In some ways this is great news for consumers. The rise of mobile and electronic payments means faster, convenient, and more efficient purchases in most instances. New technologies are being built and improved to facilitate these transactions, and improving security is also a priority for many payment providers.
However, there is also a darker side in the shift to a cashless society. Governments and central banks have a different rationale behind the elimination of cash transactions, and as a result, the so-called “war on cash” is on.
On the Path to a Cashless Society
The Federal Reserve estimates that there will be $616.9 billion in cashless transactions in 2016. That’s up from around $60 billion in 2010.
Despite the magnitude of this overall shift, what is happening from country to country varies quite considerably. Consider the contradicting evidence between Sweden and Germany.
In Sweden, about 59% of all consumer transactions are cashless, and hard currency makes up just 2% of the economy. Yet, across the Baltic Sea, Germans are far bigger proponents of modern cash. This should not be too surprising, considering that the German words for “debt” and “guilt” are the exact same.
Within Germany, only 33% of consumer transactions are cashless, and there are only 0.06 credit cards in existence per person.
The Dark Side of Cashless
The shift to a cashless society is even gaining momentum in Germany, but it is not because of the willing adoption from the general public. According to Handelsblatt, a leading German business newspaper, a proposal to eliminate the €500 note while capping all cash transactions at €5,000 was made in February by the junior partner of the coalition government.
Governments have been increasingly pushing for a cashless society. Ostensibly, by having a paper trail for all transactions, such a move would decrease crime, money laundering, and tax evasion. France’s finance minister recently stated that he would “fight against the use of cash and anonymity in the French economy” in order to prevent terrorism and other threats. Meanwhile, former Secretary of the Treasury and economist Larry Summers has called for scrapping the U.S. $100 bill – the most widely used currency note in the world.
“Smoother” Aggregate Demand?
It’s not simply an argument of the above government rationale versus that of privacy and anonymity. Perhaps the least talked-about implication of a cashless society is the way that it could potentially empower central banking to have more ammunition in “smoothing” out the way people save and spend money.
By eliminating the prospect of cash savings, monetary policy options like negative interest rates would be much more effective if implemented. All money would presumably be stored under the same banking system umbrella, and even the most prudent savers could be taxed with negative rates to encourage consumer spending.
While there are certainly benefits to using digital payments, our view is that going digital should be an individual consumer choice that can be based on personal benefits and drawbacks. People should have the voluntary choice of going plastic or using apps for payment, but they shouldn’t be pushed into either option unwillingly.
Forced banishment of cash is a completely different thing, and we should be increasingly wary and suspicious of the real rationale behind such a scheme.
And they ( the government ) could take your money at will.Anytime for any reason.Plus track your transactions .No thanks.
Wired magazine just had a big lovefest article about how great a cashless society would be. Not a single word about how it would be an oppressive government’s wet dream.
bb…”No thanks.”
Hahahahahahahabababa, like you have a choice. Hahahahababababa.
I can understand bankers and the government wanting a cashless society (fees for every transaction and taxation, respectively) However I cannot think of a single reason that anyone else would be a proponent.
Don’t people buy fresh produce from little stands on the side of the road? Every sold some junk from the garage or basement in the local classifieds or yard sales?
How about poor Santa ringing the Salvation Army bell at Christmas–or the millions of jars on countertops for local charity causes and families?
How will those recyclers turn in scrap metal and cans for cash? Won’t pawn shops essentially die off?
I could go on and on but ultimately, the evil is in every transaction being recorded for taxing –and of course thousands of varying jobs will cease to exist and supplements to struggling people’s small wages will be strangled–but TPTB never seem to give much forethought to all of the dozens of side consequences when they push this crap on us.
Rev 13:15-17 “It was allowed to put breath into the idol, so that it could speak. Everyone who refused to worship the idol of the beast was put to death. All people were forced to put a mark on their right hand or forehead. Whether they were powerful or weak, rich or poor, free people or slaves, they all had to have this mark, or else they could not buy or sell anything. This mark stood for the name of the beast and for the number of its name.” (CEV)
If it is in prophecy, it will happen.
Yet the people seem to be failing to recognize the times we are now entering, even to the point of enthusiastically joining in.
Cut the snakes off at the head
The Devil is “winning”……you will worship him or you will not buy or sell, that is the endgame.
Greetings,
I wonder how that would work out here in California. After all, somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3’rd of our economy is underground. If you go cashless then the underground economy with entirely dislodge itself from the tax economy. When that happens, the tax economy is going to take a massive hit as the resources generated from the underground economy stay entirely within the underground economy.
The underground economy is one of labor and capital assets while the tax economy is printing and debt. You would need an army of enforcers and spies to shut it down and how would you pay for this army given the loss of tax revenue?
When we finally go cashless, you will see a competing system come up to challenge it.
I think this is almost the first time I have to take NickelthroweR’s side..
Although I use a credit card for 99% of my purchases (I use their money for 30 days and get between 1-3% kickback on every purchase and pay off the card every 30 days) but then I don’t charge for anything illegal.
However, removing my option to use cash if I choose, is something I’d resist big-time. The day the dollar falls or cash is outlawed, you better have a nice stock of small gold and used pre-65 silver coins because bad money drives out good – and while our paper money smells to high heaven is really bad, is subject to massive controls and inflation, it beats the shit out of leaving a paper trail on every transaction if you don’t want to do that. Somehow I don’t think the elite of this country wants that paper trail either..
MA
To my way of thinking, the Treasury Department could take back the digital money. You wouldn’t need the Fed anymore to print. Our cashless money would no longer be tied to the banksters. They could rot in the hotspot. After all, they have destroyed our Country!
At a public meeting I asked Adam Putnam. Florida Secretary of Agriculture, for his thoughts on the NWO Banksters push to get rid of all cash and give us The Mark of The Beast Chip in our hands. He said it is like the chip we put in cattle and anybody that comes at me with such a chip is gonna get cut.