Call me old fashioned but I have always enjoyed the feeling of some coins in my pocket and a few bills in my wallet. A debit or credit card is convenient for some purchases but, unlike the impression I have of most, I could live quite well without them. To me they have always been a tempting siren song of, “spend me darling, spend me quick, scratch my gratification itch”. OK, so it doesn’t rhyme but you get the point. Right?
Jerome H. Powell, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System said on Feb 23rd, 2021 that “a digital dollar has a high priority”.
We are headed toward a cashless society and I’m surprised at the number of people who think that’s a really good idea. “Just think,” they preach. “You never have to worry about having the cash in your pocket because funds are automatically put on a card. It’s convenient to make a purchase and all of your activities are easy to check at the end of each month”.
In the first case it’s far too easy to spend more than you have with a credit card and one can quickly find oneself in spiraling debt. Debit cards just flatly tell you “no!”. There’s no negotiating with them. At least with a debit card you have to think about how you’re going to raise the money to get the item you want. The time spent calculating may even help you decide that the item isn’t worth it.
In the second case the record of my purchases is made available not only to me but to anyone who hacks into my account or, heaven forbid, the government.
We are being led into the slaughterhouse of total financial control either by deliberate, long-term, goal-oriented arch enemies or by coincidence. If you watch cop shows on TV, I’m sure you realize that TV cops think there’s no such thing as coincidence.
For the sake of discussion let’s look at the two possible scenarios.
If it’s a coincidence, and we are so deep into immediate gratification that we can’t change our way of thinking and spending, then we probably deserve the end result.
If the change to a cashless society is more sinister and is being propagated by dark power figures working behind the scenes here’s a possible view of their long-term plan.
- Convince the populace that the “C” in Capitalism really stands for “Consumerism” and it’s our responsibility as citizens to get out there and spend our brains out. This concept has roots that go back as far as the 1930’s when we first heard about “planned obsolescence” of everything from cars to refrigerators and a myriad of other “must have” items. Consumerism is even stronger today as we see countless advertisements on having the latest and greatest of anything in order to keep up with the neighbors. If there’s any good news in COVID-19 it’s that it appears spending has been a bit curtailed and savings have actually increased.
- As a strong, central government gathers more power and responsibility over our individual lives, we quietly lose more of our rights. There’s a saying in Southeast Asia, “Slowly, slowly. Catch the monkey”. It must eventually occur to us that we, the citizens, are the monkey. Big government and/or the dark powers, must be the catcher.
- Citizens are persuaded that something like the “gohenry” debit card and application is good to have. It supposedly teaches kids from the age of 6 to 18 the value of money. At a cost of about $4.00 per child, per month. I guess one beneficial item on “gohenry” might be the ability to assign jobs or chores that will result in extra funds being assigned to holder accounts. However, some of us might remember the list of chores that our parents hung on the refrigerator door.
- Good luck on teaching anyone the value of the U.S. dollar. It’s losing value by the hour. We just don’t see it.
- By following the steps listed so far, the citizenry will develop a sense of spending but not a sense of value. To buy things, you manipulate digits, and the item you want appears.
- In addition, a feeling of comfort in using a card for purchases instead of cash is instilled at a very young age. Cash becomes even more inconvenient.
- Now it’s time for the serious moves.
5. A strong federal government sets a mandatory minimum wage.
6. “Why just look at the mess business is in because of those extremely high paid executives”. We got away with setting a minimum wage. It’s time we set a mandatory maximum wage as well.
7. Now that we have both a minimum and a maximum wage why don’t we, the government, decide how the profits of a business are shared. Why should profits just go to shareholders?
8. Losses? Why should we worry about losses? If a company is unprofitable, we’ll close it down to protect society from the incurred losses.
9. By the way, just look at all the trees we’re killing for the paper to print money.
10.We’ll stop printing paper money and all of it will be digitized. It seems to work for Bitcoin. We’ll call it Govcoin. Once digitized it will be sent directly to the new government issued and controlled plastic Social Security card that will be in the possession of all citizens. And don’t forget to issue them to the illegal aliens or whatever the politically correct term will be. Or, as technology permits, let’s insert a tiny chip in a child at about the age of 6 that will stay with them a lifetime. To make a purchase one only waves their hand and snaps their finger over the item and it’s theirs. The chip will even set up a finance plan of payments for them if they don’t have enough Govcoin on hand. For those of us past the age of six, the application can be put on our Social Security cards. Illegal aliens? For them, we can put it on their driving licenses.
11. Oh, you say inflation is getting worse. Don’t worry, we’ll never be in the situation of the Weimar Republic and the German Papiermark prior to World War II. Remember reading that it took a basket full of money to buy a loaf of bread? Government will just move the decimal point on the digitized money and the problem’s solved.
12. A special governmental department will be established to determine how individuals are paid depending on their contribution to society. In order to equalize society those highest performers will get a smaller percentage since they don’t have to be motivated. Those at the bottom, who have specialized in conquering the new subjective math will receive more as an incentive to strive for higher goals. Or, perhaps, strive for more children since family size will surely be a determining factor.
If the above roughly resembles something out of 1984 or Atlas Shrugged, thank you. It’s meant to. Those of you who haven’t read anything by Ayn Rand really should pick up a book, or your Kindle. Atlas Shrugged is a long book but as you read it you will begin to see that the United States is well on the way through the process.
The U.S. dollar has no value other than our “word” that it’s good. President Roosevelt took America off the gold standard in 1933. The gold standard ensured that the dollar had value in gold at the current price of gold. One could actually exchange their paper money for gold. Shortly thereafter President Roosevelt then declared that it was illegal for individual Americans to own gold. All gold had to be turned into the government in exchange for cash at a rate of about twenty bucks an ounce. In 1934 the government raised the price they recognized for gold to $35.00 an ounce. That was the price you received for your paper money until 1971 when President Nixon took the U.S. dollar completely off the gold standard and allowed it to “float” resulting in a fiat currency.
The price of gold fluctuates on the open market, but the bad news is that it has nothing to do with the value of the dollar. The good news, if there is any in this scenario, is that if we continue on the financial path we are now on, the U.S. currency will decrease in value and fall out of favor as the World’s Foremost Currency of Choice. An advantage of Bitcoin is that it has a maximum mining limit of 21 million coins. Creation of a Govcoin will provide no more value than the fiat currency we now use; probably less if there are no limits on its “mining”. As the holders of our national debt clamor for payment of our ever-increasing government debt we will conveniently pay them off with what was previously our lunch money.