The old saying goes: “Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. Weak men create hard times.” History shows us this cycle repeating through the rise and fall of empires. But what most people miss is the hidden accelerant driving the collapse: fiat money.

When money is backed by nothing but political promises, rulers gain the power to print endlessly. Wars no longer require sacrifice, discipline, or even citizen approval. They can be waged on credit, with the costs silently passed down to ordinary people through inflation and debt.

Fiat Money: The Fuel of Endless Wars

In the gold standard era, wars were naturally constrained. Leaders could not print gold out of thin air. Armies marched only as far as treasuries allowed. But fiat money changed the equation. With central banks ready to conjure trillions, politicians discovered a cheat code: wars became opportunities, not burdens.

Wars justify massive spending, and massive spending justifies more money printing. And who benefits first from the freshly printed trillions? Not the citizens asked to “tighten their belts,” but the politically connected insiders — banks, contractors, and bureaucrats — riding the wave of the Cantillon effect.

The Cantillon Effect in Action

The Cantillon effect explains that those closest to the money spigot — governments, bankers, and defense contractors — receive the new money first. They spend it before prices rise. By the time it trickles down to the average worker, inflation has eaten away wages and savings.

That is why wars are so attractive in a fiat system:

• They provide the excuse for unlimited spending.

• They funnel newly printed money directly into the hands of the politically connected.

• They leave behind debt that ordinary citizens must carry for generations.

Take today’s European response to the war in Ukraine:

“Europe will spend $100B it doesn’t have → on weapons America doesn’t have → to arm soldiers Ukraine doesn’t have.”

This is not strategy. It is monetary alchemy disguised as foreign policy. The war is already lost, but the debt remains. Bureaucrats burn your future while pretending they’re saving one.

The Weakening of Civilizations

The cycle is clear. Hard times once forged strong societies. Strong men built abundance. But fiat allows weak leaders to mask decline with paper promises. Instead of confronting reality, they finance illusions — forever wars, bloated welfare, endless debt. The people grow weaker, more dependent, more divided.

History’s empires did not fall only from luxury. They fell from corrupted money. Rome debased its silver. The French monarchy bankrupted itself. Today, fiat currency funds both decadence at home and destruction abroad.

Breaking the Cycle

Fiat ensures that hard times are never far away. But there is an alternative. Bitcoin is money that cannot be printed, manipulated, or debased. It ends the war-inflation cycle by restoring discipline to governments and sovereignty to individuals.

Strong men are not created by endless money printing. They are created by responsibility, truth, and the restraint of hard money.

The fiat cycle ends with collapse. The Bitcoin cycle begins with freedom.