
The war on cash being justified for “stopping crime” is the worst excuse - type0
https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2016/12/the-war-on-cash-being-justified-as-necessary-against-organized-crime-is-the-worst-excuse-ever/
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wheelerwj
BUT THINK OF THE CHILDREN!

The war on cash is extremely boring. Mostly because, just like drugs, it is
entirely ineffective at stopping anything at all. People will always find a
way to acquire for things that they need. Through bartering or straight up
theft, you cannot stop anything from happening by precluding payment for said
activity.

But politicians and law makers will always sound the bugle of public safety
because fear is such a strong emotion and much easier to evoke than love. At
this point, I am not even sure they are even attempting to be relevant,
instead they just need to look busy and demonstrate their worth.

But this article goes further, to probe a global-government-backed-conspiracy
to track payments and keep down the common man by removing cash. When the
truth is probably more simple (this time), cash is expensive and harder to
control. Plus most of us use digital payments anyways.

In countries that are removing large denomination cash bills because they are
only used by criminals.. that's an interesting development. but not entirely
dishonest. Countries who are removing low denomination bills in favor of
larger ones do so to fight inflation. But there is no global war on cash.

However, there is a global war for your personal data by major corporations
and that's what should be scaring most people. Your transactions aren't
protected from corporations using data to identify and silo you. Amazon Go,
convenient, sure. But let's not pretend that their sales funnel won't adjust
further based on what you buy in their stores. If you are buying self-help
books from amazon.com, they are going to keep showing you self-help products
such as other trending books, yoga mats, maybe a personal journal, or running
shows. But if you also walk into an amazon go store and pick up m&ms and
mountain dew, do you think those same ads will appear? Certainly not.

And do you think any of that tracking is possible with cash?

No, this isn't government trying to crush Joe the plumber. This is greedy
corporations trying to sell you more shit.

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zachlatta
It's a war for control. I don't think the article goes too far.

I used to run a small business that sold Bitcoin for cash and it was
practically impossible to keep it afloat – every major bank refuses to work
with cash businesses that aren't retail because of MSB regulations.

If you read up on the history of money service regulations, they make it
practically impossible for a business to transact with customers anonymously
under the guise of preventing money laundering and terrorism. Every
transaction needs to be available to the government.

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wheelerwj
Hello fellow bitcoiner! I am also very aware of MSB regulations.

However, anonymity has never been a priority for the US government.

If you look at the timing of the BSA (October 1970) and the Nixon's war on
drugs (June 1971) you begin to see that this isn't about government control
for the sake of control. It's about providing tools for a specific agenda.
Regrettably, these tools are never dismantled and the government is never held
accountable.

Now, if you look at the interests behind the war on drugs, I am reasonably
certain you won't find it being funded by worried mothers or fathers.

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zachlatta
Ah, thanks for the correction and for the info – will look into both.

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cpr
The war on cash is nothing more than a power grab by the globalists, who want
total control of cash (so to speak) flows, both global and (thus cash) local.

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shmerl
As a push back, there should be advancement of digital cash, i.e. fully
privacy respectful digital currency (Bitcoin isn't there yet privacy wise).

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hendi_
There is Monero (XMR) and ZCash.

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FrancoDiaz
It's all about control. They don't have to think about the reasoning for this
anymore. They just say "crime" and/or "terrorism" and they're done.

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ellius
We should really conduct a war on wire transfers if we want to catch
criminals. The worst high-level criminals almost always move funds across
jurisdictions with wires.

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wheelerwj
Well of course. Do you have any idea how expensive it is to move $2b worth of
$20s and $100s? [1] A wire only cost $60. [2]

[1] [http://money.cnn.com/2016/05/31/news/isis-oil-
taxes/](http://money.cnn.com/2016/05/31/news/isis-oil-taxes/)

[2] PDF Warning -
[https://www.hsbc.ca/1/PA_ES_Content_Mgmt/content/canada4/pdf...](https://www.hsbc.ca/1/PA_ES_Content_Mgmt/content/canada4/pdfs/personal/wire-
transfer-service-fees.pdf)

