It will probably come as no surprise to readers to learn that Sweden, that paradise on earth, is leading the way into another Elysium of social “freedom” and “equality.” You might even mockingly call it “financial social justice.” A recent New York Times article discusses Sweden’s push to get rid of cash entirely. It paints a disturbing picture.
Despite the fact that the number of electronic fraud cases in the country reached 140,000 (more than double the number from ten years ago, according to the Ministry of Justice), officials are determined to force the population to use plastic, credit, or electronic means to pay for goods and services. Some banks, apparently, don’t even dispense or accept cash.
The threat, of course, lies in the fact that now every single financial transaction will leave a record, and will be monitored. If something is being recorded, then by definition it is being monitored, despite attempts by the authorities to massage away this distinction. It is simply a matter of degree. And as always, such an “innovation” is being wrapped in peals of praise about how much it is going to “help” everyone.
Why This Is Not Good
Besides the privacy problem, which alone should be sufficient reason not to implement the plan, there are other compelling reasons “going cashless” is not a good idea:
1. It will marginalize elderly people and poor people who are used to paying for things in cash, and are deeply suspicious (with good reason) of electronic payment systems.
2. It will encourage people to spend frivolously, since paying for things on one’s smart phone is fast and easy. This will likely contribute to debt problems, gambling problems, and all sorts of irresponsible behavior. A student interviewed at the University of Gothenberg admitted that if she had a 500 krona note, she would think twice about spending it; electronic payment brought little to no psychological hesitation.
3. Holding physical currency (paper money or coin) doesn’t really cost the holder anything besides inflation. But digital currency in banks can get eroded very, very easily with fees, charges, and all the other games that banks like to play.
4. Are banks really willing and capable of handing all the millions and millions of tiny transactions that would happen every day? From my fifteen years’ of experience with dealing with banks, I’ve learned that the average bank dork can’t even organize a roll of toilet paper. It’s difficult to see how the average bank is going to be competent enough to handle all these transactions efficiently. They are going to charge everyone though the teeth for their learning curve. Just you wait.
5. Digital currency would be vulnerable to disruption by fraud or terrorist attacks.
6. Moving to digital currency might even speed up the demise of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency. There are huge amounts of dollars in circulation abroad. It is possible that holders of dollars abroad would sell them quickly, as a reaction to the uncertain future of the electronic world.
Not surprisingly, the government and big business are working hand in hand to see that this dream becomes a reality. What is the real reason it is being pushed? It all comes down to power, control, and profits: that is, the government wants more power, and big business wants to make more money.
Government And Big Finance Loves It
By turning everything into a digital transaction, the banks are guaranteed the ability to make huge amounts of money on fees. They will be taking a cut on everything that moves in and out of their hands, which means every single thing. Leif Trogen, an official at the Swedish Bankers’ Association, has basically admitted as much.
Of course, the plan is being lauded by claiming that not having cash around helps to “protect” people from random robberies. But now the entire population is going to get robbed by the banks and the government.
Apparently, cash now represents only about 2 percent of Sweden’s financial transactions. In the United States, this figure is supposedly 7.7 percent, and in the Eurozone, 10 percent (I find these figures hard to believe).
Regardless, the government has given the plan its tacit approval by doing nothing to stop it. As noted above, electronic payments leave a crystal-clear record, and this assists in population control and tax collection.
People are also now going to be bombarded with intrusive solicitations for money for all sorts of things. Picking electronic pockets is even easier than picking regular ones. This whole idea of “safety” is a lie promoted by the government to justify its policies.
One disturbing story tells us all we need to know. During one recent church service at the Filadelfia Stockholm church, the church’s bank account number was projected onto a large screen, and parishoners were asked to take out their smartphones and donate. Anyone not complying would attract attention. Churches are noticing that donations have increased dramatically as a result of these new types of collection tactics.
The last thing Sweden needs is more conformist pressure.
A lot of this talk reminds thoughtful observers of the days when governments told us how great it would be for everyone if we de-coupled our currencies from the gold standard. Paradise, we were assured, was just around the corner. Governments would be able to print more money. More liquidity would mean more prosperity. All sorts of spending could take place without any financial discipline.
And yet people today work harder and harder for less and less. Maybe what they really should have said was that getting off the gold standard would be good for the elites and for governments, but not for the citizens. I am not necessarily saying that we should go back to the gold standard, but there should at least be some way of imbuing a currency (even a fiat one) with confidence.
It is difficult to feel confident about a glowing number on a computer screen that you can’t see or touch.
Currencies Need One Of Two Things
But perhaps the best analysis here is to look at history. As I see it, any form of currency must have one of two things to succeed:
1. People must believe in it, and have faith in its integrity. This is the basis of all paper money (i.e., fiat currencies) issued by governments today. Whether such faith in governments is justified is a separate question.
2. The currency must have some intrinsic value itself (i.e., gold, silver, copper, etc.). This is the old-fashioned type of money. In the old days (at least in theory), all money was backed by some precious metal.
When we look at digital currency, we could argue that it possesses neither of these requirements. At least paper money could be held in the hand or in the pocket. Digital currency is about as ethereal as one can get. It is difficult to see this as more “trustworthy” than paper money. And it goes without saying that digital currency will not be backed by precious metals.
When all is said and done, it is difficult to see this as yet another scheme by governments and banks to control us, monitor us, and make us pay for the privilege.
Read More: This Accidental Experiment Shows The Superiority Of Patriarchy
Negative interest rates (NIRP, Negative Interest Rate Policy)
One of the big reasons there is now a push to get rid of paper currency, especially in places like Sweden and Denmark, is that they are starting to have negative interest rates.
The rate is small so far (I think in Sweden negative 0.15%, so for every $100, you would lose $0.15 per year) but the problem is that the rates are expected to go more negative over the next few years.
If people can withdraw their cash, they will just pull most of out of the system instead of losing 1% or 2% per year, when the rates get that negative. The problem with people pulling deposits out of the banking system is that the deposits are needed to fund loans.
Yeah, NIRP is just another tax.
look at Greece and other heavily indebted countries. They want to be raid bank accounts as needed (which is nothing more than theft sanctioned by the government, or as the example of Greece might, even without that sanction). The banks will be sovereign. At least we will know who our masters are
PS well done for seeing the connexion between cash free and negative interest rates
We got so-called cash-free banks in my country. I want nothing to do with them, what a complete farce.
This is probably the best reason I’ve heard for that. Not only do I imagine a situation where they take your money but one where they also resist any of your attempts to move money abroad. These measures are called “capital controls” and have happened in tons of countries as they’re economic measures fall apart.
I think capital controls will have to be necessary at that point, what kind of moron would let their money sit where they lost 1-2% per year of more?
All of the negative interest rates has multiple features good for government and mega-corporations:
1) An encouragement to spend, why keep money in the bank when you can just spend it like a dumb consumer? Good for corporations and gov’t revenue (taxes).
2) Destroying the last vestiges of the savers, making them by default become spenders or risk losing more. And by spending more and living in a turbulent economy, risking job loss, having more chance to wind up in debt.
3) Allowing mega-banks to not go belly up
One of the problems of the last ten years is the velocity of money has plummeted. Negative interest rates are a way to push up the velocity, by making the erstwhile saver either spend (as you noted), or more likely to invest in financial markets. Since bonds pay next to nothing, the money gets pushed into the stock market, which is why we have a stock bubble.
Your logic makes sense. I personally believe that the reason we are seeing things like this in Sweden first is quite simply it’s another control on the citizenry. Anyone ever notice that as population replacement picks up that governments have to have more and more controls to keep the facade up.
The War on Cash is a favorite pet project of the economic central planners. They want to eliminate hand-to-hand currency so that governments can document, control, and tax everything. This is why they’re lowering the threshold for mandatory reporting of cash transactions and, in some instances, simply making it illegal to pay cash.
– Italy made cash transactions over €1,000 illegal;
– Switzerland proposed banning cash payments in excess of 100,000 francs;
– Russia banned cash transactions over $10,000;
– Spain banned cash transactions over €2,500;
– Mexico made cash payments of more than 200,000 pesos illegal;
– Uruguay banned cash transactions over $5,000; and
– France made cash transactions over €1,000 illegal, down from the previous limit of €3,000.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-18/worlds-first-cashless-society-here-totalitarians-dream-come-true
I noticed that women are quite happy to pay through contactless machines as it’s quick and easy and they don’t need to memorize a pin number or sign a receipt.
