Posted on 01/25/2015 9:05:00 AM PST by Scooter100
The current rumblings about a "cashless" society are troubling. Currently, I like the anonymity of cash and I typically pay cash for all items under about $200....books, magazines, pharmacy, liquor store, groceries, tips, etc.
What will YOU miss if we lose our traditional currency? (I'll start the ball rolling...)
- How do I pay the neighbor's kid for mowing my lawn?
I agree, it is troubling. The reason it’s tempting, besides keeping an electronic trail of what people do, is that it does work very well during normalcy conditions.
But when a bad day does come, and power is out, all that is left is bartering. And while bartering may sound romantic, try bringing your 1/2” Craftsman Ratchet to Sam’s Club to exchange for a carton of toilet paper and see how far you get. Sell that same ratchet to your neighbor for $15 in cash, bring the cash to Sam’s and you’ll likely have your toilet paper (if there’s any left, that is). BIG DIFFERENCE.
Also, having cash around doesn’t preclude bartering...it just gives you more options.
Your neighbor’ kid accepts Apple Pay and has a Square reader on his iPhone. He’s had this since he was 12. Apple Pay sends your payment to his Wealthfront account which allocates his money across low-cost index ETFs that invest in stocks, bonds and commodities around the globe.
Cash? What’s that?
doesn’t the card reader take off a percentage? does Apple Pay? does Wealthfront?
It’s like taxing yourself
Cash does add a serious level of privacy, right now.
But you’re completely right about where things are headed.
Some companies have already developed facial recognition cameras that can identify ten’s of thousands of people per minute. (Think Stadium’s and trying to sell you junk).
Privacy is the biggest Civil rights issue of our time. I wish more people got it.
Without Privacy, freedom will not survive.
Same with us except the threshold is now about $5. We get several “free” airline tix each year. Marriott Rewards have become substantial since I travelled for business and then visiting the kids at college. We get lots of “free” hotel rooms, too. The merchants jack prices up 3% to cover the credit card fees and we get our cut this way.
So far, so good. No jackbooted thugs at the door because every payment is on credit cards.
And we have never paid a dime in CC interest. Budgeting is the same if you can see the physical cash or not. Just live within your means and don’t buy things you just want but don’t need. Don’t be swayed by the neighbors fancy cars and boat. We don’t have a boat and always buy 1-2 year old cars (just bought a dealership 2014 loaner yesterday with HUGE savings). Will keep it 10 years, too.
Silver coins or foreign cash are acceptable substitutes.
However way to few people have any of this.
I hope Big Brother is not too bothered by your generous donation to FreeRepublic! ;>)
That’s why he charges you 3% more than the other kid. But you like him because he is so efficient at delivering his services that you buy from him, not the Neanderthal who only takes cash.
An inability to make small donations anonymously, from a kid with cancer to a political group.
Complete loss of privacy for donating to politically incorrect groups. Anyone getting access to financial data can out you for donating to something, resulting in harassment as occurred with founder of Mozilla and creator of JavaScript for a several hundred dollar donation to a proposition against homosexual marriage in California. And the information could be stolen from banks or the recipient organizations, instead of being shared through leaked tax documentation.
You can pay the babysitter with a financial transfer, but now your records are documented and can be used years later for not paying the 14 year old a minimum wage.
You lose the ability to buy socially unpopular products in privacy. It used to be condoms and porn; now it is tobacco, conservative magazines, etc.
The Obama administration is using Operation Chokepoint to shut off financial services to industries they don’t like, such as payday lenders, gun sellers, and adult services. The government says the services are legal, but they pressure banks under threat of extra audits if they let a gun shop have a merchant bank accounts or payment processors have gun dealers as customers. That forces the businesses to rely mostly on cash or a very few payment processors. If we were cashless, Operation Chokepoint essentially means that what the government bans from the banking system cannot be bought and sold - regardless of the law.
There are already many inconveniences when the feds freeze your bank accounts on charges that you did something. If there was no cash, you become desperate and unable to fight because there isn’t even cash under the mattress to pay your bills with when the feds freeze your accounts.
The government theoretically gains the ability to make all cash under the mattress illegal. There are stories already of people in Central America who kept cash savings at home, the government changed the currency, and the old savings are obsolete. If everything is digital, such “we don’t have that money in circulation, it is all illegal” mandates become possible. It may or may not fight inflation, if a lot of paper cash becomes moot.
The government can track your purchases and come after you for too many vending machine purchases per government health regulations.
Good point. You lose the ability to give a few hundred to someone anonymously - and face the likelihood of having the feds come back and demand the transfer listed on your tax return and taxed.
During one major ice storm, power went out. We were well stocked up until the kid got sick, so I walked over to the Walgreens that was open. It had power, but the satellite system was down.
A line of people were begging to give them credit card information, debit card information, etc. I held up my items and a $20 and said, “I can pay for this right now.” Waved to front, paid, went home.
No one else could pay.
I like to give junk silver tips—with an explanation:
This silver dollar is legal tender and can legally be reported to the IRS as a one-dollar tip, but the value of the silver is around $15-20.
The Bible speaks of a future ‘cashless’ society. It doesn’t end well.
Revelation 14:9-11
Buy a gun at a gun show for cash. Usually a better price and I don’t ask if they declare anything to the jack booted thugs at the IRS.
THIS should be worth taking to the streets over. Of course, they’ll find ways of doing it little by little, so the frogs won’t know they’re being ‘boiled’....
Hope I am outa here before then, if not maybe a concentration camp would be right up my alley.
Oh, No! I’m a Monthly! Now they’ve got me for sure! ;)
True, but almost no one uses credit cards like that.
I don’t, which is why I just don’t use them.
I don’t have that discipline to completely pay it off each and every month, because it seems that SOMETHING ALWAYS ‘comes up’ to keep us from paying the entire balance. When I want to buy something, I just pay cash. Easier that way. Don’t have to bother with owing anyone after the purchase either. We’re all different in our ways and circumstances I guess.
That's just crazy talk. You're on Free Republic, therefore you must be one of those radical, Right Wing Tea Party extremists, who's every move must be watched.
” Silver coins or foreign cash are acceptable substitutes. However way to few people have any of this.”
Silver yes...foreign, so-so - depends on the currency. Agree, few people have them.
What I tell people is the following:
1) For the first few days, even after a currency meltdown, US cash will rule. People won’t give up on it that fast. If you have a lot of cash, you can buy a lot of goods.
2) After that it’s Silver coins - they will retain their value as a precious metal and are small enough in denomination to be easily used.
3) Long term - on the other side, then it’s gold. That will the only thing trusted.
Of course it doesn’t hurt to be fully prepped BEFORE any crap happens - for if you are, then you don’t need to run around like crazy trying to buy toilet paper and the like.
Freaky...were they trying to buy 60” Plasmas or something? You’d think people would at least have a LITTLE BIT OF CASH on them...but maybe even that is too much to ask these days.
...but it does give us preppers a HUGE ADVANTAGE, as you showed there (as long as cash is still allowable).
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