The gist of the article is that once all money is controlled by the world's governments, everything will be wonderful. They'll have total control over all of us and all of our lives for once. If people think they should save money, the governments can start charging us to keep it - a tax on savings called negative interest (currently in use in Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, the European Central Bank, and Australia). Negative interest will make us spend if the alternative is watching our money evaporate. Likewise, if we're spending too much, they'll be able to offer interest payments to incentivize us to save money. If they
I can't even accept his basic premise that he could remove "boom and bust cycles". The other word for this is the business cycle, which economists have been studying for a few hundred years. I believe that to be a natural consequence of how markets work. I can't believe they'd remove it by manipulating us.
With no need to be slowed down by people bringing actual cash to banks, they have computer control, such that they could change the value of your money as often as they want. Conceivably day by day or even second by second - if they thought control of the economy required that. Of course, if all business is conducted this way, the black market disappears (in theory) and tax collection is on 100% of transactions (in theory).
What could possibly go wrong? I mean besides everything.
The article, and the others like it, is full of glittering nonsense that flies in the face of every aspect of human nature. They completely destroy the essence of what money is. Money is more than just a medium of exchange; it's also a store of value or purchasing power; and a standard of value. By changing what money is "worth" from day to day, they obliterate money's role as a store of value, a store of purchasing power and a standard of value. The only role left is the medium of exchange. In a cashless society, all you'd ever know is you exchange some number of credits for some amount of a good or service you need.
I'd think it would become impossible to save for retirement or any major purchase if these policies were in place, but central bankers seem to hate savings. They want everyone to buy on credit. It's hard enough now with the interest rates going negative (in real terms) like the Fed and world central banks have in effect. (If the interest cost on a loan is less than the rate of inflation, the interest payment is negative in real terms. The US has had negative real interest rates since at least the 2008 crash.)
It's impossible to carry cash if it doesn't exist. Why even carry a debit card if they can just put a tracking chip in your arm or somewhere? In reality, you know there were would be barter based on something people value and want, be it shiny pebbles (gems) or old coins that they don't confiscate. Doesn't 5000 years of human history demonstrate they'll fail?
Absolute control over every person on the planet, right? The absolute end of individual freedoms? You're reduced to nothing but an economic unit who buys or saves depending on how they choose to control you. It sounds like the "CONSUME" signs in They Live. Only worse.
I think what they ignore is that money is worth something because people believe that it is. As soon as there is no such thing as money, then money has no value.
ReplyDeletePeople WILL find something else to use as a medium of exchange. There will still be a black market.
I thought it was interesting that this Jim Leaviss guy said they could encourage spending with negative interest rates, and discourage spending with sales taxes.
ReplyDeleteNotice that he didn't suggest discouraging spending by paying high (or at least real) interest rates on savings accounts.
Why should the govt/big banks do anything but tax us?
"Buy Or Die".
ReplyDeleteI haven't got a new one in a while, but I used to read a post apocalyptic book series called "The Deathlands".
Premise was, a nuke war destroyed most of civilization, it was 100+ years later, and the survivors wandered around, there were mutants, radiation pits...
In one of the books, the premise was, there was a parallel universe where no nuclear war had taken place. 6 massive corporations had supplanted government. At some time in the past, they'd instituted a maximum of 1% savings, the rest had to be spent...or else. Consumers revolted, but were quickly crushed by the mechanized, power armor wearing, laser gun equipped soldiers of the corporations...many of whom got "Buy Or Die" tattoos to symbolize service in the Consumer Rebellion.
"Shadow World".
This would be close enough to "Buy Or Die"...if your money isn't ever yours, goes direct to a bank in the form of direct deposit, and there's no "cash" to speak of...well, you are "owned" like chattel. "Cash" is freedom.
This is why some of us have invested heavily in copper and lead. That kind of control - and don't think this notion just "suddenly" occurred to them - means slavery. True slavery, where whether your family eats or your children get medical care depends on how low you bow and whose boots you lick while you are bent over - with others "taking advantage" of your position.
ReplyDeleteThink things are bad now? What about when they take your children away from you to indoctrinate them "properly"? Or when your children are used to monitor your behavior? This has happened before, for those of you who missed World History in high school.
The largest majority of citizens in this country - maybe 90%? - have neither the training, the equipment, nor the will to resist. When things get really bad, some may try, but ineffectually.
Obama has, with the help of his handlers, positioned America to suffer much greater control, and is "training" us to accept it, frog-in-the-pot style. I do believe I have spoken on this topic of a cashless society in the past, but it sounds as if the idea is being floated now, "run up the flagpole" as they used to say in marketing circles, with the idea couched in terms that make it sound as if they would be doing us a favor.
There are many in this country who would welcome this, like the welfare drones and liberals who (most of them, obviously) imagine it would bring about the socialism/fascism they desire.