And of course the Elites make laws like that in our Best interests (Sarcasm)
What is not well-known is that the US is the biggest tax haven in the world (if you are not a US citizen).
It’s interesting to watch the tax laws that get passed:
For example, foreign estate is not taxable under US ta law. Neither is bullion (eg gold, silver, industrial metals), but a third-party has to hold it (or somesuch).
You just know some IRS guy or one of the political elite has foreign estate and bullion socked away somewhere…
in the uk banks have refused to give people their money in cash http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25861717
but 100,000 swiss francs is £68000 so that is not as drastic as the others unless you are very rich
That’s pretty terrifying.
it’s worrying because once everything is electronic they can track who makes donations to which political parties and movements. They can also easily stop targeted political parties, movements and groups from receiving payments. Using this they could close anyone down who they tag with the ‘racist’ or ‘hate speech’ anti free speech tags.
They can’t ban cash totally in the US; the government needs a way to reliably process the $ from the drug cartels. 🙂
They can’t ban cash totally in the US; the government needs a way to reliably process the $ from the drug cartels. 🙂
i know this is a joke, but i was watching the documentary “cocaine cowboys,” the other night and they spend a lot of time talking about how drug money in the 80s was so big that cartels had business divisions that made multi billion dollars worth of investments in south florida’s economy.
via wiki:
“The film reveals that much of the economic growth which took place in Miami during this time period was a benefit of the drug trade. As members of the drug trade made immense amounts of money, this money flowed in large amounts into legitimate businesses. As a result, drug money indirectly financed the construction of many of the modern high-rise buildings in southern Florida. Later, when law enforcement pressure drove many major players out of the picture, many high-end stores and businesses closed because of plummeting sales.”
Another excellent article!
The current financial systems in place are just cleverly disguised shell games implemented by the elites to control society, and a cashless society is just the next step in fulfilling their master plan of world dominance.
Fiat currency, Central Banks and Fractional Reserve lending must be abolished for us to be free and the gold standard re-implemented along with other precious metals.
There are only a finite amount of resources on our planet and only a medium of exchange that’s in finite supply can be used to fulfill the three basic requirements of money: 1. Unit of measurement 2. Medium of exchange 3. Temporal storage of value.
Everyone should stockpile gold bullion and other precious metals (the only true currencies that have stood the test of times) and weapons. You’re going to need both when shit hits the fan.
Silver is better because you can use it for transactions less than $10,000, and Osmium is good for even smaller transactions (copper is too cheap)
Never heard of osmium before just now. Would not accept.
name another precious metal of your choice, it doesn’t matter. osmium is just in the right price range.
Osmium is the rarest metal. If rarity was everything it would be much pricier than platinum or gold but it’s not. I believe it is also the densest metal, a lot denser than lead. Not sure what it’s used for though. Golds yellowness is what probably makes it appealing, and there’s only three or four officially “traded” precious metals and osmium despite it’s rarity doesn’t make the list.
Who here is for the use of precious metal coins in trading? The mint issues gold and silver coins with face values, but these are supposedly for ‘investors.’ Still, you could barter them at a decent price, which would remove a lot of the instability of the precious metals market.
Definitely.
Sure, but how do we know they are actual gold and silver? Tungsten has been a problem lately or so I hear, and there is the question of purity.
Tungsten has to be sintered, which makes it very hard to make a coin out of it. Better than fiat, anyway.
There is an x-ray spectroscopy gun http://alloytester.com/s1-sorter have seen it being used. Not cheap though. Don’t think it goes more than half a millimetre deep though so there are cases of people plating other metals with a thick layer of gold..
http://www.wikihow.com/Tell-if-Gold-Is-Real
http://opencurrency.com/3-quick-ways-to-help-tell-real-silver-from-fake-silver/
http://www.wikihow.com/Test-Silver
The only bad thing about the silver tests is that most are destructive to object tested.
I sell copper for scrap already. Does that count?
no, scrap is mostly used in industry. Unless you work for the copper, and use the copper to purchase goods and services (not cash), you aren’t using it as currency.
As a matter of fact there is NO law that would forbid you to come up with your own currency. If there are willing shops to take it, you are good to go. Nobody can stop you.
Using gold and silver are just weights and balances. When using this type of currency, you cannot be compelled by the usurious and corrupt banking system and politicians to pay income tax.
I like that idea. Thing is the “unit” of a coin of cold is between around $20 and $1000. That works for a lot of things though. Is that legal? I remember reading in one country that barter was technically illegal because you do the tax office out of its sales tax.
Great article. One of ROK’s best ever.
I hate to have to be the one to “go there,” but in a cashless society, how do you slip dollar bills in a stripper’s garter? How do you have an “arrangement” with a woman without everyone knowing?
For that matter, how do you hire a hooker? How do you buy extra beers for you and your buddies without your wife knowing? How do you gamble without the neighborhood (or church) possibly knowing? Hell, how do you buy your mistress a necklace without your wife knowing? The answer to all of these things, of course, is “you don’t.” The lack of freedom alone should frighten everyone who reads this site.
The elite haven’t made us suffer enough. They want more suffering. Pure evil, those guys.
Yeah, the chip and go will never replace the stripper’s garter! Where would they put her chip anyway?
You can swipe your card right through their slit.
Oh God the thought it! I’m going to be good and listen to some chants (religious) before bed, my soul needs cleansing.
Sex bots? 😉
“but in a cashless society, how do you slip dollar bills in a stripper’s garter?”
vagina / card reader?
Please insert your card into the twat, wait 3 seconds and then remove it.
And she’ll still charge you fees because her twat is owned by Wells Fargo.
maybe they’ll amalgamate the crime of rape and credit card fraud?
Gives a whole new meaning to your card being declined.
I think they already have. Ask anyone who bought drinks and then was wrongly accused of rape
And the inevitable message:
“Re-insert card and remove RAPIDLY”
I would say the way to get around this would be to either:
a) Buy pre-paid credit cards
b) Make a front company
c) Move to a country that is still sane
d) Give money to establishments instead of people (like paying money to a stripper service instead of to an escort).
e) Change the laws of your country
A and D might work for a while if you pay all the bills and then people won’t get too suspicious. B is expensive but probably a bit safer than the rest. C is the best long term solution and overtime will have less pain as the anti-freedom train rolls on. E is a horrible, tiresome, uphill battle which at this time would probably take blood, sweat, and tears.
f) I hope somebody sane will conquer us.
that’s my plan. Although this person would probably have to come from within the united states, and the country would be balkanized in the process.
How does a kid slip a coin into an 80’s style coin slot game arcade? What about those cool 50’s era juke boxes? They’re taking away our memories!…
I’m in a strip club. The dancer on stage has a twenty stuffed in the band on each side of her g-string. I go up to the stage. She shimmies over. I swipe my ATM card down her twat, grab both twenties, and tell her I don’t need a receipt. True story?
Yes, it’s true. And then when your wife went to use the credit card the next day, she asked why it smelled funny. So you had to make up that lie about using it to buy tuna fish sandwiches for the whole office.
How do you make it rain on a stripper? Riddle me that!
if you are using strippers and hookers and hiding spending your own money from your wife there are a lot more immediate issues that a society with a virtual currency.
Just get rid of the wife. Solves most of the problems.
Thanks, DOBA.
You’ll have to literally “buy” currency from the club just like you buy poker chips to play in casinos. I’m sure the transaction will appear to have some sort of innocent name to protect the clients but this has great blackmail potential to be sure. I doubt that last part has escaped those who are pushing this.
That’s the way they already do it at strip clubs in Europe. Since the smallest Euro bill is a five, the clubs sell patrons scrip that is supposed to be the equivalent of one Euro.
Next thing you know, you will be assigned only certain shops you can spend your money at. All others will deny your card. Sky is the limit what can be done once down this path.
To answer your first question..when I lived in Canada I found this to be a negative aspect to their society with its Looney coins
A black or grey market and is likewise decentralized and using an alternative currency it seems is probably a way to circumnavigate this cashless society.
