In the ‘money’ game is playing out in Australia…
Have you ever considered the data trail you leave as you swipe a card or make electronic payments for transactions over the course of your day? Australian officials have considered it, and they apparently think that trail of digital breadcrumbs is just an awesome step on the road to a surveillance state.
Full article, HERE.
This is NOT the first time this idea has been floated, but this one is actually making its way through the Australian House.
I remember when the European countries switched over to the Euro and the amount of black market money that got ‘turned in’, especially in Spain and Italy… Up until the banks started limiting the amount of money would could exchange at any one time…
I found the article, HERE from the Guardian in 2014, it doesn’t go into the black market economy per se, but I remember hearing that an estimated 302B in Pesetas had come from the black market just in Spain, and Italy’s Lira was estimated to be that or more. I also remember that it was hard to actually use a credit card to pay for anything, even then in the smaller towns. They wanted traveller’s checks or green (USD), because so much of both countries existed in a barter economy that wasn’t able to be taxed…
And that, for most countries IS the bottom line, more taxes… Sigh…
h/t VD
There have been many discussions in the US about ending paper money all together and converting to digital only. As we can all imagine, the push back was significant so we still have the fiat currency in our pockets.
The desire to tax is made real so much more simply if the government can just debit your account with every tax increase.
Doing that would make barter a far more reasonable alternative and would spawn a black market where a currency would arise – unofficially.
Slothful habit I might regret. About the only think I pay cash for now is lottery tickets. All the rest is debit cards. How venerable does that make me to government scrutiny?
I do have a stash of emergency currency. If the country is in the grip of some crisis, would paper money even be accepted by small merchants?
It’s one of the reasons big cities are pushing for cash-free purchases. Because someone, government, the credit/debit corporations, have control over what is being bought, sold, and all the monies involved.
The nanny people tout that cashless is safer, less robberies, burglaries, embezzlements and so forth. Because… for the children!
Yeah. Even the government is into this cashless thing. Don’t agree with me? Go try to pay your IRS bill in cash, cold hard cash.
When even the government doesn’t accept the money for all debts public and private, what does that say about… money?
Do I use debit/credit? Heck, yeah. Because it’s convenient. I also make sure my account is clean, investigate any unknown charges, review my statements almost daily, etc.
But I do love to carry some cash for emergencies.
LL- It already is… in silver if nothing else…
WSF- I think it would be, but I stay on the lookout for old silver coins…
Beans- Good point!
If you’re doing nothing nefarious, you have nothing to fear.
Right?
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Hey Old NFO;
I remembered reading when the Euro was the universal currency of the EU, certain countries like Greece, Spain and others who’s economy ain’t as “efficient” as the Germans, it made a lot of people rich, basically it was a income transfer from the advanced countries to the less advanced.
When ever my friend DELETED travels to Europe he takes only US currency. He figures he gets 10 to 25% more with Yankee Greenbacks than using official exchange facilities.
GB- Sure… Sure…
Bob_ That happened too.
Stretch- Yep, except in Germany… They STILL won’t take green in ‘official’ shops.
Been quite a few years since I have read about it, but the .gov estimated that the underground economy was 3X the size of the “official”, taxed, economy here in the US. Politicians always drool when they talk about being able to tax it. The problem for them is that a lot of it goes away if it can be taxed. They don’t seem to be able to comprehend the situation.
Not only would a large portion of the grey economy disappear, but so would some of the official economy, which would trigger a recession or depression of noticeable proportions.
How’s that saying go? If you want less of something, tax it.