A warning from the estimable Cory Bernadi, Senator for South Australia:
‘Today I am going to write about money. More specifically, what the government wants to do with your money.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports this morning that Australia is ‘on an unstoppable march towards a cashless future’; with the Assistant Minister to the Treasurer Alex Hawke MP saying that a move to a purely digital currency “will lead to countless benefits for all Australians in convenience and security, and will save billions in transaction costs every year”.
He’s correct that it will enhance convenience for many and will save government huge amounts of money but he omits one very important aspect of such a change – our right to privacy.
I have repeatedly warned over the years that the move to digital currencies will begin in Europe (it is already being trialled in Sweden) and spread throughout the world. The justifications will include those points made by the Assistant Minister but will soon include the ‘need to fight the flow of funds to terror organisations’.
Whilst these may be noble and worthy aims, they are mere excuses. The real reason governments want to impose an all-digital transaction economy on us is so that no aspect of the financial system is beyond their scrutiny. To put it plainly, it’s about taxes – and every government wants more of them.
Governments have an insatiable hunger to gorge themselves on taxpayer dollars.
The political elite consider that they know how to spend your money much more effectively than you do and thus no level of taxation will ever fully sate the leviathan of government. There is always a new program, a new agenda or a new initiative that promises to be an amazing success if only enough money is thrown at it.
The evidence is quite the opposite and frankly, every year sees me come to the same conclusion: whenever the government steps in to fix a problem it ultimately creates an even greater one.
And so, as the unsustainability of the great socialist experiment of the welfare state becomes clearer by the day, governments across the world want to make sure that no transaction can escape their net.
They don’t want cash kept under the mattress or buried in the back garden. They want you to be forced to keep it electronically in a bank where they can charge you for the privilege via negative interest rates.
A digital currency will mean no transaction, however small, can escape the tax demands of government.
Some readers will think this abundantly fair, and so it may be – if we could trust government to act in our interest instead of their own. However, there is an even more dangerous aspect to such a proposal.
The digital currency process will mean that almost every aspect of your financial privacy is gone. There will be a record of every dollar spent, every item purchased and every donation made. Is it really the government’s business what food you purchase or what medicines you use? Seemingly simple daily choices could have a large impact on your life because every aspect of your spending data would be detailed for scrutiny.
It’s not too far-fetched to imagine an application for health insurance to reference your spending history in relation to fast food, alcohol and tobacco. Your lack of gym membership could count against you in seeking medical treatment. Perhaps you’ll be effectively blacklisted from employment opportunities because you donate money to a particular organisation.
In short, nothing would be beyond the examination of government. Any safeguards built in to the system would ultimately be diminished as the tentacles of government continue to expand into every aspect of our lives.
The best opportunity to prevent such expansion is at the very point of inception. The move to a digital currency is just getting started. If we are to safeguard against it, the time to act is now.
Until next week.
Cory Bernardi
What this also fails to account for is the ability for a person to be utterly destroyed at the press of a button.
Several years ago a local’s one and only bank account was flagged for terrorist activity. He wasn’t arrested or charged, yet his account was frozen “pending review”. He was for obvious reasons black flagged from creating more accounts and because his wage could only be paid electronically it left him penniless for six months, which was the amount of time it took for them to get around to reviewing his details and realising they’d simply fucked up.
No notification. No apology. He went into the bank for something like the 27th time and asked the same question he’d asked 27 times. “Is my account still frozen?” Finally they answered “no”.
If it were not for cash loans from friends and family he would have lost his house, wouldn’t be able to renew his license, would have thereafter lost his job and with that everything else. All of these things he was able to maintain ONLY because cash was still available to him through friends and family
So try it on for size. Drive to town on a half a tank of petrol and then pretend that cash didn’t exist and your cards had mysteriously stopped working. Pretend nobody could spot you some money. Pretend all charity had to be in solid form, such as a can of food or a loaf of bread. Pretend you couldn’t buy phone credit to call for help, or food. Pretend you couldn’t even catch a bus or feed your children.
THAT is the power of a cashless society.
Citizen to homeless bum in 1 week flat. No recourse.
p.s. sorry for the ridiculously long comment
Thanks for that ridiculously long comment.
It’s a scary thought. For some, barely existing by barter may be possible, but of course, for the vast majority it will be as you say.
The cashless society is tidier and easier to manage than chains – and the serfs will still be free to go to work for their masters.
We are very close to that “voting from the rooftops” point.
The concept will fail as the black market (capitalism in it’s purest form) will spring up and thrive around it.The Chicoms found out in the late 70’s that the black market in China was larger than the public market.
People inherently default to freedom,this will be no different.
“Voting from the rooftops”
I want to do a WWII style poster picturing a patriot holding a gas can with the caption –
“Everyone must do their part.Have you burned a government building to the ground today?”
Arson Inc. I like it.
The push at the moment is to do away with the €500 note ……. because it makes it easy to store money out of the banking system. The $100 is also going to be done away with in the not so distant future.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-16/larry-summers-launches-war-us-paper-money-its-time-kill-100-bill
I hope you are all keeping lots of low denomination notes in the tin at the bottom of the garden, along with your gold and silver. It is probably time to open accounts in several different banks (probably off shore would be best) so as not to have too much money in one account for when the “bail-in’s” start. Remember that in Cyprus all was taken from an account except for the last €90 000, it might be even less when it comes here! Remember all our governments have signed up to the “bail-in” scam probably because they or the banks are going to use it at some point.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-17/case-outlawing-cash
Already, several readers have reported that they have had trouble getting cash from their own accounts.
Banks stall. They impose withdrawal limits. They want you to come in-person, etc., etc.
Right now, being unable to get cash promptly is merely a nuisance…but just wait. It won’t be long before new initiatives are announced to “stimulate demand.”
Perhaps negative interest rates will do it. Maybe a more general tax. But sooner or later, the next credit crisis will hit hard…
Then your inability to get cash will be more than a nuisance. It will be a deathblow. You will be locked into a bank account with a bankrupt institution.
And the feds and their bank cronies will tell you when and how you can have access to your own money.
The feds will announce a “bank holiday.” They may ban transfers to gold sellers or foreign currency accounts. Or maybe it will just take time – while your money loses value rapidly – to get your money out.
If your cash is in paper currency, that could be invalid as well. Get hard currency…like toilet paper
Hardest currency I know of is comprised mostly of lead and brass. Make like a squirrel.
Some err…..agricultural chemicals would be a good idea, too. (For vegetable gardening, of course.)