J.D. Vance's Vice Presidential Candidate Journey: A Dirge of Poverty and Right-Wing Culture of Bitcoin

Author: Deep Tide TechFlow

On July 15, Trump selected Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate for the 2024 presidential election.

In an instant, social media was flooded with posts.

On one hand, J.D. Vance is a cryptocurrency enthusiast.

According to his disclosed personal financial report, as of 2022, he owned Bitcoin worth between $100,000 and $250,000 on Coinbase.

J.D. Vance has repeatedly expressed support for cryptocurrency. In 2022, when the Canadian government froze the bank accounts of individuals involved in the Ottawa truckers' protest, he posted: "This is why cryptocurrency is thriving; if your political views are wrong, the government will cut off your access to banking services."

Additionally, he has criticized SEC Chairman Gary Gensler for being overly politicized in his regulation of cryptocurrency.

On the other hand, many people, including the author, have read J.D. Vance's work "Hillbilly Elegy." After reading this book, you may understand why Trump was elected in 2016.

In the common perception, when discussing the internal conflicts or discontent within American society, people often think of Black and Latino communities, but the reality is different. According to a survey, white working-class individuals are the most pessimistic group in America.

Vance has been a part of this underclass since childhood. He was born in a poor town in America's "Rust Belt," to an ordinary working-class family.

Globalization led to the outsourcing of manufacturing, and the industries that once sustained them rapidly declined. Locals found themselves trapped in a vicious cycle: their parents were poor, struggled with alcoholism, drug abuse, and domestic violence, and then passed these issues on to the next generation.

A life devoid of future and hope filled them with resentment and anger, and their struggles for survival hardened their thinking. Especially for young people, filled with passion yet lacking social connections, even if they wanted to seek change, they had no guidance on how to start. Thus, they were forced to repeat their parents' paths, and no amount of effort could change their fate. Born into poverty, inheriting poverty, "it haunts the locals like original sin throughout their lives."

Vance's childhood was quite tumultuous; not only did his father leave, but his mother was also trapped in addiction to drugs and alcohol. Fortunately, Vance's grandmother not only loved him but also had the foresight to create a relatively stable family environment for him, doing her best to prevent the hardships of the previous generation from repeating with her grandson. After his mother was sent to rehab, Vance spent three years with his grandmother, who provided him with a warm and harmonious home.

His grandmother encouraged Vance to change his fate through education: "If you want a job that allows you to spend weekends with your family, you have to go to college and achieve something."

After graduating from high school, Vance received admission letters from Ohio State University and Miami University. However, for a student from a poor background, college expenses were an unbearable burden, so he decided to take a detour and joined the Marine Corps.

After returning from the military, he went back to campus, but to pay for tuition, Vance had to work multiple part-time jobs. Until August 2009, Vance graduated with honors from Ohio State University.

Not long after, Vance received an admission letter from Yale Law School, along with a full scholarship. At Yale, Vance met a significant mentor in his life—Amy Chua, the author of "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother," who was then a professor of contract law.

Chua was very interested in Vance's experiences and strongly encouraged him to write about his rural life in Ohio. Initially, Vance was very resistant to the idea of writing a book, but later he began to write some pieces for Chua, who responded positively to them.

Chua then introduced Vance to a literary agent, and thus Vance's writing career began.

In 2016, "Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis" was officially published, coinciding with Trump's campaign, and it briefly topped the Amazon book sales chart in the U.S. New York Times critic Jennifer Senior wrote: "Vance offers a compassionate and insightful sociological interpretation, analyzing how the white underclass propelled Trump's rise."

Trump's son, Donald Jr., loved the book, and he and Vance later became good friends. Although at that time, Vance was still a "black fan" of Trump, having criticized him as a "complete liar" and "idiot," comparing him to "America's Hitler," during this year's Republican primaries, Vance referred to Trump as the "greatest president" he had ever encountered.

From the underclass to bestselling author/senator, Vance's story is like the American Dream played out on screen.

However, in a TED talk, Vance stated: "For those of us who have achieved the American Dream, the demons we experienced are always lurking just behind us, relentlessly pursuing us. Even if I have some talent, if it weren't for the rescue of many loving people, that talent would have been wasted."

Perhaps, as Vance said, his success has a degree of luck and the help of benefactors, just a fish that slipped through the net in the survival game.

Kindness is often abstract, while evil is concrete and clear. For the poor at the bottom, poverty is like original sin, rooted in the dark corners of the world and the soul. Being born into poverty leads to information isolation, rigid thinking, and a lack of proper judgment, making it difficult to recognize opportunities and utilize social resources, while being mocked as "a bunch of lazy fools." This cycle of poverty and helplessness is passed down through generations, silently growing into quagmires that consume the futures of the unfortunate.

So, what does this have to do with Bitcoin?

Believe me, there is not a poor person who does not like Bitcoin, unless he is Lang Xianping.

From an ideological perspective, Bitcoin has carried a "libertarian" right-wing value orientation since its inception. As a vanguard of the current American right, Vance's fondness for Bitcoin is understandable.

In the 18th century, economist Richard Cantillon proposed a famous theory, later known as the Cantillon Effect. In short, those who receive money first benefit more than those who receive it later.

Printing money makes the rich richer and the poor poorer, because when a large amount of new money is injected into an economy, the first recipients, namely the rich, can spend that money before prices rise, such as investing in real estate, precious metals, and art.

When this money slowly flows into the hands of the poor (if there is any left), it will significantly depreciate due to the inflation effect of money printing. As prices rise, the income of the rich increases, and the value of their assets also grows, while the relative income of the poor decreases due to soaring living costs.

This may be one of the inherent flaws of capitalism. Almost all current economies view money printing as the ultimate solution to problems, and it is effective in the short term.

For the poorest at the bottom of society to seize power from the 1%, there is only one way: to eliminate their ability to manipulate fiat currency.

Can Bitcoin challenge the centuries-old monetary hegemony of capitalism without bloodshed?

If the core of Bitcoin is freedom, will it ultimately exacerbate or alleviate inequality?

I don't know. At this moment, I suddenly think of a line from "Dying to Survive": There is only one disease in this world, the disease of poverty.