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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: dfwgator

Hmm.. some times the Net or the power is out and Paper (really cloth/paper) money still works. Oh and paying a lot of small things like say.. the neighbors kid to mow the lawn comes to mind as well.


61 posted on 04/08/2014 7:34:30 AM PDT by Bidimus1
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To: Halgr

No it is not “OUR GOVERNMENT” that is the source of the evil. The clowns in the White House are not “OUR GOVERNMENT” and they are bad people, low intelligence, poor impulse control, incompetent, corrupt, wasteful, greedy and just plain ugly.


62 posted on 04/08/2014 7:36:03 AM PDT by AEMILIUS PAULUS (It is a shame that when these people give a riot)
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To: Ouderkirk

-——you’re going to get a stripper to wear a card reader-—

It is called a Square and it plugs into an I phone. If you have Paypal, they provide one free.

It allows anyone to have a paypal account and acept credit cards via their I phone


63 posted on 04/08/2014 7:37:59 AM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... History is a process, not an event)
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To: SeekAndFind

Electronic money is easily stolen too, so the argument doesn’t hold water.

I do almost everything electronically. Little cash. Those credit card rewards add up.

I don’t care if the government can look at every transaction of mine. In fact, I invite them to take a look. They will be quickly bored.


64 posted on 04/08/2014 7:38:20 AM PDT by I want the USA back (Media: completely irresponsible traitors. Complicit in the destruction of our country.)
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To: dfwgator

I’ve wondered that since I first investigated how bitcoin works.

My first thought was - the gov’t could use this to track ALL transactions and ALL currency, its ownership and its transfer.


65 posted on 04/08/2014 7:39:08 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: SeekAndFind

I think people like physical money. There’s nothing like the feeling of a wallet stuffed with Benjamins.


66 posted on 04/08/2014 7:39:59 AM PDT by luvbach1 (We are finished)
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To: luvbach1

It used to be dollars. However, now it is Benjamin’s. In a while they will release the Cleveland’s to stuff your pockets with.


67 posted on 04/08/2014 7:43:16 AM PDT by AEMILIUS PAULUS (It is a shame that when these people give a riot)
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To: SeekAndFind
Bring back the Tally stick
68 posted on 04/08/2014 7:43:57 AM PDT by Count of Monte Fisto (The foundation of modern society is the denial of reality.)
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To: Ouderkirk

Let alone your wife seeing the CC transaction! lol

What is this honey? lol


69 posted on 04/08/2014 7:45:55 AM PDT by US_MilitaryRules (Tastes like Heaven, Burns like Hell! Mmmmmm. What is it?)
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To: SeekAndFind

When your cash is stolen you generally know it pretty quickly. When your account is drained electronically you may not know it for days. Plus your account (hopefully) has much more money in it than your wallet so the potential damage is greater.


70 posted on 04/08/2014 7:47:46 AM PDT by logic101.net (How many more children must die on the altar of gun control?)
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To: SeekAndFind

Replace the dollar bill with coins. That would take the crap out of the system.

The dollar bill and penny are stupid.


71 posted on 04/08/2014 7:55:50 AM PDT by Vermont Lt (If you want to keep your dignity, you can keep it. Period........ Just kidding, you can't keep it.)
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To: skeeter

If you think about how smart phones are used for QR scans, you could imagine someone considering those as being marked on the head (using the camera) and on the wrist ( some sort of RFID bracelet.)

If you watch the world as someone from 2,000 years ago, the world is an interesting place.


72 posted on 04/08/2014 7:58:27 AM PDT by Vermont Lt (If you want to keep your dignity, you can keep it. Period........ Just kidding, you can't keep it.)
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To: rightwingintelligentsia
like electronic money payment systems that they can monitor...

Monitor? They want total control.

I'll take 'dirty' money any day over someone like Lois Lerner of the IRS taking away my ability to purchase food for my family.... And yeah, the bitch would do that...

If she had the power.

Lois and her liberal elite thugs would decide 'currency cards' or marks on our right hands... would stop working for Tea Party members long enough to kill us off or make us suffer until we submit.

Revelation 13:16-17

King James Version

16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

73 posted on 04/08/2014 8:02:08 AM PDT by GOPJ (.'Dog Shit' could be sold to 7 million citizens if the IRS fined those who refused to buy it...)
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To: SeekAndFind

“Why do we still use paper money?: Easily stolen, filthy currency ought to be forsaken”

Because if the grid goes down, you’ll still be able to buy stuff (at least for a short time).

After Sandy, I was able to buy food all week while the grid was down. Even perishable food from stores running generators. Many people who didn’t have cash found out their credit and ATM cards were worthless.


74 posted on 04/08/2014 8:02:34 AM PDT by varyouga
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To: dfwgator

“Kind of hard to feed strippers electronic money.”

They have paper “tokens” in some of these places. You charge your credit card and get a stack of their monopoly money to feed the strippers.


75 posted on 04/08/2014 8:05:04 AM PDT by varyouga
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To: varyouga
They have paper “tokens” in some of these places. You charge your credit card and get a stack of their monopoly money to feed the strippers.

Guess it's been awhile.

76 posted on 04/08/2014 8:05:43 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: dfwgator

Depends on where they put the reader.


77 posted on 04/08/2014 8:07:39 AM PDT by going hot (Happiness is a momma deuce)
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To: SeekAndFind

About 2 years ago, Canada switched to plastic dollar bills.
Whoever picked out the materials was an idiot. They had people leaving wallets and purses in their cars in the summer, only to find that the money melted. I believe that they’ve fixed this minor annoyance since then though.


78 posted on 04/08/2014 8:11:10 AM PDT by BuffaloJack (Freedom isn't free; nor is it easy. END ALL TOTALITARIAN ACTIVITY NOW.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Electronics break down, and paper money still offers a little autonomy from banks and government, two entities that are becoming one. It helps remind us that we are still a little more than lab rats. And we like it, lots of it.


79 posted on 04/08/2014 8:12:02 AM PDT by pallis
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To: SeekAndFind

Forty years go I said that a paperless monetary system would be pushed just so the government could flush out all those who deal “under the table” to avoid taxes.


80 posted on 04/08/2014 8:16:23 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (Sometimes you need 7+ more ammo. LOTS MORE.)
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