What Bitcoin, Amazon, and a fentanyl bust have in common

A few headlines caught my attention today, and they all share a common theme. All published by CBS News, these reports involve cutting-edge current events. I’ll briefly cover each story—see if you can spot the overlap. 

Mexico makes its largest fentanyl seizure

Recently, incoming president Donald Trump threatened a 25 percent tariff on Mexico if they didn’t crack down on drugs and illegal immigration. A 25 percent tariff would likely erode both the US and Mexico’s economy. However, this week, Mexico made its largest seizure of fentanyl in its history. 

Fentanyl is responsible for over 80,000 overdose deaths in 2023. Some analysts think the timing of this seizure is no coincidence. The threat of such a tariff might have helped galvanize the Mexican administration to crack down.

Amazon contractors have poor safety records

In 2020, Amazon delivered a record-breaking 1.5 billion packages during the Christmas season. Most people know Amazon for its quick delivery, efficient return system, and massive online shopping selection. In 2022, College freshman Iliana Velez died after being struck by an Amazon-contracted company’s delivery truck (not an Amazon-owned delivery truck). 

Her family filed a lawsuit, arguing that the contractor ignored the driver’s poor record. In 2024, CBS News followed up and investigated Amazon’s safety record. They found that Amazon contractors have a “consistently higher [rate of] safety violations” than other companies, including an unsafe driving rate 89 percent higher than the average of other carriers.

Bitcoin tops $100,000

This week, Bitcoin topped $100,000 per token for the first time. As CBS News writes, this is due to the rationale that “the incoming administration will be friendlier toward—and relax regulations on—cryptocurrencies.” Bitcoin dipped dramatically to around $17,000 in 2022 when the crypto exchange FTX collapsed, with its notorious founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, in prison. After the FTX disaster, the SEC Chair, Gary Gensler, emphasized the need for regulation of digital asset fraud. 

The incoming administration has announced a new SEC chair who will likely loosen cryptocurrency regulation. Hence, Bictoin’s spike in price after Trump’s win in November, but also potentially a higher chance of fraud.

The common denominator: Trade-offs 

Can you spot the common theme? These three stories are tied together by the principle of trade-offs. 

• A tariff can damage economies and hit the pockets of everyday Americans, but a threat of one could slow the flow of Fentanyl.
• Amazon provides unparalleled convenience—unthinkable twenty years ago and unimaginable a century ago. However, it comes at the cost of cardboard waste and famously problematic working environments.
• Finally, Bitcoin’s surge might come at the risk of higher rates of cryptocurrency fraud.

Calculating trade-offs is one of the most common applications of wisdom and discernment, two priceless qualities of biblical character. Wisdom is cultivated and learned. The Bible is not a comprehensive list of “dos” and “don’ts,” especially for things like 21st-century policy in a democratic Republic. 

Of course, that doesn’t mean the Bible has nothing to say about 21st-century policy. Rather, it’s through the movement of the Spirit, humbly unpacking biblical principles, and fellowship with faithful community that we learn God’s Word for our time. Prayer, in particular, should feature in our discernment-seeking. 

And such discernment is particularly needed when the tradeoffs make more sense in God’s accounting than in ours. 

Sacrifice and David’s failure

While life and politics may pose many trade-offs requiring wisdom and discernment, sometimes we’re simply called to sacrifice. In 2 Samuel 24, David sins by creating a census to count his army’s strength. David confesses his sin, but God still requires a consequence. God says David must pick between three punishments. 

Essentially, David chooses selfishly, saying, “Let me not fall into the hand of man” (24:14). As a result, tens of thousands of Israelites die. David repents again, this time, saying, “Please let your hand be against me and against my father’s house” (24:17). To show his repentant heart, David goes up to provide an offering.

Reading between the lines (see Bible Project’s most recent podcast for commentary), it appears that God tests King David once again. David wants to build the altar on a man’s threshing floor, who offers to give it to him for free. David wisely insists on paying the owner for the place to build an altar (24:24). God rewards this act, as 2 Samuel concludes, “So the Lord responded to the plea for the land, and the plague was averted from Israel” (24:25). 

Throughout this story, we discover the profound importance of sacrifice. Occasionally, no matter how much we may want to get around it, God requires a sacrifice. Ultimate trade-offs are not ones we want to make, but ones he calls us to anyway. 

“No one can serve two masters,” and this fact often requires us to take something of value and see it disappear in smoke as an offering to God (Matthew 6:24).

What is he calling you to sacrifice?