As the summer season approaches, many parks and entertainment venues, such as Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, are reminding patrons that they will not be allowed to use cash at their venues. Coming off the heels of nonsensical and unconstitutional lockdown measures, it seems our descent into a cashless world is still on track, and may even be ahead of schedule.
Shops, theaters, stadiums and restaurants across the country are moving to exclusively “contactless payment methods,” a term so grossly Orwellian it should raise concerns. After all, customers are still touching their platinum credit cards to pay for snacks at convenience stores. Whether using your smartphone’s Apple Pay feature or your credit card, there is nothing “contactless” about it. What is accurate about the term is its intention to make Americans scared of the person taking their food order; scared that other shoppers are nothing but potential infectious threats.
The COVID-19 fearmongering that began in early 2020 accelerated this transformation greatly. Of course, the controllers needed a carrot to dangle in front of semi-conscious Americans to make their lost freedoms an afterthought. Fear and convenience are often the two most powerful tools wielded by the state to compel submission, and the people appear to be in love with the simplicity of purely electronic payments.
Much of Atlanta has now become cashless, including major retailers and entertainment venues. The consequence of this is top-to-bottom surveillance of all financial transactions. The “doomsday scenario” is what China currently employs; a social credit system, if you will. Citizens’ chips are suddenly turned off if the Communist Party deems them “untrustworthy,” or scores are dropped at the first sight of non-compliance.
Think of the optics here: anybody who openly criticizes government on social media could be punished financially. Your score could be docked for engaging in “disinformation,” which is, of course, anything the government decides is disinformation. It is effectively total control over your pocketbook. The elites have been aiming to eliminate hand-to-hand cash for decades, as it will allow them to monitor, control and tax every transaction.
Your child wants to sell lemonade on a hot Sunday afternoon? No, he or she must provide ample identification to open a bank account, most of which are entirely digital now. What about your teenage son who wants to mow lawns in the summer for his neighbors and earn his spending money? Sorry, that won’t be allowed either. Everything must be exchanged under the total purview of the state. The first move by the central planners was to phase out hard money (gold and silver), which is also constitutional money. The next move is to erase physical transactions altogether, all under the guise of “public health” and the “greater good.” The great irony is that a cashless world will hurt the very unprivileged the elites pretend to champion: those with low incomes or without access to online banking.
This is a global trend, as well. Sweden has whittled down its cash payments to below 20%, according to Credit Suisse. Russia, Spain, Italy, France, Mexico, and Uruguay have all implemented amount limits on cash transactions. Along with the disappearance of cash will come negative interest rates, which will force people to do one of two things: keep their money under a mattress, or spend it. The latter is ultimately what the globalist central planners want. They want to erode savings and destroy the foundation for building economic prosperity, something the Federal Reserve has deliberately practiced for over 100 years.
Ultimately, the right to economic freedom begins and ends with anonymous financial transactions. The slide to a cashless, freedom-less economic world is already here, and the bottom is fast approaching. The Federal Reserve has recently discussed introducing a “digital version of the dollar” at their first quarter meetings. The loss of individual liberty will likely, once again, be swept under the rug and convenience will be King.
The post Resist the Carrot: The Steady Slide Into a Cashless Society appeared first on LewRockwell.
The daily news and opinion site LewRockwell.com was founded in 1999 by anarcho-capitalists Lew Rockwell and Burt Blumert to help carry on the anti-war, anti-state, pro-market work of Murray N. Rothbard. Visit https://www.lewrockwell.com