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Whose Money?
Bad ideas have a way of spreading. And “progressives” in America often turn to the Scandinavian countries for their cockeyed Utopian dreams and this one is a doozy – the Danes have put forward a proposal to allow brick and mortar retailers to refuse cash.
On the surface this sounds like a great convenience to the retailer. An all electronic system would help them cut costs and would certainly eliminate the threat of armed robbery, however much it increases the odds of cybercrime. But the real danger here is that it is the first step in achieving the dreams of Trond Andresen in creating the first cashless society.
Andresen is described in the press as being a “Norwegian academic” which is true to a point. He does make his living as a professor of electrical engineering but he’s more widely known as a communist activist.
His scheme is to totally replace money with credits. With no currency there is complete government control, no greenbacks under the mattress and certainly no underground economy. Everything is traceable, taxable and open to confiscation.
“Wait! Confiscation? That’s conspiracy talk and a serious C-O-C violation, bub!”
Andresen insists it’s just a way to avoid the booms and busts of capitalism. See, instead of stimulus packages and tinkering with interest rates, governments could simply start taking away your savings, forcing you to spend it or lose it. And during boom times when some bureaucrat decides you shouldn’t spend they can place a massive tax on every transaction.
Of course they couch it in terms of “negative interest” and “modest penalties” but it is what it is: confiscation.
On every US coin is stamped the word “Liberty” and a truer expression could not be uttered. As long as you have the coin in your pocket you have the freedom to keep it or spend it as you wish.
Published in General
Since the above, I was able to correspond with Eugene Volokh (The Volokh Conspiracy). He tells me that it is within congress’ power to abolish cash. So, the Constitution does not protect us from what will be a further intrusion into every corner of our lives. The feds will know of every electronic dollar you take in and spend.
The plus side is that that means we can also get rid of the post office. Whenever I have heard someone mention that idea, the answer was always, “but… it’s in the Constitution”.
Not quite true. Once a debt is incurred, cash must be accepted, but no vendor is required to do business in cash. Try to rent a car without at least a debit card and a good credit score, and you’ll be in for a shock. Do you think a car rental company is going to hand you the keys to a $30,000 automobile on a cash deposit? Fuggedaboudit.
Yeah. I read something in another venue that lead me to believe I wasn’t quite right, too.