first addressing the foundation trigger.
Public Well being Advocacy
Nearly 100 years in the past, earlier than Frieden’s work, the Canadian Public Well being Affiliation (CPHA) was established as a sovereign voice within the nation with connections to the worldwide neighborhood [7]. All over the world, comparable organizations exist, just like the American Public Well being Affiliation, Africa Healthcare Federation, European Public Well being Affiliation, Affiliation of Asian Pacific Neighborhood Well being Organizations, Public Well being Affiliation of Australia, and Public Well being Affiliation of New Zealand to call a number of. These organizations play an lively function in shaping coverage and public discourse within the area of public well being and well being care. For instance, CPHA performs a serious function in advocacy for bringing consciousness to points that warrant nationwide consideration. Over the previous seven years, CPHA has referred to as consideration to a number of points together with naming psychological well being, local weather change, and even racism a public well being difficulty. More and more, points associated to the social determinants like anti-racism have obtained numerous consideration each nationally and regionally given its associations with colonialism and inequality. This and elevated nationwide recognition of inequality in Canada has contributed to the renaming of outstanding locations within the nation like Ryerson College, which is now often known as Toronto Metropolitan College and most not too long ago there have been talks led by Toronto’s Metropolis Council to rename Younger-Dundas Sq. to Sankofa Sq. [8].
As a Ghanaian Caribbean Canadian, this actually strikes me as a superficial method to handle social inequality in Canada. Sankofa is a time period that derives from the Akan Tribe of Ghana that’s depicted by a chicken that’s trying again with an egg that signifies the longer term, saying “All the time keep in mind the previous for therein lies the longer term, if forgotten we’re destined to repeat it.” [9] Renaming historic and outstanding locations within the metropolis could also be acceptable ought to there be sufficient community-backing; nevertheless, if it fails to handle the foundation dysfunction on the base layer, debt-based cash.
If we’re to mirror upon historical past, cowrie shells have been as soon as used as cash in West Africa. Ultimately, European merchants infiltrated the system and debased the cowrie shells which lowered their financial worth [10]. Whereas the European merchants disturbed the native economies, we have to take a look at the bigger difficulty that no matter race, man’s coronary heart isn’t glad and is lured to need extra. This identical trait is existent in our present centralized financial methods in Canada and around the globe. We’d like cash that can not be debased by one other human being.
The Way forward for Public Well being and Cash
As public well being professionals, it’s essential for us to dig into the problems we stand behind and perceive the function that cash itself performs within the social determinants that impression well being. At the moment, in Canada, common fundamental revenue is a scorching subject, and intense analysis and debate is underway to suggest a nationwide framework [11]. Such proposals by previous presidential candidates in the US and elsewhere have additionally introduced this as much as handle inequities. Election years are at present upon us, now in the US and in 2025 in Canada and public well being and healthcare professionals ought to have an lively voice in defending decentralized cash, i.e., bitcoin, so the free market can select one of the best cash for society.
Public well being and well being care professionals ought to take into account the next three main factors:
- Study concerning the historical past of cash: Learn books, watch, and hearken to podcasts that discover the evolution and improvements of cash and the way centralized fiat cash can result in poor outcomes for society. Some notable podcasts embrace Natalie Brunell’s “Exhausting Cash” present; Preston Pysh’s “Bitcoin Fundamentals”; Robert Breedlove, “What’s Cash?”; Peter McCormack’s “What Bitcoin Did”; and movies by Luke Broyles and BTC Classes (Ben Perrin). Additionally, take into account becoming a member of your native Bitcoin meetup group to be taught extra about Bitcoin with individuals in your neighborhood or take into account volunteering with nonprofits like Bitcoin is Higher that goals to introduce Bitcoin as sound cash to the working class.
- Naming Debt-Cash as a Public Well being Problem: As we enter election years now in nations akin to the US and Canada, public well being and well being care professionals ought to take into account elevating their voices to call debt-money as a well being difficulty. The detrimental results of a centralized monetary system on the socioeconomic standing of people, which instantly impacts well being outcomes, ought to be explored, acknowledged, and addressed.
- Selling Public Discourse on Bitcoin: Public discourse ought to embrace conversations round what insurance policies are wanted to guard all residents’ entry to a decentralized system like Bitcoin. Extra particularly, we should always brazenly look at what well being outcomes and social fairness would seem like if there was a worldwide economic system that drew its financial power from a base of solely 21,000,000 divisible models. Might life, and particularly public well being, be higher?
References
- Manuel Tacanho, (2022) https://mises.org/wire/money-what-it-more-important-question-why-it Date accessed February 17, 2024
- Ainul Mohsein, A.M., Taib, F.M, & Sani, S.A. (2019). Rising Value of Dwelling: The Function of Fiat Cash and Cash Creation. Worldwide Journal of Accounting, Finance and Enterprise (IJAFB), 4(22), 116-125
- Swarup, S. S., et al. (2024). “Cardiovascular penalties of monetary stress: A scientific evaluate and meta-analysis.” Present Issues in Cardiology 49(2): 102153.
- Turunen, E., Hiilamo, H. Well being results of indebtedness: a scientific evaluate. BMC Public Well being 14, 489 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-489
- Friedline, T., Chen, Z. & Morrow, S. (2021). Households’ Monetary Stress & Properly-Being: The Significance of the Financial system and Financial Environments. J Fam Econ Iss 42 (Suppl 1), 34–51. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-020-09694-9
- Frieden, T.R. (2010, April). A framework for public well being motion: The well being impression pyramid. American Journal of Public Well being, 100 (4), 590–595. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2009.185652
- Canadian Public Well being Affiliation, https://www.cpha.ca/vision-and-mission, Date accessed February 17, 2024
- Toronto Metropolis Council Approves “Sankofa Sq.” as new title for Yonge-Dundas Sq. and initiates plans to rename different Metropolis belongings that embrace the title Dundas:https://www.toronto.ca/information/toronto-city-council-approves-sankofa-square-as-new-name-for-yonge-dundas-square-and-initiates-plans-to-rename-other-city-assets-that-include-the-name-dundas/ Date accessed February 17, 2024
- Kwarteng, Appiah Kubi (2016), Journal of Utilized Christian Management: Vol. 10: No. 1, 60-69.
- The Shell Cash of the Slave Commerce, Jan Hogendorn, Marion Johnson https://www.cambridge.org/us/universitypress/topics/historical past/regional-history-after-1500/shell-money-slave-trade
- When might Common Fundamental Revenue begin in Canada, Christl Dabu, https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/when-could-universal-basic-income-start-in-canada-1.6770762, Date accessed February 17, 2024