I'm afraid I'm likely to still be alive when TSHTF. I just hope I'm not too decrepit to do some dealing in lead and copper, even if just for a short time.
There are some conspiracies I can believe in and many I cannot. I still do not think one man killed JFK, for example.
ReplyDeleteBut we are in an economic spiral that is being disguised by the FED to stave off the inevitable. The FED and most everyone in the larger economic community knows this can't be stopped and sooner rather then later the charade will end and we will experience a full on collapse. It will be far more than an economic collapse like black Friday in 1929 or the 11 year long depression that followed. In 1929 50% of the population lived on or had relatives who lived on farms. Today that number is 2% and instead we have close to 50% of our population dependent on government largess. What happens when the spigot is shut off? Everyone knows what will happen and it will make Baltimore riots/looting look like a Sunday school picnic. So that is a long winded way of saying that those in the know are scared/terrified of what will happen. I believe they are and will be taking steps to facillitate the transition from our present dollar and banking system to a more "Argentina-like" system. The dollar as we know it will disappear on a long weekend when the government declares a bank holiday. When the banks reopen a "new" dollar (no doubt with Obama's picture on it) will replace the old money which will become illegal to own. All money in bank accounts will be recomputed in this new currancy which will be worth about 10% of the old currency. You will have a limited time to convert dollars you hold in your wallet to the new Obama-dollars. You will not be able to convert more then $500 more or less and actual ownership of more then that amount may imply criminal activity on your part. You will be limited on how much yu can withdraw in a month to perhaps $300 of the new dollars (worth about $30 in today's money). Ownership of gold and silver will be outlawed and you will be forced to "sell" your PMs to the feds at a value they will set. Hoarding of food and necessities will be considered a crime and your nieghbors will be encouraged to snitch on you. For the greater good all firearms and ammo will be confiscated and failure to comply will prompt a vist from a swaat team who will consider you an armed insurgent (after all you are going against the government and the people don'tcha know).
I have never been a believer in FEMA camps or black helicopters or even this latest fear mongering about the military training (Jade Helm I think). But once the SHTF following an economic collapse and the dependent class begins rioting/looting the good citizens will demand government do something and government WILL.
They'll need to implement strict gun control before they do this. Otherwise, a lot of folks will invest in non-depreciating bits of polymer, brass and stainless steel.
ReplyDeleteErin - they're absolutely trying! The attacks on gun rights hardly even slow down. State cases like Colorado, Washington, and Oregon seem to be the latest method, but remember that the UN Small Arms Treaty passed in 2013, Secretary of State HorseFace signed it but it has not been ratified. It seems to me that it could be ratified and enforced as soon as the congress is sufficiently anti-gun. Which is probably the next time there's a Democrat majority.
ReplyDeleteAnon 1301: Excellent post, and a bunch of specific numbers in there.
Collectivism i.e communism, socialism, fascism etc. call it what you like, has been tried numerous times in the past century +. It has always failed.....usually at massive costs in life and suffering.
ReplyDeleteThe current crop infesting DC and other venues of power believe that THEY are special, THEY are much smarter, THEY can't fail. Thus this group truly believes that THIS TIME the dream and goal of all collectivists will succeed. And they will crush or kill ANYONE who gets in their way because of course the goal is so glorious it justifies any action to achieve it.
The ONLY thing bigger than the evil these people personify is their unabashed ego and gall.
According to the alert I got from GOA, the TPP trade agreement is open-ended, thanks to "fast track". They said the gun control can be added - legally, without approval from Congress (not that Boner and McCommie would shy from providing the approval) - and it will have the force of law. Because of its six-year run, it would carry over to the next administration, remaining in effect. Supposedly, Congress would not be able to repeal or otherwise stop it during that time period.
ReplyDeletehttp://gunowners.org/alert5072015.htm
Queen Victoria was on the gold standard, there was business cycle before and after her but not during. Business cycle is not a natural oscillation of the marketplace, it is driven in the marketplace by oscillations of central banks stimulus. The purpose of the business cycle is to: 1) justify the existence of government in order to manage the economic "climate" which the masses don't understand; 2) for insiders to front-run the business cycle trades, and 2a) in doing so make it impossible for the middle class to save for retirement.
ReplyDelete'Well regulated militia' means the same thing as 'well regulated power supply'. There are a few grain harvests each year, but the price of your breakfast cereal is the same each week. How does that work? The regulator of an economy is a free market. Each forecasted or observed fluctuation is an opportunity for a speculator in a free market to store grain and release it later to smooth the fluctuations. The more speculators participating and the lower the costs to participate and to move grain, the smoother the cereal price at the grocery store. The central banks react too late and too large, and the economy oscillates, by design.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culpability
Anyone who votes (hires men to force their will on others using death threats) without understanding this subject area has acted negligently. Anyone who represents themselves as understanding this subject area (professors, legislators, judges, bureaucrats) has acted recklessly, knowingly, or criminally.