Do you remember when the pound coin changed and when we switched to polymer notes? There was always a deadline to use the ‘old’ currency by. Finding the old version of currency in a drawer or down the back of the settee and then presenting it to your bank….wasn’t it a relief your ‘faithful/friendly’ bank teller would smile and place it in your bank account? Well just imagine taking currency into your bank now and them now telling you to go away? It’s too late!
Now don’t believe in the media suggesting that a cashless society would be good. Always ask ‘who would this benefit’?
A cashless society means no cash. Zero. It doesn’t mean mostly cashless and you can still use a ‘wee bit of cash here & there’. Cashless means fully digital, fully traceable and you are fully controlled. A cashless society means:
If you are struggling with your mortgage on a particular month, you can’t do an odd job for someone to get you through to the next payday.
Your family can’t go & help the local farmer or a neighbour to earn a bit of summer cash to take on holiday.
There will be no more cash slipped into the hands of a child as a good luck charm or from their grandparent when going on holidays. Remember the tooth fairy?
No more money in birthday cards and no need to carry a purse just a card holder?
No more table top sales or open house/garden tea and cakes for charity, no more young people car washing or helping to pack your supermarket shopping for school trips.
No more piggy banks for your child to collect pocket money & to learn about the value of earning. Most people think twice about spending cash as opposed to using a card.
No more cash for a rainy day fund perhaps hidden in a cookie jar or for that something special you have been putting £20 a week away for.
No more charity collections but of course you can hand your credit or debit card to the Big Issue seller for them to swipe on their machine!
No more selling bits & pieces from your home that you no longer want/need for a bit of cash. Car boot sales will become all but a memory. Remember when you 'picked up' a new coat for a fiver or a piece of china that turned out to be worth 5 times what you paid for it? Ah those were the days when you could go out on a Sunday morning and return with a boot full of recycled items and still have change from a tenner! Everyone benefits and so did the environment.
Win!! Win!!
No more cash gifts from relatives or loved ones. You remember when David or Margaret gave you ten pounds for ‘your trouble’.
No more tips for the waiter, the hairdresser or the dustbin operative at Christmas.
What about your life/illness insurance cover which could be questioned or haggled over if you’ve had too many chocolates, crisps or trans fat foods? You could get a letter from your doctor or busy body social workers if you’ve had more than the recommended daily intake of alcohol and as for anybody caught buying cigarettes or vaping…oh dear!! You could be buying food on behalf of others or the needy but when food is scarce, you could be accused of gluttony or named and shamed in some way…..
How does a person pay for goods which someone else has initially bought such as food during the lockdown and they need to repay them?
And what about playing games like monopoly?
What a cashless society does guarantee:
Banks have full control of every single penny you own.
Every transaction you make is recorded.
All your movements & actions are easily traceable.
Access to your money can be blocked at the click of a button when/if banks need ‘clarification’ from you which will take about 3 weeks, a thousand questions answered & five thousand passwords.
You will have no choice but to declare & be taxed on every pound in your possession.
The government WILL decide what you can & cannot purchase.
If your transactions are deemed in any way questionable, by those who create the questions, your money will be frozen, ‘for your own good’.
Forget about cash being dirty. Stop being so easily led. Cash has been around for a very, very, very long time & it gives you control over how you trade with the world. It gives you independence. I heard a story where a man supposedly contracted Covid because of a £20 note he had handled. There is the same chance of Covid being on a card as being on cash. If you cannot see how utterly ridiculous this assumption is then there is little hope.
If you are a customer, pay with cash. If you are a shop owner, remove those ridiculous signs that ask people to pay by card and it’s better for them because they don’t have to pay any charges Cash is a legal tender, it is our right to pay with cash. Banks are making it increasingly difficult to lodge cash. Why?
Please open your eyes. Please stop believing everything you are being told and remember who will benefit from a cashless society. Almost every single topic in today’s world is tainted with corruption & hidden agendas. Please stop telling me & others like me that we are what’s wrong with the world when you hail the most corrupt members of society as your heroes. Politics & greed is what is wrong with the world; not those who are trying to alert you to the reality in which you are blindly floating along whilst being immobilised by irrational fear. Fear created to keep you doing & believing in exactly what you are complacently doing. 2 weeks ago, my local supermarket removed the pay by cash option from their self-service checkouts. I enquired why and was told that it was due to Covid which made no sense at all. Show me a machine that can catch a virus now?! There are vital flaws in all their arguments.
And what about when there is an economic downturn in the economy like we are encountering today? Well negative interest rates have been found in places like Denmark and Switzerland. What should happen to your money kept in a current account if the UK were to adopt a similar approach which is now on the cards? In economic downturns, people typically hold onto their money and wait to see some sort of improvement before they ramp up spending again. As a result, deflation can become entrenched in the economy: People stop spending, demand declines, prices for goods and services fall, and people wait for even lower prices before spending. It’s a pernicious cycle that can be very hard to break.
Negative rates fight deflation by making it more costly to hold onto money, incentivising spending. Theoretically, negative interest rates would make it less appealing to keep cash in the bank; instead of earning interest on savings, depositors could be charged a holding fee by the bank. Simultaneously, negative interest rates would make it more appealing to borrow money, since it would push loan rates to rock-bottom lows. Not being allowed to hold and utilise cash anymore, we would have no choice but to see our savings and any income reduce in value because the banks would have the monopoly on storage.
When banks fail and indeed one was bailed out by the UK government in 2008, even with the existence of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme it took up to five years for people to receive compensation.
However…In 2014 the G20 made up of the world’s largest nations and unions including the UK, USA, Brazil, Canada, Russia, European Union & Australia signed a supra national banking law which required that the next global Systematically Important Bank to fail will be met with Bank Bail in Law not like our 2008 bailout. Now, the Financial Stability Board is the international body that monitors and makes recommendations about the global financial system. It is sanctioned by and works out of the Bank for International Settlements Building, guiding the G20’s bankruptcy resolution policies which will include the Fed and the Bank of England and indeed on 15th March 2020 the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System issued a statement confirming coordinated action with the bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank and so forth.
You see when you hand over your money to the Bank, the Bank gives you an ‘IOU’. The Bank depositors, you, are now legally treated as unsecured creditors in the largest economies of the world. Now more than ever due to the plandemic, it is your responsibility to know the solvency of the bank you chose to use for your deposits. For years, bank insurance programmes have lulled many high Street savers to sleep soundly under the assumption that the government would always provide insurance on your account. So regardless of Brexit, we will still be subject to this regulation.
What can we do?
If you know that you are going to need a particular item in the near future perhaps consider buying it now rather than later on? Sort out your financial situation and be prepared!
So, please pay with cash & say no to a cashless society while you still have the choice.
Have a good day!