Bitcoin.
Cashless societies will then lead mandatory trackable IDs where currency is stored and other personal info. You can say goodbye to privacy and hello to the worst forms of identity theft and black mail.
I suspect the rationale behind this ploy is related to the notion that a digital or virtual measure of value doesn’t need to be backed up by any quantifiable asset, like precious metals, gold, or oil on a Nation’s national reserve accounts.
It means that international banks and organisations like the IMF and the World Bank can essentially control and stabilize any natural market fluctuations that are an integral part the capitalist system. By eliminating the traditional notion of measuring a Nation’s resources and its GDP by creating virtual units of currencies straight “out of the ether” it allows all types of “unnatural” (false) credits and debts to created or destroyed, based on non-market influences.
By, doing this you can dictate, control and manipulate the economic fortunes of any Nation. Essentially, it means that the fiscal and monetary policy concerns of any given Nation are removed from any form of democratic accountability by the politic representatives of “the people” through establishing a mechanism that affects every citizen, but, is critically controlled by organisations that are neither democratic or accountable your own elected politicians.
As they say in Las Vegas, the house always wins in these games.
“It means that international banks and organisations like the IMF and the World Bank can essentially control and stabilize any natural market fluctuations that are an integral part the capitalist system”
That makes sense, but maybe the fluctuations are part of that system i.e. they are not against cycles of boom and bust unless ‘they’ (the bankers) don’t control those cycles. I guess it does mean they don’t want a run on the banks at least.
I think they want rid of fluctuations they cannot control. It was the problems in the valuation of houses that caused the banks to go bankrupt over the last few years. These are the type of factors that both the State and Banks don’t ever want again, so magic money in which they set the value is the answer to solving problems caused by market factors outside of their control.
but is that sustainable? Does it achieve anything beyond protecting the elites from suffering the consequences of their own actions? Wasn’t one of the main problems in 2008 to do with the repeal of glass seagall protections which the banks were fully behind? I’m not sure they want any kind of financial stability except for themselves
“I’m not sure they want any kind of financial stability except for themselves” QED.
Well put.
I don’t see this happening in near future. Many people(especially elder people) still don’t use bank accounts, and receive payments and/or pensions in cash. Cashless society means that you absolutely have to have a bank account. Forcing someone to have a bank account would be illegal(though, we know that the globalists don’t care much about that) Also: electronic transactions are known of being extremely flawed. Technical problems are numerous. As for Sweden: last time I checked this country was overrun by immigrants so who cares.
“Forcing someone to have a bank account would be illegal”
All they have to do is to ensure that pensions etc can only be paid into a bank account. In England social care has already gone through this route.
It also makes it easier for the social services to sell the pensioner’s house nowadays. No way in hell would someone have to pay £300,000 for care.
It is required by law to have a bank account in my country.
They can freeze your bank account; they can’t freeze cash.
Paper money is bad enough.
Paper money is mobile and accpeted world-wide. Way to much freedom for the proles and the tax man might miss his pound of flesh on any transaction.
Think of it this way. If you fall foul of big govt. or the courts (back taxes, child support, suspected criminal, etc…), they freeze your account. You cannot buy or sell. All that is coming has been already been foretold (Revelations 13:17).
We should revert to gold/silver currency if there’s enough reserves – something of real value.
Yeah, there aren’t enough reserves of silver. The supply fell behind when no one used it as currency for the most economically productive century (20th). Even so, it would still be more useful for trade than gold is, and at this rate silver is only likely to go up in value once people use it for exchange.
There are always “enough” reserves, it’s simply a matter of what the price per unit is. The reason why gold has a higher exchange rate for goods than silver does is precisely because there are fewer reserves of gold.
yeah, except the supply of gold is higher than that of silver. No one has seriously mined silver since the 1800’s. Now, silver can be mined at a cost of $7.50, so it won’t be useful as currency until the supply stabilizes.
Good point, in addition to supply one must consider demand, and there is considerable demand in the electronics industry for gold. Essentially there is a smaller supply of gold remaining after industrial use for jewelry or money purposes, hence its price. The price of a metal is tied to its scarcity and its ease of extraction from the planet. If gold was as plentiful as oil, its exchange value would be much lower. There’s also probably some preference for gold over silver in the jewelry industry, but I’ve always found silver far more attractive personally.
Do you know anything more about the gold/silver price ratio and if it means anything? Was trying to understand this..
Good clear article, which fits in with the previous article on the Chinese Sesame system. They’re slowly edging towards this, and its difficult to imagine that it won’t come about in some form or other sooner rather than later. It is increasingly difficult to do anything without ID, and as indicated it is the tethering of identity to consumerism that will make this so complete and potentially totalitarian. Our purchases are already tracked online, one wonders whether this would be the ‘beginning’ of far-more extensive financial profiling. As yet I don’t get the sense that regular purchases are monitored by banks at least, and I imagine there are some protections against that – at least with respect to marketing. But what about meta-data etc?
The issue of tying money to value is the crucial one though. Beyond the obvious potential that this will give banks and governments the opportunity to steal from us – even more than they already do, the real theft will be the complete severance of currency from value. This is of course the logical conclusion of central banking, and the reason the fed was set up, and the gold standard repealed, and the greenback ceased to be issued directly by governments etc. Even the petro dollar indicates some kind of pegging of currency to actual value, but I can’t help feeling the end game is to simply be able to value anything according to whim. Fiat currency isn’t really fiat until it can simply be conjured as though by magic. Perhaps we’re already there, but I suspect that isn’t the case. The money masters want to click their fingers and value black as white and white as black. They want to be able to create value without reference to anything in the real world.
” They want to be able to create value without reference to anything in the real world” That’s exactly it in one. We’ll be working our butts off for an abstraction that’s conjured up by the whims of our new masters in Geneva.
I believe the word Abracadabra means “I create as I speak.”
They are magicians. This is how they see themselves I’m afraid
They’re about to have a referendum to cut back on that a bit, not so likely to go through though.. 105 000 signatures were collected https://www.rt.com/op-edge/327191-switzerland-money-banks-ban-referendum/
Sounds like a wise move.
Bitcoin.
100% trackable, open to theft, etc. Also may fall out of favor quite easily, like any currency, and does not a lick of good anywhere without net access.
It’s as trackable as you want it to be. I believe it was intentionally made this way to reduce government opposition. Yes, most people will be fully trackable, because most people are clowns. Those who understand how the internet works, however, can be completely anonymous if they want to be.
But the main point is that it is impossible for the government to confiscate your coins without your cooperation. There is no such thing as freezing your bitcoins.
Everywhere has net access today.
Prices fluctuate too much for it to be used as an actual currency. Plus it’s still traceable when converted
It has many uses.
Firstly, it is used as currency. I pay my VPN with bitcoin, and americans can buy pretty much anything with it at this point.
Price fluctuation gives the option of trading it for profit. Don’t go all in before trying it with small amounts, 90% of traders lose.
Trackability is a feature, not a bug. You have the option of trading it in for cash if you want, through a number of different channels.
Most importantly, there is no hard limit on how high the price can go and over time it is expected to go up. It comes down to supply and demand.
So you pay for shit in bitcoin? Do you do it where you convert USD to bitcoin right before you make a transaction or do you just keep money tied up in a wallet. How exactly is trackability a feature though? I thought the IRS put some new shit into place where bitcoin exchanges had to document all transactions or something like that.
I pay with bitcoin. Most shops convert it to fiat, but that’s on their end, not mine.
You don’t see how the ability to go back and look at your own money history could be a good thing? Besides the personal convenience, it can also be used in contracts. Once something is on the blockchain it can not be changed, it’s there forever and acts as proof that people paid what they were supposed to.
And again, you can still be anonymous if you want to, it just takes a little work.
Yes, the fluctuation is way wilder than what you see in the currency or commodity markets..
there’s other cryptocurrencies like litecoin, and I can see people going back to ‘lierty dollars’ (golden coins which were minted by citizens, one guy did it for about 8 years before the Secret Service raided him for promoting alternate currencies)
Cant have people usurping govt power now can we?
Excellent article.
