Posted on 09/07/2024 9:02:41 AM PDT by EBH
BANGKOK, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Thailand's Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra on Tuesday said part of the government's vaunted 450 billion baht ($13.1 billion) "digital wallet" handout will be distributed in cash, in another change to its flagship populist policy. Details are still being finalised and will be announced in a policy statement to parliament, she added.
The digital wallet handout had previously entailed transferring 10,000 baht ($292) in credit to 50 million Thais via a smartphone application to spend in their localities within six months.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
For the wallet user, spending must take place within 6 months of receipt, is restricted to their domicile district,[2] and cannot be spent on 18 specified items and services – including alcoholic drinks, tobacco products and lottery tickets.[3] These restrictions are built into the wallet, that is, the digital money it contains is programmed (Bangkok Post 2023a).
So their new digital wallet is only good for specified items in a persons "home district." This is going to be an interesting experiment in forcing or coercing desperate people to stay in their 15 minute city.
Are you desperate enough yet?
Thailand’s Digital Wallet Goes Live
https://gpilondon.com/publications/thailands-digital-wallet-goes-live
You can use it to hire a hitman to go after WEF the tyrants who created it. Just hand him your digital wallet.
Furthermore, recipients are not allowed to spend the money on gift cards, cash cards, gold, diamonds, gems, oil, fuel, natural gas, electrical appliances, electronic devices, communication devices, lottery tickets, alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, cannabis, or kratom. In fact, recipients are not even allowed to spend the money online, at department stores, or at large chain stores.
https://www.cato.org/blog/thailand-uses-digital-wallet-10000-baht-handout
Paying people to voluntarily enter servitude to the state.
Honestly I’d like to see some of those restrictions on the handouts we give to the illegal migrants or even our own ‘food stampers.’
Yep. They collect all your information in the app.
If you want your digital payment, then surrender the data on your phone and through your phone.
They are trying to fight an iron law of economics—any good can become a medium of exchange if there is a demand for it.
If food purchases are allowed then those food items can be exchanged on the black market for anything on the “forbidden” list.
This is an Achilles Heel of any digital currency scheme—it will create alternative means of exchange limited only by the creative imagination of humans.
However, given the nature of the programmable restrictions on how the money is used and that the money must be spent through the official government mobile app, it appears to be a CBDC for all intents and purposes. At the end of the day, it represents a government taking over greater control of both the financial system and each individual’s finances. It’s for this reason that the Human Rights Foundation’s CBDC Tracker considers Thailand to be in the launched phase.
https://www.cato.org/blog/thailand-uses-digital-wallet-10000-baht-handout
Now I am having a vision of why the destruction of our own economy is happening. Poor people of Thailand are racing to sign up. And millions here will do the same thing far more willingly as people here are very used to the idea of having a wallet on their phones.
Several years ago I read a white paper on that perceived problem. In it they noted it would happen, but considered it a non-concern as it would be a nominal issue.
For the elites the black market is always a “minor issue” because the numbers do not exist.
That is one of the major flaws of “experts” who rely on “data”.
They can only see what is reportable and quantifiable.
That in turn can lead to some super dumb and super dangerous decision-making.
Over the years I’ve had several renters who use their SNAP and welfare benefits for all of their expenses. They buy whatever they’re allowed to buy and then wholesale it for drugs, cash, alcohol, etc. Virtually everyone I’ve known did this with their benefits. I read a study that suggested the average item bought on welfare was an expensive luxury good. You can bet it’s for resale. I had an alcoholic, smoker renter who abandoned the house after the cops arrested her. The power was off, but the refrigerator was filled with THE most expensive and now rotted meat available. (I never buy anything for $25 per pound.) There was one blank space in fridge that had been filled with two cases of beer. She took that. Earlier, she’d told me she hadn’t had any solid food in months. Now, THAT’S an alcoholic. She explained how all of this worked because she wanted to pay me in steaks. I can’t pay a mortgage in steaks.
When a homicide detective called and demanded to know where she was, I said, “You had her last. Why didn’t you just hang on to her?” (Detectives don’t have a sense of humor.)
That’s cool. Just give the hitman your account number and the digital keys. Tell him what you want done. It’s comical that they think they can stop the underground economy.
Money is fungible. EBT cards free up other cash for weaves, booze, and fancy shoes.
This reminds me of Huey Long’s Share Our Wealth plan. Everyone gets a payment that has to be spent within a given period of time.
Did they say what magic tree the money comes from?
Giving you back some of your taxes and calling it cash payments ,LOL
Democrats have enabled illegal aliens to access by making it easy to obtain SNAP and other welfare benefits under false identities using fake IDs and then having the money distributed via automated EBT card fund transfers that are unverified, anonymous and unaccountable .
The Democrats Free Money To Fake People policies have driven fraud off the charts.
There are a huge number of people who are receiving multiple welfare benefits under multiple EBT cards tied to multiple false identities obtained using fraudulent papers manufactured by the illegal alien's false identity back market.
Many of these phantom welfare recipients are the politicians and bureaucrats who administer the system along with their families and friends.
One of the worst example I have seen happened a few years back.
I was working late on Sunday night. There was a 24 hour Walmart on the way home so I stopped to pick up some stuff on the way home.
I expected this to be a quick pit stop in a deserted store because who goes shopping just before midnight on a Sunday. Was surprised to see that the store was filled with shoppers. It was just before midnight so I grabbed my stuff and headed for the check out .
Got in line behind a Hispanic family that has six grocery carts filled to the top with everything from grocers, clothing, toys, back to school supplies and stuff form the automotive, hardware and garden sections. Even the little shelves beneath the carts were loaded up with stuff.
The family lined up three abreast at the front 3 check out counters, started loading their carts onto the conveyors and just sat there doing nothing. At the same time, other shoppers began doing the same thing at the other check out counters. Turns out our states EBT cards loaded at midnight on that Sunday so all the shoppers were unloading their stuff and waiting til after midnight for their cards to load with funds.
Just after midnight, the older man in front of me who I took to be the father of the family pulled a stack of what were obviously EBT cards (our state has a very distinctly shaped and colored EBT card to help prevent fraud.) out of his top shirt pocket. He carefully shuffled through about 12 EBT cards and selected three from out of the stack.
He handed one to his wife and one to younger woman who I figured was his daughter and they proceeded to check out and pay for their stuff with the three EBT cards.
I was kind of surprised because each family by law was supposed to have only one EBT card per family and this guy had at least 12 and used three of them to pay at the check out.
On the way out to the parking lot I found out they were parked directly across from me in the parking lot. The started loading their EBT purchase into what looked to be a brand new, top of the line and fully optioned out 4WD Ford Expedition SUV with awesome rims and huge all terrain tires. .
The license plates on the SUV were from the state of Sonora in Mexico.
I had a similar experience in that I watched a Walmart guy check out with a lot of expensive stuff, and he used an EBT card. He was parked near me in a late model, seemingly new F250.
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