Going cashless is a bad idea, but it’s not a conspiracy | Aeon Essays
aeon.co
It’s not in the interests of the ordinary person but it’s not a conspiracy either. A cashless society is a system run amok

Image Transcription:

WHAT WILL A CASHLESS SOCIETY MEAN?

THE PROS

CONVENIENCE — THERE WILL NO LONGER BE ANY NEED TO CARRY CASH AROUND

THE CONS

EVERY TRANSACTION YOU MAKE WILL BE TRACKED YOUR SPENDING HABITS CAN BE LINKED TO YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT

YOU WILL ONLY BE PERMITTED TO SPEND ON THINGS THE GOVERNMENT APPROVES OF. THINGS THAT ARE DEEMED TO BE LUXURIES — MEAT, FUEL, TRAVEL — CAN BE RESTRICTED

YOUR MONEY CAN BE PROGRAMMED WITH AN EXPIRY DATE — IF YOU DON’T SPEND IT BY A CERTAIN DATE, YOU’LL LOSE IT

THERE WILL BE NO ‘BLACK’ ECONOMY. IT WILL NOT BE POSSIBLE TO AVOID TAX, BUT THEN YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO GIVE POCKET MONEY TO CHILDREN OR GRANDCHILDREN AND NEITHER WILL YOU BE ABLE TO BORROW OR LEND MONEY TO FRIENDS WITHOUT THAT BEING TAXED BY THE GOVERNMENT

PARKING AND SPEEDING FINES WILL BE TAKEN AT SOURCE, WITHOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF CHALLENGE AND POSSIBLY EVEN WITHOUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE

IF YOU PROTEST THE ACTIONS OF THE GOVERNMENT, YOUR MONEY CAN BE SWITCHED OFF. IF YOU THINK THAT’S UNLIKELY, IT’S ALREADY HAPPENED TO TENS OF THOUSANDS OF CANADIANS WHEN THEY PROTESTED AND IT ALSO HAPPENED TO A BRITISH JOURNALIST

A CASHLESS SOCIETY MEANS THE END OF HUMAN FREEDOM

IF YOU WANT THAT, DO NOTHING

IF YOU DON’T, THE FIRST THING YOU MUST DO IS RESPOND TO THE GOVERNMENT’S PROPOSAL ON DIGITAL ID, UPON WHICH A CASHLESS SOCIETY MUST BE BASED

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/draft-legislation-to-help-more-people-prove-their- identity-online/consultation-on-draft-legislation-to-support-identity-verificat

Image Credit: Brett Scott

  • @thesporkeffect
    7•3 months ago

    They grasped a small kernel of truth and encrusted a huge wad of nonsense around it. You already have to use credit for some transactions, effectively. If you try bringing 100k in cash to buy a car/house, there is a good chance it’ll get seized by police. Corporations already do that tracking and they don’t need credit card transactions for it - if you use a cell phone they know what store you went into. That can be combined with other metadata to know exactly what you’re doing. Carrying cash does not fix this.

    • @[email protected]
      1•2 months ago

      If you try bringing 100k in cash to buy a car/house, there is a good chance it’ll get seized by police.

      In the US debtors are /entitled/ to pay their debts using legal tender, and mortgages are not excluded AFAIK. In the UK, you can legally pay your mortgage with legal tender.

      if you use a cell phone they know what store you went into. That can be combined with other metadata to know exactly what you’re doing. Carrying cash does not fix this.

      You need not carry a mobile phone. I don’t. Cash is part of that equation. If I walk into an unsurveilled shop with cash, no phone, and no loyalty card to buy liquor, how does that get pinned on me?

      It could become criminal in the future to not carry a smartphone (with the direction things are going in), but that’s not yet the case in most of the world.

      • @thesporkeffect
        1•2 months ago

        My point was not that cash wasn’t being accepted. It’s more that carrying large amounts of cash around is extremely risky for non obvious reasons.

        Not carrying a phone is definitely possible and even commendable, but for many people it’s not an option. Just off the top of my head:

        If you are in an unfamiliar area unexpectedly you won’t have been able to print off a map ahead of time

        Many people’s employers require them to be contactable during on call periods

        If you are trying to get a job/caring for a sick relative, there may be risk with being unreachable for an extended period

        Obviously these examples are things that can be worked around in many cases, but currently society is arranged around the idea that you have a phone on you if you want to do anything. I agree with you this is not a good thing, generally. If you are able to push the trend back it’s worthwhile but short of an EMP / solar flare removing all communication networks worldwide I don’t believe there is a realistic chance this changes.

        Other unsorted thoughts:

        I know bill serial numbers are tracked, if they really wanted they could probably find video of you getting money out of the bank/ATM. Again, there are workarounds but it gets to be more and more commitment to POSSIBLY be untraceable.

        If you have friends with phones who travel with you or you get photographed in the background of someone else’s social media you can get profiled that way

        • All this to say, I agree with the gist of what you are saying but I don’t think it’s realistic to expect many people to be able to do the work for something that has less tangible benefit to them than being able to pay rent. Social change will require personal habits changing along with political pressure to make databrokers illegal, prevent tracking via metadata, etc.