Re: FW: Cashless? FDIC to Monitor All Transactions??

[Margaret Tarbet <tarbet@swaa.com>]

On Thu, 14 Jan 1999 08:51:55 -0500, Greg forwarded:

>Have any of you folks heard anything about the scenarios described below? Just BS, or is there something real here? -- Greg
>...
>> Ultimately you will be so outraged, you will wish you could get out of the
>> system. Unfortunately, you will not be able to do business outside the
>> system. 
>

I haven't heard about anything about the cash bit.  I have heard
about moves to thumbprint indentification in response to the
increasing sophistication of tools that can be used for
counterfeiting, and about the Know Your Customer baloon being
floated..

But what i really want to point out is the last para, quoted above.
It is the fact that we (already!) cannot opt out of the system that
makes changes imperative if we don't want a police state.   We're in
this fix because powerful people -- the bankers, in this case -- see
no point in serving any interests but their own.  That's straight
out of Capitalist dogma:  self-interest works to the public good.
But in this case it doesn't, does it.  And if we look closely, we
see that it hardly ever does.   But it does do a lot of nasty
things. 

It's social consciousness, not capitalism, that tells us to say
'hmmm, maybe i shouldn't do that -- i wouldn't want it done to me'.
If we can't opt out of the system, then we are entirely at the mercy
of the powerful.   And if they're good Capitalists, they don't at
all have our interests at heart.  That scares me green.

=margaret