As we progress slowly towards the elimination of physical cash and move towards a system purely based on electronic transactions, I thought I'd point out all the positives for society.
1) Govenment controlled spending. Just like the government now controls what information we have access to through various Internet filtering and blacklist policies, they can also ensure we don't spend our money inappropriately by blocking electronic transactions for bad things that they will define (possibly under the wise council of special interest lobbyists and incumbunt corporations).
2) Laws against illegal transactions. Just like the government now has laws to prosecute and jail journalists who would have the dangerous audacity to report on certain government activities that the government would prefer to remain hidden, they will also introduce laws to prosecute and jail people who advise on how to bypass government spending controls and upper limits.
3) Protection from dangerous people. Anyone who the government deems innapropriate or dangerous (e.g. opposition party members who look to become too popular by spreading dangerous idea to the citizenry) will have their access to funds frozen, essentially declaring them persona non grata. They will not be able to function within society and, of course, if they then turn to illegal activities to get food, they can be jailed. This will provide a chilling effect for anyone thinking of spreading dangerous ideas.
4) Emergency budget measures will become easier to fund by locking down accounts for a period of time so the money can be better spent on emergency government programs that have exceeded their budgets and exhausted taxpayer funds.
...
Ok, that should silence the critics. And just remember, thanks to data retention laws (and government agencies that already collect all electronic data), anything you say here may come back to haunt you. So remember, be good citizens.
1) Govenment controlled spending. Just like the government now controls what information we have access to through various Internet filtering and blacklist policies, they can also ensure we don't spend our money inappropriately by blocking electronic transactions for bad things that they will define (possibly under the wise council of special interest lobbyists and incumbunt corporations).
2) Laws against illegal transactions. Just like the government now has laws to prosecute and jail journalists who would have the dangerous audacity to report on certain government activities that the government would prefer to remain hidden, they will also introduce laws to prosecute and jail people who advise on how to bypass government spending controls and upper limits.
3) Protection from dangerous people. Anyone who the government deems innapropriate or dangerous (e.g. opposition party members who look to become too popular by spreading dangerous idea to the citizenry) will have their access to funds frozen, essentially declaring them persona non grata. They will not be able to function within society and, of course, if they then turn to illegal activities to get food, they can be jailed. This will provide a chilling effect for anyone thinking of spreading dangerous ideas.
4) Emergency budget measures will become easier to fund by locking down accounts for a period of time so the money can be better spent on emergency government programs that have exceeded their budgets and exhausted taxpayer funds.
...
Ok, that should silence the critics. And just remember, thanks to data retention laws (and government agencies that already collect all electronic data), anything you say here may come back to haunt you. So remember, be good citizens.
