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RAHN: Why do we still use paper money?
Washington Times ^ | 04/08/2014 | By Richard Rahn

Posted on 04/08/2014 6:52:04 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Paper currency is dirty and is a major transmitter of disease as it goes from unwashed hand to unwashed hand. It is easily lost and stolen, and can be easily destroyed by getting wet or burned.

It physically wears out in a short time and is costly and troublesome to replace. So why do we still use the filthy stuff in the electronic age?

When given a choice, people find credit cards, debit cards and bank account electronic payments more convenient than cash. In many parts of the world, payments can be made from cellphone to cellphone, with the phone companies serving many of the functions of traditional banks. Money can be stored and transmitted from and to almost any form of computer.

Also various forms of electronic money can be made more secure than paper currency. Electronic monies and payment systems do not spread disease.

Governments like electronic money payment systems that they can monitor, such as credit cards, but they don’t like nongovernment created electronic monies and payment systems that they find difficult to monitor like bitcoin. So, predictably, last week the IRS ruled that bitcoin is not money, thus the users must report the capital gain and loss against the U.S. dollar for each transaction made with bitcoins. Even with advanced software, an individual who might use bitcoins for the purchase of many goods and services will find trying to comply with the IRS an accounting nightmare.

Some 15 years ago, I wrote a book forecasting the demise of paper currency. I expected paper currency to gradually disappear like paper checks have. However, I was wrong. Rather than disappearing, the demand for paper currency is rising faster than inflation or population,

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: currency; money; papermoney
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To: SeekAndFind

Not after Target. I pay cash, or don’t shop there.


41 posted on 04/08/2014 7:16:00 AM PDT by onedoug
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Comment #42 Removed by Moderator

To: CrappieLuck

Absolutely, and the revival of the 401-K IRA confiscation in “trade” for a “guarenteed” rate of return of 3% is still out there. Notable Cong. Miller socialist from CA is leaving finally— having laid the dirty work and his own venture socialist/communist seizures in place.

The answer will have to be other than discourse that is civil.


43 posted on 04/08/2014 7:17:35 AM PDT by John S Mosby (Sic Semper Tyrannis)
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To: SeekAndFind

for the most part, I don’t.

Almost my income is direct deposit except one client that hasn’t yet changed.

I have two dedicated credit cards and a debit card. The credit cards simplify my book keeping because when I pay the various amounts are credited to the various expense accounts. I have one card just for medical expense. I have all medical expense with a nice statement in one place. Plus, I can pay at the counter of the providers including the emergency room.

I have about $60 I have carried around since January. Cash is just not necessary in the day to day


44 posted on 04/08/2014 7:23:42 AM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... History is a process, not an event)
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

you’re going to get a stripper to wear a card reader? /sarc


45 posted on 04/08/2014 7:23:59 AM PDT by Ouderkirk (To the left, everything must evidence that this or that strand of leftist theory is true)
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To: nascarnation

When I lived in Seattle there were five costcos within half an hour of our house. Now, we have to drive an hour and a half to either the Louisville or new Lexington store. And their gas is cheap for the area they are in, but still more expensive than where we live, so we pass. We used to always gas up at costco.


46 posted on 04/08/2014 7:24:05 AM PDT by cuban leaf
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To: SeekAndFind

Richard Rahn get lost, you are a government tool

No one ever got sick from touching money

You want all of us reduced to a number that you can track

How about HELL NO


47 posted on 04/08/2014 7:24:15 AM PDT by yldstrk ( My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: SeekAndFind
Why do we still use paper money?: Easily stolen, filthy currency ought to be forsaken

Because HELL NO, that's why.

48 posted on 04/08/2014 7:25:11 AM PDT by Lazamataz (Early 2009 to 7/21/2013 - RIP my little girl Cathy. You were the best cat ever. You will be missed.)
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To: Alex Murphy
It's called "diversification". It's far easier for thieves to to electronically steal all of our money kept in one mason jar ("bitcoin") than it is to for them to dig up a million mason jars in our individual backyards.

