Posted on 12/17/2019 9:32:28 AM PST by SeekAndFind
China, the nation that introduced the world to banknotes, is now setting the pace in the competition to become the first cashless society.
Already by 2017, more than three-quarters of Chinese people were using digital payments in preference to cash, and the number was rising fast.
Now, the central bank and other financial authorities have announced they want to spread the benefits of going cashless to the four out of 10 people in China who still live in rural areas.
The focus on agricultural communities will put a further dent in the perception that electronic payments are the preserve of prosperous urban millennials.
In global terms, China is behind Sweden, which aims to go completely cashless as early as 2023. However, the growth in non-cash payments in China is much more significant, given its population size.
The Chinese have, to an extent, leapfrogged the credit and debit card revolution that overtook advanced economies in the last century, with most of new adopters using mobile technology to go cashless.
As payments processor Worldpay said in its 2018 global payments report highlighting China's boundless growth opportunities in the sector: "China presents a payment landscape shaped by consumers that came of age in a digital and mobile-first world. Mobile wallets dominate Chinese payments unlike anywhere else on the planet."
The report noted that almost two-thirds of online sales and more than one third of payments in stores were now made through leading mobile wallet operators including Alipay and WeChat Pay.
China is already the world's largest mobile payment market and is also a leader in peer-to-peer payments, in which people are able to pay each other by text.
Although the cashless revolution in China and elsewhere appears unstoppable, there are still disagreements over the pros and cons of ditching old-fashioned notes and coins.
(Excerpt) Read more at straitstimes.com ...
According to the central bank, 66.5 per cent of people in rural areas were already using digital payments by 2017, but that compared to 76.9 per cent in the country as a whole.
Among the benefits listed by promoters of the switch to cashless payments are that they speed up transactions, reduce business risks, and cut the opportunities for criminals to cheat others.
Logically, it would eradicate the theft of cash, and counterfeiting.
What could possibly go wrong?
Huh.
It’s almost as if cashless societies and totalitarian regimes go hand in hand.
Even if it takes the form of Bottlecaps.
Gold
China won’t be first. Sweden is already mostly cashless.
Everything you do will be tracked, reported, and regulated.
Yes, the legion pays in gold and not NCR paper.
But I still sided with the NCR. It was an easy choice.
RE: What could possibly go wrong?
Well, for one China is ALSO developing a computerized “Social Credit” System. This is a a national reputation system for the Chinese government. It is intended to standardize the assessment of citizens’ and businesses’ economic and social reputation, or ‘Social Credit’.
The system will be one unified system and there will be a single system-wide social credit score for each citizen and business. The system is considered a form of mass surveillance which uses facial recognition system and big data analysis technology. In 2019, it is estimated that 200 million monitoring CCTV cameras of the “Skynet” network have been put to use in mainland China, with eight Chinese cities ranked among the world’s top ten most monitored cites, while the number of surveillance cameras is expected to reach 626 million by 2020 when the Social Credit System becomes fully effective.
As of November 2019, in addition to dishonest and fraudulent financial behavior, other behavior that some cities have officially listed as negative factors of credit ratings includes playing loud music or eating in rapid transits, violating traffic rules such as jaywalking and red-light violations, failure to appear at a doctor or dentist’s appointment, or missing a job interview, restaurant reservation, or hotel reservation without making notification to cancel, failing to correctly sort personal waste, fraudulently using other people’s public transportation ID cards, etc; on the other hand, behavior listed as positive factors of credit ratings includes donating blood, donating to charity, volunteering for community services, and so on.
Though some critics question that if donation and volunteering are done with the fear of being on a blacklist as their primary motivation, then they are not altruistic.
Once you fall below a certain social credit score you are on a blacklist, you are screwed. You won’t be able to travel, enroll in schools, shop at certain places, rent or buy property, etc.
Now, imagine a cashless society where every single payment is monitored by supercomputers -— once they tie this cashless system to the social credit system, they can TURN OFF you ability to even buy anything.
BTW, when surveyed about the social credit system, MOST Chinese say they like it. The most common reason is this — it instills discipline on everyone and makes for an ORDERLY society.
RE: Once we go cashless, it will be the end of freedom.
Yep, see Post #11 above.
It’s pretty much “The Mark of the Beast”
It’s a terrible idea, I cashless society. Dan Bongino has covered this quite well.
Pay attention, folks . . . a commie dictatorship is the first to go cashless. We should NEVER follow suit . . . EVER!!!!!!!!
Cashless society = no underground economy. Perfect for a totalitarian society like Communist China or an Elizabeth Warren Presidency...
RE: It’s pretty much “The Mark of the Beast”
Yep, it’s becoming a reality and China is at the forefront.
The long term goal is to monitor your ability to pay via BIOMETRICS ( e.g., face recognition, physical identification, fingerprint or maybe an implantable chip in your body). You don’t need a wallet. YOU will be the wallet.
Part of Satan’s plan. They get rid of cash, then they can get rid of your control of your own money. Say something they don’t like and see what happens to your digital account.
With a lot of help from our side. They just want China to be the "guinea pig." When the kinks are worked out, it will come here.
This is totalitarianism to a level that is terrifying.
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