The old tech savvy but less functionally aware (some would say less cynical) version of me of years past would welcome cashless payment systems simply from an unthinking convenience mindset. Why carry pesky coins & paper bills eh?
Thing is I doubt many people are even aware of the concept of fiat currency & the gold standard. I’ll even state that as axiomatic truth.
I know I hadn’t a clue up until a little over a year ago.
A convenient intellectual & emotional deficiency for the banking industry & its overlords to exploit.
A bunch of data units stored on ‘secure’ servers & accessible only through methods determined by the overlords. Able to separate the haves from the have-nots at the behest of a faceless button pusher.
Who watches the Watchmen?
That is an insult to an excellent comic.
It’s actually a reference to an ancient Roman saying. Unmount your high horse.
Not as he intended it. Also, do enlighten, what is this ancient roman saying?
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes from the satires of juvenal
A very different meaning indeed.
Yes juvenal was discussing marriage but the phrase has morphed over the years to apply to those in power.
Think of the overlords as Ozymandias without the intention of remaking the world into a better place.
I can see health care companies and banks colluding in reducing the foods you buy
if you blood sugar is too high or you are to fat.
Talk about a perfect measure to control people’s lives.
Quintus,
I just finished reading the same article and posted it on my blog! The idea of a cashless society will bring total control of everyone and everything. With just a flick of a switch your life will be over! No access to money? How are you going to live?
Personally that is too much power for one person to have over me!
I think everyone here should look into it and find the truth! Imagine a world with no privacy! Everyone knows what you have, your assets, where you live. There is no place to hide at all!
it sucks balls!!
Thanks, Jose. Roosh has no problem with people posting ROK articles on their blogs, as long as you credit the source and link back to the original article here. We appreciate it!
No problem Quintus! Thank you for the heads up!
From my train of thought: I see the big push for a cashless society is due to the banks are beginning to have negative interest rates. While I’m no banker guru, I’ve always extract part of my paycheck from my bank so that I got a bit of savings saved up in case of shit hits the fan.
I’ve begun to notice that the tellers have begun to question whenever I extract more than 500$ from my account that isn’t a purchase…
Don’t trust the banks. Get your money out of them at weekly or monthly intervals and buy up silver or gold so that you have some real wealth going, and maybe learn how to handle, clean, repair, and shoot a gun. When the banks start asking questions just say that you’re just putting some money on the side for a long-term purchase.
“None of your business” is my stock response.
“I’ve begun to notice that the tellers have begun to question whenever I extract more than 500$ from my account that isn’t a purchase…”
Are you serious? I can can come up with plenty of curt or smartarse responses to that question to deter them asking me that too often.
There is now a logical reason to have a Mark of the Beast. Banks and government already want to charge negative interest rates so they can force people to consume and stimulate the economy.. But with negative rates, people will try to put there money under the mattress or hoard it at home. Result would be an unacceptable bank run.
Having a cashless society. preferably with people chipped, would make economic sense for a government and banking system fearful of collapsing.
Gotta say, ROK is on a roll with great topics.
Not buying the random robberies argument. It’s pretty easy to protect yourself against robbery and someone can steal your plastic and knock you out just as easily as they could money.
But who really monitors their transactions that closely. With $20 in your pocket you can passively monitor it. With electronic currency you have to go line by line and review every transaction and micro fee, which most people do not do. That’s how they get you.
After all, you can’t use your concealed gun on a Russian teen who is 4000 miles away and just emptied your account.
Remember back in the 80s or so when the height of hacking was the salami slice effect — i.e. hack into a bank but only steal 0.001 cents each from two hundred million accounts?
Basically, corporate America figured out how to do this legally.
There was a movie called Hackers! based on this idea. They’ll never miss the small change was the concept . In the last few weeks shops in my country have started rounding up, so if something is 4.97, they round to 5.00 and don’t give you the change. Nice trick when you multiple it by about 500 transactions each day.
Corporate American, Europe, Asia are a bunch of gangsters, mind you, not particularity smart ones. You have to ask yourself with money, SO WHAT? What does it actually mean if you’ve so much money but no authenticity or spirit of mind and soul in the end? Well maybe they’ll appreciate this salient fact on their silk lined death beds, sad to say. A life spent taking and taking and for what? That thought might hit them like an iron bullet at the end.
Fuck that, I’m sure they don’t round down. Next time something is 4.49, give them 4 bucks and tell them to figure it out.
The was introduced on the sly by the Government who’ve encouraged shops to be decent and try and mark their prices in units of 5 only. Of course, the shops have done the complete opposite…”and the tills are ringing for Christmas day”!
These sorts of crimes have been in decline since the mid nineties in western countries. Protection from this is really not a priority (not to mention that this is a shifty solution)
The other important point here is that banks can actually move to a negative interest rate. This doesn’t work when people can pull their cash out and hold it under a mattress. If they have to leave it in a bank, they have to pay the interest rate tax.
Im not against all digital currency, I would like to see bitcoin succeed. Just imagine all the Americans who could do away with paying for their own genocide if the government couldn’t threaten us with imprisonment if we didn’t want to pay for it.
Besides the reasons above, a personal reason to keep cash is, it just feels good. I mean, you can have a dozen credit cards, but for all I know, either they’re overdrawn or they don’t even work. But when I go on dates and pull cash, even if I don’t carry thousands in my wallet, people, but especially women see that I’m as real and responsible as it gets. Nothing says relief and pride like carrying a fifty in your wallet at any given time. And boys and girls, that’s why you’ll never see 50 Cent and other rappers stuffing credit cards on the trunks of Lamborghinis. Personally I find that kind of behavior obnoxious, but one can’t fail to see the point.
It will never work. Moreover it will backfire, and shift the underground/black market/informal economies into overdrive. Bartering cannot be banned.
There will always be replacement currencies. People will always find ways to buy hookers, drugs, and illegal things. Besides, currency is a necessity outside of the developed world (the infrastructure for a cashless economy doesn’t exist).
The audacity of these elite fuckers is truly astounding.
Imagine a failing economy like Venezuela where people already have to rely on a black market for even basic stuff like soap and feminine products. Add online banking and one gets the picture.
Los Roques Venezuela is my favorite vacation spot. They’ve tried to prop up their shitty socialist currency. One can officially exchange USD for Bolivars (at a fake value) but, one can’t officially exchange Bolivars for USD (even at the fake value, or all their capital would flee). So what one does is exchange USD for Bolivars on the black market (which is really easy) at a huge markdown. You can live like a king in Venezuela for $25 a day. Los Roques is paradise. Go there. The black market always wins!
Yes, it sucks if you need a tampon.
Duly noted. Los Roques will be added to Rio and Barranquilla as another possible destination.
North Korea is already a great example of a black market for basic necessities where everyone is involved in black market trade.
Prostitution and even drugs aren’t illegal in some countries
It will be sold to the people as being for their benefit – saving them on the costs of having paper currency and being able to now make tax dodgers pay their share so taxes will now be lower. I’ve no doubt they will also sell it as a way of protecting you from terrorists and will put crime cartels out of business by now being able to track their money trail. Probably also sell it as way of avoiding another GFC. Probably also try claim financial transaction costs will come down.
Alternatives will spring up but they have to be forgery proof.
The “Owners of Capital” are also betting on the Singularity, Cell Regeneration, Mind-clones and AI to provide their creature comforts in the future. We are approaching an era where the “Owners of Capital” will not need laborers of any kind to live a life of comfort. But, our civilization is not quite there yet, technology-wise, so the “Owners of capital” need to “keep people calm and unsuspecting” until the trigger can be pulled decisively without consequence.
So, what are the possible scenarios that regular folks will experience, during this “interim period”, while the technology needed to create the Singularity, Cell Regeneration, Mind-clones and AI, is maturing?
Young people don’t understand that this tech, that they are addicted to, can be used VERY effectively, to further their indentured servitude.
The “Owners of Capital” will simply extract the little remaining labor wages from the lower classes, by decree, through the implementation of a cashless system. Consumers will not have choices in the future because purchases will be mandatory in some way. Policies structured like Obamacare should have taught us ALL how these kinds of scenarios will play out. Obamacare is merely the test run of how to implement future legislated purchases on a large scale. “Click-Wrap Agreements” coupled with a “cashless society” will make that transition easier for the “Owners of Capital” to force on the general populace.
