America enjoys levels of wealth and prosperity never before experienced in world history. For that, we can thank capitalism.

But capitalism is not doing so hot among the young. According to the latest Gallup survey on views about capitalism and socialism, more Americans aged 18 to 29 are positive about socialism (51 percent) than about capitalism (45 percent).

Virtual currency is a digital representation of value, other than a representation of the U.S. dollar or a foreign currency ("real currency"), that functions as a unit of account, a store of value, or a medium of exchange.

-IRS

While virtual currency has been around since 2009, it has become better know over the last couple of years. Although there are now dozens of them, some of the most popular names are bitcoin, ethereum, dogecoin and litecoin.

All convertible currency such as cryptocurrency is considered a capital asset for most taxpayers. You invest in virtual currency in the hopes that it will increase in value.

The price of a cryptocurrency is based on one unit, and the pricing is based on the per-unit value, which goes up and down just as a unit of stock would on a stock exchange.

Since they don't teach proper history in school anymore, a discussion on how totalitarian rule begins has been eliminated or is just used as a footnote somewhere along the line. But to those of us who do like to learn from history, there are two things that precede dictatorships - even those that pretend to be democracies. Those two things are: