Your paycheck buys less every year. Housing prices soar out of reach. And when you do manage to “gain” by holding hard assets, the government shows up with a tax bill in hand. On the surface, this feels like the normal grind of life in the modern world. But this should be the norm, because it’s theft.

The truth is, what we’re really exchanging is not just money. We’re exchanging our time, our finite life energy, for currencies that governments can print out of thin air. And then, to add insult to injury, they tax us on the very erosion they’ve caused.

Time as the Real Currency

Money is not the true store of value. Time is. It’s the one resource we can never replenish. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.

Every job, every paycheck, every side hustle is an exchange of life energy for fiat. You trade hours of your finite existence for paper (or digital entries) that politicians and bankers can create at will in unlimited supply. As Jack Mallers put it, “No man should work for something another man can print.” Yet here we are, an entire society working our useful lives away for paper claims while the money printers hum nonstop.

If money is abundant because it can be conjured at will, but your time is absolutely scarce, who’s winning that trade?

Inflation: The Silent Thief

Inflation is sold to us as “healthy” for the economy. The truth is simpler: inflation is theft, a way to siphon off the value of your labor without ever sending you a bill.

When governments print more money, prices rise. That’s not an accident, it’s baked into the design. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that what cost $1 in 1971 costs over $7 today. In other words, your time and your productive life energy is worth less every year if you measure it in dollars.

An unfortunate reality of the system not being broken, but rather working as intended, is that wages almost never keep up. Real wages (inflation-adjusted) in the U.S. have barely grown since the 1970s. So, while the money printer runs hot, your life energy gets discounted year after year.

Taxation on Illusory Gains

Here’s the kicker: after inflation has already stolen purchasing power from your paycheck, the government comes back for another round.

Hard assets like homes or real estate seem to “go up in value.” But in truth, they’re just being measured against a dollar that buys less and less. A house that “doubled in value” over 20 years often isn’t any more valuable or scarce - it’s just priced in a currency that’s constantly being devalued.

Yet governments tax those “gains” as if they’re real. You work, you save, you buy, you hold, and then you get punished with capital gains tax on the illusion of profit. First the system steals through inflation, then it taxes you on the fake winnings. Double theft.

The Life Energy Equation

Think of it like this:

• You pour your time (life energy) into a bucket to fill it with so-called “money.”

• The government drills holes in the bottom of the bucket with man-made inflation.

• As it drains from the bottom, they also scoop from the top with taxes.

And the harder you work, the faster the treadmill runs. This isn’t a broken system - it’s working as designed.

Breaking the Cycle

The fiat matrix relies on you staying staked to the system, convinced you can run fast enough to outpace the leaks. But the truth is, the system is rigged so that you can’t.

The way forward isn’t found in working more hours, buying into the stock market casino, or begging politicians for “sound policy.” The only way forward is opting out of the system entirely.

• Hard assets like real estate and gold can preserve value better than fiat, but they still live in a world denominated in dollars.

• Bitcoin, on the other hand, is fundamentally different. With a fixed supply of 21 million, no one can debase it with the push of a button. It’s money that can’t be printed, inflated, or stolen by design.

At a deeper level, breaking the cycle means recognizing your life energy is sacred. Don’t let it be endlessly siphoned by a system that punishes savers, erodes wages, and taxes phantom profits.

Closing Thoughts

We only get one life. Every hour you spend working is an exchange of irreplaceable life energy for monopoly money controlled and corrupted by the few. As long as you measure that energy in fiat, you’re trapped on a treadmill that speeds up the harder you run.

The question you have to ask yourself is simple: how much of your life energy are you willing to let be stolen?

It’s time to unsubscribe from the theft, reclaim sovereignty over your time, and to break your stake to a corrupted fiat matrix.

Jake Galt