The Moose suggests that the smoker's attempts to terrify the population with 'smoker's money' might help bring about the change to electronic money. That will happen anyway. Cheques are already being phased out and more and more I see people paying for small purchases with a credit card. People are getting used to living cashless. Pay with the card, pay the card online, why I'll bet there are people out there now who haven't handled cash in months.
He's right. It will happen.
As that short except above suggests, many people are already doing away with cash and turning to electronic means, much to the annoyance of some.
They're becoming used to it. It's normal to them. Eventually they will look at folk like us who still use cash with a quaint sympathy. Like some will do now to those who still own a black and white television (no good for the snooker). That's the time when the government and pressure groups will tell them that cash is only used by money launderers, tax evaders and of course, paedophiles.
That quaint look in their eye will soon turn to mistrust and that's when the users of cash will become the same kind of public enemy as smokers or fat people.
The masses will then demand that cash is withdrawn and only electronic means are available.
The government does not need to pass unpopular draconian legislation to remove cash. They do not need to beat us and harass us. They just have to wait until the population demand it then 'relucantly' take action.
Why? What do the government have to gain from the removal of cash as a means of payment?
Total tax compliance is the biggy. If all transactions are done by electronic means, every one can be tracked. Every penny can be tracked through it's entire life. You will no longer be able to take cash for a job or favour done and keep it all to yourself. The government will take their cut every time. You will not be able to hide one penny of your money from them.
Do you know why the government keeps withdrawing one type of note from circulation and replacing it with another design?
Did you say, "To prevent counterfeiting",?
You would be wrong. They do it to prevent us amassing a large amount of cash that they are not aware of.
If you have £10,000 in the bank, the government, and more importantly HMRC know all about it. There is no banking privacy left in England. Large or 'suspicious transactions are reported to HMRC by British banks under threat of fines or imprisonment. This has the banks falling over themselves to report transactions on the off chance they may miss something and be held accountable for it. If HMRC wants to know about your banking activity they are told. No questions.
Now what if you had £10,000 is used notes under the bed? It may be totally legit, you may have paid all tax due on it but if it's not in the bank the government don't know about it and they hate that.
That's why they keep changing the currency using the guise of preventing fraud. If they change the design of the twenty pound notes in your underbed stash it makes them completely worthless. Unless of course, you take it to a bank and get it changed, at which point you will be asked all kinds of questions about where it came from.
If your answers are not believed, HMRC can tax your money without having to prove *pdf that any tax is due. They simply perform a 'Lifestyle Audit' and if they believe your income exceeds your tax payments, they will take what they believe is owed.
Cash is the last remaining 'bearer bond'. You do away with cash and the government has access to every transaction you make.
Your movements can also be tracked through your electronic purchases. Every time you use a cash card, the transaction amount, what you have purchased and where you made the purchase is logged on a computer.
The killing of Jo Yeates prompted a call by Labour MP Kerry McCarthy for every male living in Bristol to be DNA tested. This was never done due to the huge logistical nightmare it would have caused, but there will come a time when it is easy enough and cheap enough to complete such a task and it will become commonplace. If your electronic purchase details put in in an area where a serious crime has been committed, you may also become liable to blanket DNA testing.
If you fill up at petrol station one on the M6 at 12 noon then fill up again at petrol station two on the M6 at 16:00, your average speed will have been 76 mph. Your ticket is in the post.
If you regularly purchase a copy of Miss Whiplash, you be be noted as having a violent sexual fetish. Even worse if you pick up a copy of Teen Cherries. Peado incident in the neighbourhood? Expect a knock on the door.
Every transaction you ever make will be logged and noted. The Government can use it for tax purposes, the police can use it for lazy policing, marketing companies will buy the information to target you with even more advertising, even your spouse, with a good private dick and a bit of money will be able to check up on your whereabouts and find out about your "In the event of divorce" fund that you have hidden from her.
Your privacy will be totally gone. Without money you will not be able to function in society. When all your financial transactions are electronic your every move will be logged and recorded.
Without money you will not be able to function in society? Suspected of a crime? The police will not have to come looking for you, they will just be able to cancel your card. You will then have to report to the nearest police station for interrogation before your card can be re-activated.
Another valid point Leg-Iron makes in the post I linked to above, in fact the very title of his post is "Chips". The Government will 'want' to make things as easy as possible for us. They may remove cash which is cumbersome and easily stolen and replace it with a more secure electronic system that means you only have to carry one small card.
The identity card brought in by Labour and subsequently scrapped (for now) by the ConDems would have been the perfect tool for this.
Mooted at first as voluntary it would have soon become so necessary that you could not function in society without one.
Want a bank account? You need an ID card
Want a driving licence? You need an ID card
You can see where I am going with this and it would all be in the name of preventing crime and terrorism, the holy grail of a terminally frightened society.
Eventually your ID card would be used for your electronic money transations. This would be done in the guise of making things easy for you. Only one card to carry etc.
Of course your card can still be stolen or forged, so they will want to take the next logical step in financial transaction ease.
That next step is the tiny chip implanted under the skin. It cant be stolen, it cant be forged.
The sub dermal implant should be the stuff of science fiction but unfortunately it isn't. Far from it, the implant is already in use today.
This is the ultimate track and trace device that is slowly being brought in by steath. Remember, the government 'don't want to do it' but the people will demand it. Only after a long process of indoctrination by the government and vested interest groups.
Complain about it? Stand up for your rights as an individual, not the property of the state? What do you have to hide?
In the end, none of us will be able to hide anything.