What do I mean exactly?
Many forget that we now live in what “could” be considered a fascist country, with oligopolies running it behind the scenes. What usually results, is a situation where the “owners of capital”, can and will “legislate” mandatory purchases in the future, if revenue does not match their expectations or projections (for the good of the nation of course, i.e., Too-Big-to-Fail).
So for example, if someone chooses not to buy unneeded goods or services, they will simply pay a “penalty” at tax time or some scheme involving a “negative interest rate”. The “owners of capital” have, at this point, run out of consumer goods that they can “strongly coerce” people to buy, in order to go to work, such as, gasoline, internet connection, car insurance, bus/subway fare, cell phones, suits/uniforms, soap, deodorant, razors, etc. We are approaching a day when they will simply make it law that you have to buy goods, in certain quantities before tax season (just like the current Obamacare that can be coupled Flexible Spending Accounts), except one day we will have an FSA to be used for ALL goods and services, and you can bet those accounts will be “use-it or lose-it”. Also, since you won’t be able to own things like the new “digital cars”, that are currently being developed, nor will you own the current “digital media” being rented on Hulu, Netflix, etc., means that likely, in the future, you could be billed for “damage to the vehicle or product” from the “real owners” of that vehicle or product at any time.
Regular People will not be allowed to be frugal in the future because the “owners of capital” can choose, AT ANY TIME to, take close to the same amount of lost revenue back, when a person tries to save money by reducing purchases, in the form of “tax penalties” or other method (cashless, digital currency, negative interest rate, instant credit to cover shortfalls and deductions from bank accounts, ALL DONE whenever the “owners of capital” see fit). A cashless society, dominated by “click-wrap agreements” is the easiest way to structure “forced purchases” into the larger economy. Another scenario that regular people will face in the future, is when someone chooses “not to buy” and then doesn’t have the proper “proof of purchase” coupon, etc, to prove they bought these items, in the required quantities, when tax fillings come due. I can guarantee that the IRS or some other agency will have some way to calculate the amount “you should have purchased” (sounds a little like a college FASFA aid forms in reverse doesn’t it?). People will also have to pay a monthly fee to keep their digital money in the bank and there won’t be any alternative way to store it, without paying the monthly fee. This process will result in an instant, predictable, revenue generator for public companies, that the stock market will then feed off.
Note, bartering used as a circumvention method has been suggested before, but the IRS already has a plan and system in place to deal with it somewhat. They will tax bartering, by an estimate, the same way they do for restaurant servers receiving tips. There will likely be HUGE penalties for barter and I will bet EVERYONE will automatically be assumed to have “bartered” some amount over the year at tax time (perhaps an estimated $500 in barter per year, that is taxed whether the person in question did any actual bartering or not). The most likely outcome though, is that one day, bartering will simply be deemed an illegal activity, I don’t recall it being a named constitutional right anywhere.
Look at solar roof panels, as another example, many local governments are taxing people for installing them because they reduce dependence on local utilities, which in turn, drives down privatized revenue being collected by the contract companies hired running the utilities.
Millennial’s and the generation after them, falsely believe tech will save and unite them, when in reality it was designed by “corporate committee” to do just the opposite. The only way to prevent that shift, is for Millennial’s to immediately STOP buying such tech, opposing the development of said tech and discouraging others from buying and using it, even if it means using physical force. But, they will NEVER do this because they have drank the cool-aid and are to a certain extent addicted to technology. Think about it, I’m seeing commercials for ordering pizza on a smartphone app, but whats the point, really? To appease Millennial’s? Perhaps. But, did this consuming cohort of fools take the time to think about whether it is really more convenient to type an order in on an app, as opposed to calling the order in on a phone? No they didn’t AND by using the smartphone app to place a FOOD ORDER instead of a phone, the pizza seller can then become a data broker making money selling customer info, instead of making money by providing a quality food product.
Then there is the issue of behavioral “data simulations” being conducted on citizens by corporations and government for revenue projections. I can guarantee that some people will not be able to be “simulated”, due to high levels of inaccuracy in the data that exists on file is collected on them. Some simple examples would be homeless people, old people that don’t use credit or the internet, and low wage earners functioning soley on cash, whom use cell phones or have utility bill etc on a relatives account, which their name is not on (I have a brother-in that does all of the above and couch surfs, there’s no way a simulation would know anything about him because he has virtually no digital footprint).
Th rub is when these “behavioral simulations” becomes a real part of business revenue projections, directly influencing tax revenue projections and collection methods. These people that “cannot be simulated” will be labeled criminals and put on some kind of supervised probation and forced to adapt habits that can be tracked digitally. I can GUARANTEE this will happen. As I stated above, Millennial’s are likely the easiest to simulate already because they have already given away the keys to the castle and have no intention of taking those keys back.
Right now most Americans are expected to and are coerced by employment requirements to buy/finance a car, buy/finance education, buy/finance healthcare, buy/finance insurance and eventually buy/finance a home of some kind.
What do you think the “Owners of Capital” will do when “life-extension”, “self-driving car”, “robot AI home worker”, “AI networked appliances” or “cyborg implant” tech become viable commercial products?
They will simply coerce people to buy it, even if the recipient doesn’t want to have the procedure done and the methods used to coerce the general populace in the United States, will not require any additional lobbying or law changes on the behalf of the “Owners of Capital”.
Imagine a world where life-extension tech is sold and financed to regular people, over long repayment periods, to people that don’t have the ability to pay for it, in cash, up front, similar to a cars, higher education or home mortgages.
Want to opt-out? Sure you have the “choice” to do anything you want. We are a “free country” after all.
Imagine the unfolding of the following fictional scenarios, resulting from a person “choosing” to NOT have the life-extension procedure:
Do you want health insurance? Sorry, but we don’t insure people whom have not had the life-extension procedure. However, there is another provider that we can refer you to that will, but that company has both a high deductible and high premium, so as to reduce the coverage risk of your shorter life span, to the provider.
Want to get a job? Sorry, but we don’t hire people whom have not had the life-extension procedure, they cost more to insure and are un-insurable in some cases. We don’t consider this discrimination, however, because its no different than requiring you to have a car or a driver license for employment with our firm. Especially with the Supreme Court declaring that those refusing the life-extension procedure are not considered disabled, nor are a protected class.
Do you need a credit card or a business loan? Sorry, but we have to charge you a higher interest rate because our actuaries have found that people whom have not had the life-extension procedure are a higher risk, have higher unemployment rates and have lower profit margins, due to a shorter life expectancy.
Do you need a bank account or cell/internet/communication service plan? Sorry, but we don’t open accounts to people whom have not had the life-extension procedure, they cost significantly more to service, due to not being plugged directly into the system.
Again, as I said above, this mandatory purchase strategy will not be limited to ” life-extension tech”. Just replace the word “life-extension procedure”, in my above example, with the word “self-driving car”, “robot AI home worker”, “AI networked appliances”, “Cell Regeneration” or “cyborg implant” and the result is the same for the regular person.
Last, “Private Cities” owned by corporations, will be exempt for labor and civil laws. The rally to create these cities will be done to lower human labor costs before the Singularity, Mind-clone and AI tech fully take over, rendering regular people back to old indenture servant system that used to exist in the USA.
Want to get a job in a “Private City”? Sorry, but we don’t hire people whom have not financed the life-extension procedure and/or do not have an AI car or home worker”.
In a “Private City” the “Owners of Capital” can make ANY RULES THEY WANT, without “due process” or pesky “labor laws” getting in the way.
All of the above also does not include fact that employers will require people working for them to hold bank accounts with negative interest rates and it won’t matter if the person is paid by on 1099 or has a W-2.
Do you want to get paid in a cashless society? If so, you will need to have an open and active “negative interest” bank account.
Perhaps there will be successful bank runs in other countries, but certainly not in the USA.
In the USA the government has the power to simply make certain actions illegal on a whim because unlike Europe, we have no real consumer, civil or labor protections. This also doesn’t account for the private banks just outright refusing to give you your money, on bank run day, requiring you to attempt to press charges against them or suing, in hopes of successfully gaining access to your funds in the far future.
