I find myself hoping that the current circus show will expedite humanity's trip to the "reset button," that being an examination of our core values and realizing that "enough" is a better ambition to live by than "more."

I remember some years back... actually, the last time the financial markets took it in the shorts during the housing/loans collapse a little over a decade ago... listening to some commentator on a financial channel going on and on about "what it would take to get back to NORMAL," where normal meant eternal business growth and profit. And I thought to myself "we don't need to get back to NORMAL, we need to embrace a different paradigm."

My wife and I own our house outright but we grow increasingly at risk of losing it because the property taxes on the same pile of bricks, wood, pipe and wire has been escalating 10-15 percent a year. When we bought it, the taxes were $2,200 a year. Next week, we'll go hand over a check for nearly $6,000... for what? Pretty much "thin air," as far as I can tell.

People say things like "But look what a great INVESTMENT your house has been!" to which I can only say... "but we LIVE here!"

As far as I am concerned, cryptos took an unfortunate sidetrack when people became more concerned with "when Moon?" than the original promise of a non-banking peer-to-peer payment system... a way for me to sell art and buy apples while entirely bypassing the need to be involved with the banking system.

Maybe our real challenge is a remarkable tendency to only think short term. My wife and I bought this house because we wanted a place to live for the rest of our lives, not because we were looking to have "a million dollar property with an ocean view." I got involved in blogging here not because I was looking for a Lambo, but because I felt it could be something like a long-term "drip savings account" that might have some residual value, 20 years hence.

Often, people's behavior makes me feel very disillusioned... but thanks for another thoughtful post!