OPINION:
The mighty dollar is losing its might.
The percentage of adults in America who use physical dollars and cents for their purchases is dramatically down in recent years, with only 13% saying in a Gallup survey that they use cash “all” or “most” all of the time.
Make way for more losses of privacy.
Make way, too, for more government controls. Can you say Justin Trudeau?
“Trudeau vows to freeze anti-mandate protesters’ bank accounts,” BBC reported about the Canadian prime minister in February, as truck drivers in Canada were bucking the government’s COVID-19-tied shot mandates and filling the streets with angry blockades.
The more the world moves toward electronic banking, electronic financing, electronic transacting, the more the powers-who-be, namely, the government, hold the power to tighten the purse strings — or even cut them, if so desired.
“Sharply fewer U.S. adults report they use cash for making purchases now than say they were doing so five years ago,” Gallup wrote. “Thirteen percent say they make ‘all’ or ‘most’ of their purchases with cash, while 28% say they were using cash to the same extent five years ago. Six in 10 now say they make ‘only a few’ or no purchases with case today, nearly double the 32% saying they did so five years ago.”
Card transactions are easily tracked — easily monitored — easily denied. Cash? It’s a tougher beast to follow.
There’s a reason drug dealers deal in cash.
And that segues into one societal benefit for the transference to cashless economies: making it harder for criminals. Some criminals, that is. Not all.
In a St. Louis Post-Dispatch report from 2014 that asked, “Does a cashless society mean less crime?” — the answer was somewhat incomplete.
When Missouri switched from paper welfare checks to debit card welfare payments, “burglary, larceny and assault went down,” the paper reported, citing research conducted but the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Why? As the paper explained, “cash is what the thief wants most. His drug dealer doesn’t take a credit card.”
But then come the hackers.
Then come the identity thieves.
And out the window flies much more money than the tally on a few welfare checks.
According to Define Financial, individuals reported $3.3 billion in losses due to identity theft or fraud. And that’s up from $1.8 billion in 2019, the site reported.
“In 2020, the most common types of identity theft were government document or benefit fraud, credit card fraud (specifically opening new accounts), and loan or lease fraud,” Define Financial wrote. “The pandemic gave identity thieves a ‘perfect story’ in which to operate. Computer crime was [already] the fastest-growing type of crime in the world before everyone began working, going to school shopping for even the basics, and ordering dinner from the corner diner online. This [pandemic] opened up everyone to even more … attacks.”
Cash in hand counters all those types of theft.
It doesn’t seem to matter, though; the Pandora’s Box of fast, swipe-a-card — even wave-a-hand — payments has been opened.
“The microchip implants that let you pay with your hand,” BBC wrote in April.
“No more wallet? Hand implant allows people to pay with chip,” Fox Channel 8 wrote that same month.
Cashless is coming.
“Sixty-four percent of Americans say it is ‘very likely’ or ‘likely’ that the U.S. will be a cashless society at some point during their lives,” Gallup wrote.
If removing the dollar from the gold standard created a fiat system that can be easily manipulated by bankers, politicians and economists — just think what America’s cashless society will bring.
A one-world currency is rapidly on its way.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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