Just as your driving will be recorded by GPS, your spending will be tracked by plastic.
When our accumulated wealth consists of nothing more that digital “credits”, and the government convinces the general public that anyone wanting to use cash must be up to something questionable or illegal, our “freedom” will be a faint memory.
Mark of the Beast
Whole segments of this country would collapse without cash; here in NJ, as wealthy whites tout the advantages of a cashless society, the staggering illegal population lives by cash and nothing else. These people don’t even officially exist; they will never go to plastic. They are paid in, and shop in Wal-Mart with, strictly cash.
Whole neighborhoods haven’t seen a W-2 in decades.
Same thing with the parish courthouse. Went to go file a petition, and they only take money orders. No checks or cash.
......recently (late last year), I made the mistake of depositing a mid six figure sum of cash in Royal Bank of Canada in St. Maarten in connection with a business deal I was working on. Big mistake. When I went back by the bank a couple months later to buy a Cashier’s Check (with my money) for the amount in RBC, their “manager” (term used loosely) commenced a 2 hour and ten minute interrogation wanting to know what I was going to do with the money, why I am I taking it out and many other questions that were none of her business. Then, she gave me a cashier’s check for MY MONEY that was no good anywhere but on St. Maarten! When I got back to the states, it took a month and over 100 fairly nasty emails to get my money pried loose from Royal Bank of Canada. Needless to say, I will never even think about using RBC again as I would not TRUST them with five dollars!
In effect,and upon reflection, RBC CLEARLY was brazenly acting as a government agent! Exactly who’s government, I have no clue.
The situation in the US is almost bizarre. The US Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which physically prints all US paper money, has only two printing offices left, in Fort Worth, Texas and Washington, D.C. Even printing around the clock, mostly $1 bills, they only produce enough paper money to support a meager 5% of US daily retail trade.
When they print $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100 bills, they print proportionately less of each denomination. And most $100 bills are shipped overseas to other nations that demand US currency.
Importantly, this has created the potential for a never before seen economic paradox: a currency split.
Because the government can and does create unlimited virtual dollars, the virtual money can easily inflate or even hyperinflate. But paper money cannot, and if there is a currency split, paper money is instantly *deflated* by 20 times. That is, a nickel is worth a dollar, minimum, and probably much more, if virtual money has lost its value.
The government may try and *pretend* that the two are pegged together, but the simple fact is that neither can *more* paper money can be printed, *nor* can they print higher denominations, for the simple reason that nobody could make change for them.
So virtual money can hyperinflate, or be locked up in bank holidays, or frozen by the government. But legally, *nobody* has to accept virtual money in payment of a debt, because virtual money is NOT legal tender.
If retailers refuse virtual money instruments, like credit and debit cards and bank checks, virtual money is worthless, even if Obama orders the Treasury to input a bunch more zeroes to the deficit.
I have a relative who is in the Fraud Prevention Dept. of a major gasoline retailer.
The scam artists, mostly foreign mafias, have duplicated the keys to the gas pumps. They block the cameras with large vehicles, and then they open the gas pumps. With this access, they install their own, custom built card readers.
They apparently get the card readers manufactured in China (where else?). The card readers scan and store the IDs and PIN numbers of the people buying gas. The perps come back, plug in, and download all the IDs and PINs.
My relative said, “If you use a debit card to buy gas, sooner or later, your bank account WILL be emptied”.
That’s a good reason to use cash. Plastic opens up your account to mass theft. Note that if you carry a bit of cash, you should be alert and able to defend yourself.