Today is Bean Counter Day

The day after the traditional (but not observed) Income Tax Day has been dedicated to accountants and bookkeepers and clerks.

Clerks are insultingly called bean-counters by grandiose executives who want to eat all the beans.

Following today’s theme, clerks are the internal negative feedback mechanism for predatory capitalists. When the exec wants to LBO the company into oblivion, or commit a crime with numbers, the clerk tries to show him what will happen. Bookkeepers enforce EQUIPOISE. The ledger must balance, the scale must null.

When live clerks were replaced by computers, much of the restraining influence was lost. The tech tyrants in the bitcoin world declare that Code Is Law, and they can do it because they write the code. There is no separate Comptroller Department in Sammy’s empire. When Sammy wants to steal or cheat or kill, code says YES because Sammy wrote the code.

The bitcoin metaphor is exact and important. Satoshi’s original code for bitcoin CLAIMS to be a ledger but it is NOT a ledger because it doesn’t enforce a balance. It’s just a one-sided record of the emperor’s mighty deeds.