But the reality is, if, bank runs become a possible reality, the private banks will know well in advance and will have taken all the physical cash out of the local bank locations, before the public becomes aware. The government will also make carrying cash over a certain amount illegal, say something like, no more than $100 physical cash on your person, inside residences, private storage, vehicles or business locations.
In the USA I suspect that the “Owners of Capital” will “legislate purchases”, little by little, then do a surprise unload of the negative interest polices on existing accounts. Regular people won’t see it coming and will hit them like a ton of bricks, with no alternatives to fall back on.
Frightening.
Thanks for reading my post Roosh, I appreciate it.
This kind of tech is bad for regular people whom are not part of the true “Owners of Capital” class and its really unfortunate that regular people do not see the scientists that are creating this tech as their economic adversaries.
This tech can be used VERY effectively, to further our indentured servitude.
But, how is that possible, a regular person may ask?
Remember when cell phones were actually fun?
I do, the phone was a huge and needed to be carried in a bag, BUT my boss NEVER called me on it, after what was considered typical work hours and certainly never to ask me to do more work while I was at home. Compare that to today, when a cell phone in your pocket can spontaneously generate more work to be done outside of the office, simply because someone higher up than you had a random thought at midnight.
When my parents were in school in the 1950’s and 60’s they were told: no one would have to work in the future, that everything would be done by robots and they would, in turn, have increased free time used for creating, making art, learning and helping others…
We all know how that turned out, mass layoffs, outsourcing due to cheaper communication tech and increased workload for those that remained gainfully employed
The Singularity, Cell regeneration, Mind-Clones Cyborg Implants and Artificial Intelligence are essentially the same lie, that was told to our parents, just rehashed for a 21st century audience.
I think its funny when regular people get excited about future tech like the Singularity, AI, Robotics, etc. Do people really think when these things finally become real, functioning, working designs, applicable to industry, that we the “peons”, will somehow ALL get a Data from Start Trek or a C-3PO from Star Wars, to help us at home, at the job site or in the office, etc?
In reality we are going to get a David 8 as depicted in the Prometheus/Aliens films or the Robot Probation officer seen in the Elysium movie. These automatons are going to take away jobs and make unethical policing and policy enforcement, both easier and cheaper, for the true “Owners of Capital”. Since they won’t be paying a salary to the robot worker, the savings will instead be pumped into legal fees and political lobbying, resulting in an overall good ROI for the corporations/governments and a full blown, loss of liberty, for everyone else.
Whom goes to jail when an AI Robot or Mind Clone pulls your arm out of the socket? Will it be considered “negligence by the human that lost the arm”, a matter for a “civil suit” only, perhaps “not a criminal act”, to be adjudicated in a arbitration setting?
I personally at this point are willing to live with 1980’s +/- era tech, if it means, I am more free and can continue to earn money to live off.
Elysium Probation Officer photo:
http://static.srcdn.com/slir/w570-h300-q90-c570:300/wp-content/uploads/Elysium-Damon-Parole.jpg
Introducing David 8 webpage:
https://www.weylandindustries.com/david
https://www.weylandindustries.com/img/david/david_003.jpg
In the words of David 8: “I can do almost anything that could possibly be asked of me, including things that my human counterparts might find distressing or unethical”
Sounds swell, don’t it!
First, AI is going to make regular people jobless
Second, it is going to steal what few liberties and freedoms they have left
Third, it will make human life valueless to the true “Owners of Capital”, many of whom are Closeted Fascists
They don’t take into account the Black Swan event that will seriously rock their world regardless.
If there’s some kind of catastrophe or even a blackout of sorts, what then? All economic activity would have to go to barter since backups can’t be found in cash.
About ten years ago I began writing a dystopian book that, for complicated reasons I never finished. In the timeline toward the transition to that society, one of the stepping stones was the digitization of all currency.
It’s a pity you didn’t finish it then. They’d be calling you the H.G Wells of our age. Besides, blackouts etc, people would survive, they have in the past without “the laws” of Keynesian economics or Friedman or whatever guru or joker writes the rule book these days.
Mark of the beast, incoming
The mark of the beast biblically explained: http://www.markofbeast.net/
This move is about power and control. The government loves to be able to track your every move and in this case it would be to track all of your transactions. They want to make sure that they are getting every penny (tax dollar) that they can out of you. Many people, today, are paid under the table or on the side (no payroll) to avoid paying taxes.
The government already does a bad job at spending (wasting) everyone’s hard earned tax dollars..why give them more? Eliminating cash would give the federal government too much power and control over working citizens of this country.
Plenty of people don’t trust banks (because they try to fuck you every which way for a fee). Eliminating cash would remove the option for some people to have to deal with banks at all (I know many who hate banks).
Nice to see you here driver.
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Good post.
we are already living in a cashless society look at ApplePay, online payment, bank that have apps where people can manage their account within visiting a branch, and paypal where you can send money to anyone.
Those apps (I use Venmo a lot, very convenient when you need your friends to pony up money for gas/beer/etc.) have their merits and uses but replacing cash with them would be not ideal as described above
This is the final straw for human control. They’ll be a monthly fee to keep your account open. They’ll be individual transaction fees for each and every purchase. They’ll be specific taxes to be paid on certain items the government (or even individual banks) like. Since banks are “private” what happens when Wells Fargo decides that they are going to be socially conscious and refuse to accept any ammunition purchases through their institution? What a great way to limit and control what people can buy and sell while completely bypassing the entire legislative process. Want to ban the sale of guns/ammunition/liquor/whatever you just have the bank refuse to accept the transaction. Remember a “private” institution can refuse any transaction it wants too. We’ll ignore the fact that no other legal avenue exists for transactions. And don’t you try to fake it and pretend to be buying something else – oh no – that’s “fraud” and you’ll be punished for it by both the tax authorities and the banks themselves when they cancel your account.
The biggest problem I can see for this is how to continue to allow people to buy all the illegal heroin the U.S. government is producing in Afghanistan. Legalization wouldn’t work because then you cease filling up the for-profit prisons. The government could turn a blind eye to shell companies but you still have the possibility that some ignorant of the game do-gooder will show in no uncertain terms where and how the money is flowing. Of course shutting up the do-gooder is as easy and denying all their transactions….
The final bold strategy may be that they intend to replace the current heroin profits with bank profits through serious bank fees, more taxes, etc. but I just can’t see how the greedy elites will let go of something so profitable. You have to have a way to continue to fill up the prisons and this would make that so easy as to actually curb the behavior and lower illegal drug use and we certainly can’t have that. If Harry the white collar heroin addict can’t buy his snuff without a strong possibility of getting away with it then profits go down. If everyone is in prison on drug offenses then nobody is giving lots of money to the banks via this system or paying the government for its heroin while also being taxed to fight it on the surface.
We already know what the future will be – no one will be able to buy and sell without having the number of the beast. This system IS the future because its evil and for no other reason. It will be used to coerce people into taking the mark and literally starve Christians to death at the same time. Still I don’t see how the devil sells this without promising even more money to those who all already stealing from us.
There are some banks that have already prohibited transactions by closing accounts of those they deem immoral. Several online porn sites had their accounts closed even though they were doing nothing illegal, just something the bank didn’t like.
Well, there goes one of my alternate plans of bank robbery becoming a lucrative endeavor in the near future. Binary data can’t be stuffed into a bag and rushed out the door to a waiting getaway car.
But seriously what about drug transactions? I would assume that very rich men in this nation with political connections have made, and still make their fortunes by drug trafficking. Hell its been noted that the CIA funded many of their black ops via heroine and cocaine smuggling.
A cashless society would bring much illicit behavior to a screeching halt, which makes me wonder if it will ever truly be adopted as the only option. There are to many power brokers who could influence it otherwise.
Bitcoin.
bitcoin
The US & the EU will issue their own version of Bitcoin and will outlaw bitcoin or other cypto currencies as being illegal.
How can they ban it? Its not like any one person owns the protocol or the individual nodes or something
They will pass legislation to outlaw it as illegal. Some countries have already done this, whether their citizens are actually complying I don’t know.. I realize enforcing it is another matter.
