By Gene Bifano
We are rushing headlong to a Cashless Society in Vermont and the country. Some may think it’s a good idea, but it is not! It’s a danger to our freedom and society. The Biden administration is creating a program where “all” transaction’s will go to the “Feds” -FedNow
Some recreation businesses only accept credit or debit card payments. That’s fine you don’t have to go those businesses. Whereas Cassella Waste Mgt., a critical/essential service has refuses to take cash for their service.
It’s one thing for a company that doesn’t provide a critical service to refuse cash, it’s another when companies we’re required or need to use, refuse cash.
Should we and the State allow critical services refuse take “The” legal tender of the United States? NO! Cash is taken for granted. It’s been a way of life since ancient civilizations created coins.
Just think with a major power failure and/or no internet, or banks being brought down by hackers – we will be penniless. Cash is what we give our kids for allowance or tip servers. Cash goes into piggy banks or safety deposit boxes for emergencies or for Girl Scout cookies, cash is what we loan friends. How about all those coin drops that support various Charites and Christmas kettles. A major loss to charities.
Will Everyone need to have a device to accept electronic payment? Will all those devices be secure? Will everyone have greater access to our credit and debit card info? And, what about the merchants and gas stations that give discount for cash sales?
Cash transactions are private between you, the person the other person. Checks are also private; between you and the other person. When we use cash or checks there are No Product codes to tell the government what you purchased. With the urging of the government, the credit card companies were forced to create special product codes for purchasing guns and ammunitions. Or, anything else they want to track.
The issue, federal law forbids government from creating a gun registry. And rightly so, every dictator in history forbad the people from owning weapons. This is their work-around to bypass the law.
With a cashless society every little thing we do the IRS, as well as politicians, will know about. The underground economy will cease. Undocumented workers will not be able to work for cash.
Everything but everything can be taxed.
We cannot trust the IRS? Under Pres. Obama the IRS, Lois Learner, denied, prior to the his election, 501c status to 467 organization that didn’t agree with his politics. The government paid out substantial damages in two separate Federal suits to those individuals. Too little too late! The culprits? Nothing was done to punish them and remind others there are consequences.
The GAO stated, the IRS plans to hire 30,000 new agents in the next 2 years; equivalent to 3 army divisions. What are they going to do? And, by the way, for some reason they need to carry guns. Huh?
Recently it’s become more prevalent for some financial intuitions decided to use one’s political belief in lending decision or even customer selection. If transactions go through these institutions, will they be able to stop transactions they don’t like? With AI, it will be easy and instantaneous. Again; see FedNow and the Federal reserve.
In essence, they are taking away whatever privacy and autonomy we have remaining. The Big Tech companies have already amassed huge date files on us – those files will be even bigger. Debt/Credit transaction fees will be a way of life. Everything we do will have an electronic signature attached to it. Fees and interest rates assigned to every transaction.
As part of the Citibank team that created electronic banking as we know it, we knew customers will lose track of their funds and there would be overdrafts. To help mitigate the problem a product was created to fund the overdraft with a modest interest rate and NO overdraft fees. I argued to decline Debit transactions if the funds were unavailable – nope, they didn’t want to discourage card use.
Direct Deposit, was instituted, that contributed to the problem of not knowing one’s checking or savings balances.
At MasterCard we sold Credit/ Debit card acceptance to fast food chains and supermarkets, low margin businesses. We showed them that people will spend more and buy higher priced items when using a card for payment. They do! Why? When one looks in their pocket and sees the cash they have, they buy accordingly. Credit Card spending is one of the reasons Americans have such high debt – $1.03 Trillion.
Governments and businesses signed up with the idea of using electronic cash to facilitate internet transactions, and reduced staff. With basic CC interest at about 22% someone’s making a lot of money. They, will make a ton more when we are forced to only use credit cards.
Fact, according to the Fed about 5% of the population is un-banked and another 16% underbanked. While 16% of the general populations is underbanked; the black populations number is 26%.
By far, the biggest fear, however, is the government! A cashless society will increase its ability to spy and control us; see FedNow. With a cashless society, the government will have 1000 times greater ability to invade our privacy and control us.
In a fully cashless society, government can force compliance to their political will by simply turning off your access to your money – no food water or shelter. Hmm, the American way.
Again, when essential services start denying the use of cash, what are the alternatives? Without a bank account or CC what will they do with their trash? Leave it on the roadway or burn it? Our governor and legislators need act immediately to pass legislation to forbid essential business; essential to normal living; food, fuel, waste, energy, transportation etc. – to go cashless.
The author is running for the Moretown seat in the Vermont House as an independent. He says “I was on the leading edge of creating the electronic payment and banking “nightmare” were moving to, with Citibank, ADP and MasterCard; starting in 1977. When I helped develop these systems, I mostly saw the positive side. I never imagined the fear of federal and local governments with their overreach, could pose such a danger to our freedom.”