Cashless society!?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...es-closer-to-a-cashless-society-10231995.html
Hoard your coins!!!

 

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Not in the US. There is not, nor will there ever be, enough trust in the government for this to happen. Businesses will not let it happen due to the high cost involved in the use of the credit/debit card processing. Don't forget the underground economy.

 

Rick, I sure hope you are right. We (and the world in general) are moving toward a War on Cash, and there are so many tracking, hacking, and surveillance techniques out there that I'm not sure citizens will win the struggle.

Our country is bankrupt, as are most foreign nations, and our government is desperate; this is why you stack silver and "hope" for the best. The underground economy could be crushed in a week if they wished to do so.

 

Exactly. The landscapers that do my yard don't take credit cards.

 

And "processing" cash is free? In Denmark and Sweden it is indeed pretty common to not use cash a lot, and there already are places where cash is not accepted. Same thing in the US ...

Christian

 

If they won't accept my cash, I won't purchase their product or service.

 

It's also a war of centralization vs decentralization. Decentralization is going to win this one...eventually.

 

Hey!

I see plenty of "Cashless" people on every street corner.

On a more serious note, I used to bring up the poor folks that still needed cash. You know, the Welfare Folks? Evidently, a lot of states issue debit cards for spending welfare amounts in addition to food stamps.

So, the country could be closer than I believe but then its still way off in the future.

Using Denmark as a milestone is little goofy since the US of A is behind the curve for literally every industrialized Nation since they (our beloved government) refuse to even consider getting rid of the One Dollar Note and that Pesky (and expensive) cent coin!

 

Note the word "debts". If you walk into a store, planning to buy something, there is no debt.

Christian

 

Read the Wikipedia entry on "Legal Tender" and you may withdraw some of your comments.

Our government would like to track every dime you spend, demand to know where it came from, automatically withdraw your imputed fees and taxes every year, and evaluate and counsel you for your inopportune spending habits.

Cash gets in the way of that fascist dynamic. One example, as mentioned above, debit cards for welfare; the "authorities" will be the first to know if you spend it for booze instead of feeding your kids.

It also means no bug-out, as your (liquid) wealth is no longer portable, and the paper trail will reveal who you've dealt with and where you've been, and when.

Cash remains very inconvenient for centralized government planning.

And, here's how the underground economy collapses overnight -- in the interests of "national security," you are given 30 days to surrender all cash in exchange for debit cards. After that month, your cash is worthless, and PM's are subject to confiscation, like drugs. Your debit cards are monitored, and any deviation from the norm raises a red flag. DHS can do anything in the "interests of national security," including detain you for 30 days without charges.

The people are powerless to stop this process. No one will buy or barter for your PM's, because there's no way to get debit cards, the "new currency," for them. This is the heart of the War Against Cash.

Thomas Jefferson told us 200 years ago, in effect, why this won't happen, but there's plenty of other diminutions of our liberty in the planning stage. One of the few benefits of being OLD -- I won't be here to see it.

 

The move is on to a cashless society and those who want it will do whatever it takes to get there, including voiding the legal tender language on the currency. They've already voided the language on gold and silver certificates. What makes you think it can't be done again?

There are valid reasons to want to do this. Those evading taxes by doing cash transactions without documentation are actually increasing the tax burden on everyone else. Will it be soon? No, and it will be item by item, not everything at once. First, welfare debit cards. Then stuff like public transit cards that can't be bought with cash and are themselves fully tracked. We don't want bus drivers killed for the fare box, do we?

If they want our income and spending tracked badly enough, all they have to do is mandate a zero transaction charge debit card that everyone has to use. Will I be harmed? I don't think so. My income is all taxed now. If someone else's tax evasion gets slammed, I'm better off.

The geeks are leading the way with their Apple Pay on their watches.

 

The thread is staring to veer into "conspiracy theory" in reference to the government. True or not, they are political nature. Keep such on Peter's alternate website if you wish this one to remain. Jim

 

The so-called "conspiracy", which isn't really, is merely getting a majority of the people to believe that they could be better off without cash's existence, and they very well may be. Never confuse those who make the most noise with those who are the most numerous. Sounds almost Zen, doesn't it?

Cash is only "protected" if now a clear MAJORITY of people are hiding taxable income. If that's true, no wonder we're FUBAR.

 

Not a problem, they come in see how much you have, compare it to what you officially earned and declare you had X amount of undeclared income on which you owe so much in taxes.

And as kert said about the legal tender clause, that is easy to just wipe out. Either simply declare it no longer operative, or simply call in all the currency for a new issue that doesn't have it and after a certain date it is worthless. (As Kurt alluded to, do you have a silver certificate? Says right on it they will pay you one dollar in silver on demand, or one silver dollar depending on the series of the note. Think you can get them to honor that obligation? Nope, because back in 1968 they passed legislation voiding that obligation.)

 

I wrote my rant for CT-er's under 30, whose formative childhoods were spent in the most prosperous, liberal, and accommodating society in the history of mankind.

The following is not a new thought, but perhaps unexpressed to the majority: democracy works wonderfully until the citizens discover they can vote themselves money out of the public till...

"Prepping" will not save you from some very pernicious trends.

Finally, for the curious, if you want to know where the inspiration for the various "Planet of the Apes" films came from, go into Wikipedia and read the article for "By the Waters of Babylon," a 1937 story by Stephen Vincent Benet in which (among many other adventures), a post-apocalyptic young man enters a burned-out bank, finds coins scattered across the floor, and does not know what they are.

My final post in this thread.

 

"Prepping" is the act of deluding oneself that one would like to survive if one's predictions of impending Armageddon were to come true. I am quite certain I would not want to. In fact, after a week without a pharmacy, the whole issue would be moot anyway. My survival DEPENDS on a modern functioning society's continuation.