Think of it as a Financial "Concentration Camp."

49 posted on 04/08/2014 7:25:11 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: lacrew

I’ve never accidentally burned any money while doing a fire dance.


Me neither, but maybe that’s because I’m extra careful. :-P


50 posted on 04/08/2014 7:27:20 AM PDT by cuban leaf
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To: John S Mosby

Agree. When the NY Fed can’t come up with enough gold to return the German government’s supply it was holding in safekeeping, there’s little doubt that most physical precious metal have gone to China and elsewhere.

The West foolishly considers pieces of paper — fiat currencies and contracts purporting to represent precious metal ownership — to be superior to physically possessing gold, silver, etc.


51 posted on 04/08/2014 7:27:28 AM PDT by peyton randolph (Show me the man and I will find the crime. - Lavrenti Beria)
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To: SeekAndFind

Kind of hard to feed strippers electronic money.


52 posted on 04/08/2014 7:27:48 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Ouderkirk

It’ll be a device that attaches to her smart phone, unlike the camera, which is built in.


53 posted on 04/08/2014 7:28:11 AM PDT by jmcenanly ("The more corrupt the state, the more laws." Tacitus, Publius Cornelius)
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To: FatherofFive

There would be no beggars on intersections.


This. It was always interesting to see the look on their face when I said, “Do you take plastic, cause that’s all I got.” One young one quipped back, “Good one!” :-D

I was actually approached in a parking lot just yesterday by a beggar and gave him that line. He stared at me like he was rebooting.


54 posted on 04/08/2014 7:29:00 AM PDT by cuban leaf
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To: CrappieLuck

All money is electronic blips on a computer ledger. The paper is merely a tangible representation of the entry on the computer ledger. Even if we revert to a gold standard and we will, the electronic entries will be tied to gold ledger entries.

It is now easier and quicker to transfer from one ledger to another via the internet/wireless network than to insert cumbersome and completely unnecessary paper. Paper includes both cash and checks and letters of credit. All are paper representations of entries on an electronic ledger.


55 posted on 04/08/2014 7:30:42 AM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... History is a process, not an event)
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To: fwdude

666. As today’s events move onward it seems more and more probable that the predictions of “The Revelation of St. John the Divine are becoming true. All the conditions seem to be coming together.


56 posted on 04/08/2014 7:30:54 AM PDT by AEMILIUS PAULUS (It is a shame that when these people give a riot)
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To: Democrat_media

Interesting points.


57 posted on 04/08/2014 7:32:04 AM PDT by AEMILIUS PAULUS (It is a shame that when these people give a riot)
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

“Governments like electronic money payment systems that they can monitor”

Well, since ‘governments’ are so into taxes, and taking earnings for individuals, I propose a ‘working in government’ tax. This will be a ‘progressive’ tax, just like our federal income tax. The more money you make working in/for the government, the more of this special government workers tax you would pay. To be fair, those at the top (e.g. Senators, President, Supreme Court Justices etc.) should pay a top rate that is commensurate with the top rate of the US taxpayer for federal income tax. Note, that this ‘government tax’ would be in addition to standard federal taxes, although I would left them deduct from their federal tax a percentage of what they pay in their ‘government job’ tax.

What’s the justification? Well, as government workers, you use more of the government infrastructure than ordinary citizens (e.g. the Capital building, the White House, the Capital police and secret service, the special cafeterias and transportation systems, the special IT people etc. etc.). It’s only fair that you should have to pay more taxes for these things - because you benefit most from them.


58 posted on 04/08/2014 7:32:14 AM PDT by pieceofthepuzzle
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To: chuckles

Maybe they are the ones who really are behind Bitcoin.


59 posted on 04/08/2014 7:32:35 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: SeekAndFind

I would be okay with coins.


60 posted on 04/08/2014 7:34:02 AM PDT by Dalberg-Acton
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