They cannot ban BTC, like you say its an open protocol but they can make it illegal to use. Like in some countries, it is not illegal for women to offer sex for $ but it is illegal to pay for sex. lol They are just transferring the crime from the provider to the user, and the end result is more men will avoid the pros and the women go hungry, steal, get a legit job or find a sucker boyfriend. (the horny men become the criminals..and so easy to entrap)
Anonymous IP will be essential but the govt will apply pressure here just as they are now doing with Apple and Google over their encrypted apps. They are trotting out the ‘but you are helping terrorists’ argument to apply public pressure to have backdoors built in so the govt can spy on all communications…you know like its for our own good, You can bet your arse electronic cash will be well monitored by the govt and their mates in the banking system, though I’m sure the likes of Goldman Sachs will still get away with ripping off the system and pulling the wool over the regulators eyes. As someone else suggested the banks will likely be able to sell it off to marketers for an extra revenue stream…at some point in future. Inch by inch this sort of erosion of freedom & privacy happens..
They will do their best to track it at the point were official electronic currency is swapped to BTC and when the seller trades BTC for official electronic currency with another BTC buyer or swaps it for goods of equal value. The later will be hard to track. I’m sure some sort of unofficial electronic credits barter system will be used but again the govt will do their best to get access to the records. All they need is one terrorist to use it and they will sell that to the public that terrorists are using it and these companies that run the barter exchanges are accessories to terrorist funding (or a variation of that crap to get greater control over your life)
All real men need to be skilled horsetraders.
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By horsetrader, I don’t mean the inbreeds who stroll into a pawn shop while slurring “Whut’s your baaaaaattum dollur?”
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I also exclude those who would text to a Craigslist poster, “Will you take less?” before they’ve even seen the merchandise.
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A real horsetrader will see you as nothing more than an idiot, or a possible mark, if you engage in these behaviors. You will not negotiate the best deal using either tactic.
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A horsetrader knows about the item, or category of merchandise in which he is interested. It might be guns. It might be diamonds. It might be tools. It could even be horses. He never trades flat footed.
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A skilled negotiator knows how to discreetly bring up flaws in the merchandise without insulting the seller. He also knows how to highlight advantages of the merchandise that the buyer might not have considered.
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He will never denigrate the item without seeing it. He will never oversell an item either.
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He works in his rational self-interest, and yet he makes the other party feel as if they are receiving a good deal. Nothing makes your counterpart more likely to have more transactions in your favor than making that person feel good about the first one.
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There is 100% positive transfer of each of these skills into the sexual negotiations involved in choosing a mate. Same for simple, raw, sexual negotiations.
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Developing these skills require the fluidity of cash, as well as the sting of watching cash leave your possession. Data bits simply do not have this effect.
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There is nothing like peeling off hundred dollar bills to convince your seller that he has done the right thing by accepting your offer.
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All of these skills are lost in a cashless society. The intrusion of the government into your deal to buy a gun or privately sell a diamond removes much of the satisfaction one would have received from an otherwise sound transaction.
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Both of my kids have Craigslist accounts. This dad isn’t raising any fools. They need to know how to move through life without getting screwed because they lacked basic negotiation skills.
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In a cashless society, we will all be one step closer to being chattel, and one step farther from being men.
Dealing with people on Craigslist is like dealing with mental retards.
You’re right. It is the stronghold of haggler wannabees. Since retards aren’t likely to go away anytime soon, my kids will have to know how to deal with them too.
Yes do teach your children the fine art of ignoring mental defectives.
That too.
So bored…..the war against us never ever fucking stops, not even for a second.
It’s attack, attack, attack, hate, hate, hate, deny, lie, lie, lie attack, attack, kill, kill, kill, destroy, never a moments grace or peace or tranquility, not a moment of introspection.
Turns out they are the stupidest of the lot.
+orif’ You are so right. The war against men never stops. The attacks, the hate, the lies, we are never given a moment’s peace. It turns out the courts are the stupidest of the lot for automatically believing anything a female says. Has a female put you through the legal sausage grinder? I hope not. Cheers, my friend.
And the mark of the beast, more easy to implement. 🙂
Nahh.. Goyim (cattle) just get a microchip in their ear……………..
Again, I don’t believe it can work. It can only work in countries like Sweden because it’s a small country with brainwashed people. America, Russia or Germany are big and have many lobbyists, they will veto against no-cash policies.
Even cash is unlawful. It has no value, unlike gold and silver, and the only reason it works is because people believe a piece of paper with a “20” on it is more valuable than a piece of paper with a “10” on it. It’s completely a faith based system. Going cashless would be increasing this “unjust balances” system of theft to the next level.
Like every other predicament wicked men and women with power thrust upon the world, Yahwehs’ perfect law holds the simple answer:
Leviticus 19:35~37
‘You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measurement of weight, or capacity.‘You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin; I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt. ‘You shall thus observe all My statutes and all My ordinances and do them; I am Yahweh.’”
Proverbs 11:1
“A false balance is an abomination to Yahweh, But a just weight is His delight.”
Deu 25:13
“You shall not have in your bag differing weights, a large and a small.”
Proverbs 16:11
“A just balance and scales belong to Yahweh; All the weights of the bag are His concern.”
Proverbs 20:10
“Differing weights and differing measures, Both of them are abominable to Yahweh.”
Ezekiel 45:10
“You shall have just balances, a just ephah and a just bath.”
Micah 6:11
“Can I justify wicked scales And a bag of deceptive weights?”
Deu 25:14~15
“You shall not have in your house differing measures, a large and a
small. “You shall have a full and just weight; you shall have a full and
just measure, that your days may be prolonged in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.”
The sophisticated, modern version of unjust weights and measures has been around a long time and could be seeing it’s impending demise any day. There’s a world of difference between cash and money. If anyone does not have at least a months worth of expenses in money (gold for large transactions, silver for small), it would be a good idea to consider trading in some of your cash for actual money.
In the U.S. a cashless push would be deemed racist by some demographics. Will illegal drug transactions become digital? Perhaps bit coin maybe. I would stock pile gold and silver coins perhaps copper. But with copper you lose on the cost of the coin per ounce and the real value of the copper per ounce which of course fluctuates with the market, but last time I looked it was around 15 cents a ounce and coins were being sold for anywhere from 99 cents to over 2 dollars.
I love the feeling of cash. It makes it feel more real, like I actually earned something.
It’s wonderful and it smells good too when it’s fresh!
Smells good when it’s dirty too.
..when it’s dirty you need to launder it to get it clean 😉
No you don’t!
No way. Sniff and wonder where its been. Lay those dirty bucks down and get the purchase. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/821e26dc932c62ccce8687f1a2a0de962779e17d4532fd5eaafffd7589b62da2.jpg
The ones who study technology and willingly work with government and big corporation in exchange of big profit…. (future Engineering students) yeah they are aiding this in a faster process whether they know it or not.
Banks also have power to freeze our accounts without giving any thoughts… Now that is scary.
They can also refuse to give you your money unless you tell them why you need it. True story.
Very true. yes.
hate to bust everyone’s balloon. the amount of cash used legitimately and for evasion of tax and law is large everywhere. the authorities will not stop it completely. you will understand in a moment. my background as a self-employed, business owner in both trade and later financial activities. consulted for many businesses.
do a google search for undeclared income, shadow economy, etc. notice that you can make a good sum of traceable electronic income using paypal before reporting requirements kick in. there is no facility to trace every personal check written to self-employed people and as long as you are not stupid, you can hide some. the above is a mixture of cash and non-cash, yes and illustrates a point. i followed the rules, but observed what many others do.
the authorities are not guided by malice, conspiratorial desire to control (sorry alex) or even do a good job as much as by not giving a shit beyond what they are forced to do. here in the states it ranges from showing that they are doing something occasionally and going for the low hanging fruit or responding to a special interest group or noticeable threat. maybe the authorities are looking for small cash businesses that fund undesirable groups. more likely is that this scheme to go electronic is driven by the companies that want the data concerning your shopping habits and bribe the politicians accordingly who think that if some good is done so be it.
countries do not need your taxes at the national level due to their monetary policy. this is much more a local municipality issue as they either petition from the national entity or tax locally but cannot borrow or inflate to any noticeable degree. localities are hurting in the states.
