In thr long term compulsory e-currency will be unmitigated disaster. The Swedes are either naive or they've caught the convenience disease big-time or both.
It's bad enough that authoritarian government has been on the rise everywhere in recent decades without handing this final bit of human autonomy over to government without a fight.
The trouble is that if the Swedes get this change through then it sets a very bad precedent for all the others.
Accenture sells consulting hours to clueless public sectors.
It’s already one of the most cashless countries on the planet so us being the naive is something we even pride ourselves in.
Just know that it’s not going to become more than a Proof of Concept waste of money. In a couple of years it will be dead and buried when the money dries up. None in HN should be alarmed, except fellow tax paying Swedes.
We have a saying over here: if you are not voting left when you are young you don’t have a heart. If you don’t vote right when you are old you don’t have a brain.
"...if you are not voting left when you are young you don’t have a heart. If you don’t vote right when you are old you don’t have a brain."
True or otherwise, that statement sums up the position/beliefs for many. Incidentally, I'd argue however that the older one gets the more nuanced one's march along that left-right axis becomes. During one's march one is also more inclined to put in many measures and stops along the way.
What I didn't mention in my earlier post was that the notion of a cashless society is completely antithetical with my increasingly libertarian-leftist views which have been brought about by The State continually nibbling away at one's personal autonomy from many directions, which it has done for many decades and continues to do—little by little, year by year. (The cashless society being one of its latest incarnations/nibbles.)
Those who accept a cashless society without question or a fight are like frogs in ever-increasing warming water. Sooner or later they'll wake up and realize they're in an Orwellian world from which they can never escape. (As I see it, it's better not to arrive there in the first place.)
(Incidentally, whilst it's necessary to do so here, I don't like using the term 'libertarian-leftist' due to commonly misunderstood connotations that associate it with the more commonly known 'libertarian right'. I must point out that these political positions are, for the most part, diametrically opposite — put both parties in the same room and it's likely to be war.)
It's bad enough that authoritarian government has been on the rise everywhere in recent decades without handing this final bit of human autonomy over to government without a fight.
The trouble is that if the Swedes get this change through then it sets a very bad precedent for all the others.