A Global North Korea

 

The oligarch’s of the Modern Structure are considering a “cashless” society.

 

This fills me with foreboding.

 

The following article from Mises.org is required reading:

 

https://mises.org/blog/should-cash-be-abolished

 

It is being seriously considered in the halls of power:

 

At the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland, Joseph Stiglitz the Nobel Prize-winning economist argued in favor of phasing out currency and moving toward a digital economy.

The view expressed by Stiglitz is similar to that of former IMF chief economist Kenneth Rogoff who has been arguing for many years that there is an urgent need to remove cash from the economy. It is held that cash provides support to the shadow economy and permits tax evasion. Some estimates suggest this could be up to $700 billion in the US.

The Governor of the Bank of England — Mark Carney — has expressed similar views in support of the removal of cash.

 

You can read the explanation of money in the essay, but here are the political implications:

 

There are other issues associated with the digitization of money flows which warrant comment.

First, there is the problem that the mandatory switch from physical money to money held as deposits within banks will deprive people of the privacy they may wish in the allocation of their financial resources.

Ahh yes, they will be able to know everything about you.

Second, once all cash is transferred to the banking system, there is the real risk that control over that money is progressively ceded to that system and to the governments which thrive upon it. Political or consumption activities that are unpopular with government and/or commercial interests — especially in an environment of growing powers of the “security state” — could result in retributive action via restrictions on access to those monetary balances.

Even more serious. You become an “unperson”. No money, no job, no savings.

Third, in a purely digital world it would be impossible to withdraw physical money should people believe that their bank (or the banking system as a whole) was at risk of collapse. This could potentially lock people on board a sinking ship, or at least remove the ability of people to make their own judgments and vote with their monetary feet.

A Global North Korea.

The compulsory switch to purely digital cash could well become yet another facet of the growing tendency toward the further centralization of state power and the decline in individual liberty.

The victory of the Minotaur.

It really depends what kind of centralisation, and how many competing political units there are. Frankly, this scares me perhaps the most of everything that’s going on.

https://mises.org/blog/should-cash-be-abolished

Contemplate one’s options:

http://www.socialmatter.net/2017/01/16/mr-gnobody-exit-illegibility/

Something you did, somthing you said, soemthing you bought years ago, could one day come back to haunt you.