the cash or let’s say underground economy since it includes non cash as well as illegitimate and undeclared income also provides a relief valve for those who would be otherwise disenfranchised or broke and outside of the welfare system. it also allows some middle class access to those who could not support a lifestyle. for decades my community has had a love hate relationship with off-duty firefighter contractors, landscape services charging cash and hiring illegals, unlicensed contractors working for cash, cash businesses. let’s not forget prostitution, and the recent uber, you know the one that has none of the compliance costs of legitimate operators. the reason that this is tolerated is that it becomes a form of pacification. if the off-duty city worker hiring illegals and working for cash as a contractor can now have a decent house and other things, he will not complain about his wage. females can ditch barista for backpage, men can dump stocking shelves, waiting tables for shit tips for much shorter hours and more money from uber. less potential protests about job opportunities. businesses taking cash under the table will complain less about the costs of doing business and their tax burden. landlords with illegal apartments will not protest high property taxes.
this form of self-help solves problems without the political class having to address the issues upfront and directly and they do not give a shit about you anyway. learn about the scope of the underground economy and the truth about the magnitude of undeclared income and you will realize that there will always be a way to function outside of the system as it is to big to be dismantled regardless of any occasional vain attempts to make it look like something is being addressed.
self-help exists in all broken societies: cheating in education must be done to keep up with the new normal established by the cheating, gaming females to deal with a broken sexual market, corruption, welfare fraud, the housing market games, etc.
the idea is to not be noticeable and stay below the radar enough to get away with stuff like everyone else or give the authorities a reason to leave you alone. prostitutes are skilled with this. the Japanese have a saying that the tallest blade of grass is the one that is cut.
The degree of evil in the various consequences of this vary. There will be a lot more data collected linking people to their purchases, time of purchase, place of purchase. This can be sold and used by marketing companies to better sell to people which is more benign, but still not wonderful. Then making sure nobody escapes tax in any way which is a bit worse. The nastiest of course is the impact on freedom and anonymity, where you donate, what you buy, creating a profile of you as a person. I like cash and now get out a larger sum once a week and avoid using cards so as to not support that system. There’s a great new €20 note out in Europe too. There are all kinds of larger denominations in Europe up to purple 500 that you don’t see that often. I think I’ll hang onto my piece of bitcoin which fell in value, the progress of this might have some effect on it. Bitcoin has some intrinsic value. It is backed by maths, there is a limit to how much bitcoin there can be whereas the non-gold backed currency is backed by the worlds governments, and it’s possible that they are printing it in too carefree a manner which will cause some problems one day. You’d think people will eventually rebel against this madness. I wonder what people will start start handing around if there’s no more cash? Here’s a guess – cash from other countries! Just like the Deutschmark and now the Euro are the accepted but not official currency of Montenegro https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montenegro_and_the_euro and when you go to Russia you sometimes see US Dollars being handed around, if they do this people will get hold of other bits of paper there and start using them!
The Filadefia church using the ‘projection’ tactic to collect indicates that there are some real heavy mind control practices going on there and not just in the churches. The puppet-head skirts there running the HR-ocracy are clueless. There’s much more psych war up the sleeve there being beta tested on the populace. Are they so confident that they think they can corrall masses of jiihadi refugees? Do those ‘migrants’ know they’re walking into a massive laboritory? So, what do they now have some ‘sheeple-izing’ hypno ray beam that they’re going to ‘zap’ test on the migrants? They ‘up’ the flooding across the border like they’re ready to test effectiveness on larger and larger control sets. It sure follows the pattern of a lab test. Do the native swedes even realize how they themselves walk about thinking, breathing, twitching like they’re puppets doing a ‘cunt-ocracy’ zombie dance? Immigrants should stop and look what they’re walking into and do an about face while literally fleeing the other direction, anywhere but Sweden. Open your eyes and it will hit you. ”Run Habib, Run”, anywhere but in there.
”Here kitty kitty, come to Sweden”:
http://36.media.tumblr.com/391bc3f545d87526cf9782c232993c3f/tumblr_nvj4wqEHAc1sbta4jo1_500.jpg
Digestion like slow kill is painless:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wf2YeCW7-1U/TakuBeoQTrI/AAAAAAAADic/LaBzodjPXxs/s280/frog-caught-by-flytrap.jpg
The borg is ready for more:
http://sneakerbardetroit.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/venus-flytrap.jpg
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Governments are probably gonna try to implement a cashless society, but I predict that this will only lead to a greater and more efficient black market. The black market in the Soviet union was very large, and many people depended on it to survive, but more importantly to get goods that the State did not approve of. The Government may try to outlaw the use of gold and silver for example, but like with prostitution, this is hard to enforce. So, you can still put a few silver coins down your stripper`s panties.(Hopefully)
Good article QC. The Europeans I grew up with and even my Grandparents who came through wars and depression always hid money and gold away.
It is troubling the degree of control that Gooberment and banksters try exerting under the disguise of keeping us safe. Those points and discount cards offered by every business are just a form of surveillance. Big brother knows what kind of tampons and toilet paper you buy.
The thing about banks is that they seem to spend a lot of money on having their employees invent new and interesting ways TO NOT GIVE YOU YOUR FUCKING MONEY. With inflation at 2% and deposit interest even lower, I would rather have the cash in hand in most cases. Online purchases are the exception, but day to day I like to have a roll in my pocket to make any purchases.
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No civilized country can go back to the gold standard because there simply isn’t enough gold in the world to back the money supply. Attempting it would simply cause massive, artificial inflation in the price of gold.
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I mused at one point that Canada could go to an “oil standard”. There are over 170 billion barrels in reserves and even the M3 money supply is only about $2 trillion so that gives you as much 13 or 14 litres of crude behind every Loonie.
“Money has these functions four: a means, a measure, a standard, a store”. From the top: money is a means of exchange, and is much faster and equitable than barter. Money is one measure of the value of dissimilar things – e.g. “I can spend this $50 on dinner, or on a new sweater. Which do I want more?” Money is a standard (i.e. recognized and legal) way to settle debts, which is why US notes bear the inscription “this note is legal tender for all debts, public and private”. Finally, money is (was!) a store of value, although creeping inflation erodes it. E-money meets all these criteria, but there are others where it falls short of the mark.
Aristotle had four other qualifications for ‘money’ (by which he meant ‘cash’, as there were no banks, per se, in his time): it must be durable, portable, fungible/divisible, and have intrinsic value. Durable, as in doesn’t rust/corrode (which is why iron was never a monetary metal) or spoil. Portable, as in must have a high value relative to weight and size (olive oil was valuable, but who wants to carry 10 gallons of oil around?). Fungible or divisible, as in can be broken down into smaller parts without losing value (unlike diamonds, say, where 1 carat stone is much more valuable than 4 stones of 1/4 carat each). Finally, intrinsic value, such as silver and gold have – people want them for more than money uses (jewelry, e.g.). This is where e-money falls down. It’s not durable; you could lose your money during a blackout! It’s fungible and portable, all right, but it has zero intrinsic value.
E-money does however have one great advantage if you’re a statist – it leaves a trail. And as others have noted in the comments, that means by ceding the form of money, you’ve also ceded control of your life. Making an anonymous donation to that new RoK political party? Not anymore! Want to buy a little ganga on the black market? Oops, no more black markets (I’m sure, people being ingenious, they will find some way to trade to get frowned upon goods, but they will be slower and more difficult to transact). Puritanical gov’t will use emoney to crack down on vice; tyrannical gov’t will use emoney to crack down on dissent. No gov’t will use emoney to increase either your freedom or your spending power.
As John Fogerty sang back with Creedence:
“Five year plans and new deals
Wrapped in golden chains
And I wonder, still I wonder,
Who’ll stop the rain?”
In my opinion USA has made a move to reduce cash transactions a long time ago. How? By removing every bill higher than $100
Combine a totalitarian state and Invading Muslims. And you get people revved up for war and possibly intolerant of an oppressive state as well.
In times of comfort this will go without incident. But in times of conflict between peoples you may never know.
“2. The currency must have some intrinsic value itself” This is very true. All of this fake money being created will someday become worthless. At this rate the all of these currencies that have no intrinsic value will crash one day. Buy gold.