by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Using the cashless payment system, which is being pushed on all of us by all the banks and by the government(s), on the other hand, we open the door to the surveillance state with each and every transaction and every item bought registered by some government computer.
In fact each and every transaction and every item purchased – so if you don't want them to know how much ammo or how many knives or how much storage food you buy don't use your debit or credit card – regardless of where and what shows up in the statistics and are available to the spy agencies at the click of a mouse.
There are many people who suggest that in order to be prepared for a time of crisis you should have silver and gold coins as means of cash currency but that is utter baloney as no one today, almost, will deal in that material, Cash,as in greenbacks, Pound notes or Euro is what you need and not precious metal coins.
There will be no shopkeeper or trader who is going to accept silver or gold coins after the proverbial hits the air moving device, not one, and not for a while to come thereafter. Cash, as in currency of the realm, is going to be king and not some trade round in silver or gold.
Thus, rather than investing in those get a safe, the best you can afford, and have at least some of your money at home in this place. While this may be considered nearly as bad as having your savings stashed under the mattress it is a great deal better than that and it also means that you can get at your cash as and when you need it when the chips are down.
The amount that you see on your bank statement is just a promissory note, so to speak, and IOU, which the bank promised to pay you but, when the chips are down and the ATMs not working then this is but an empty promise. There is no way that you can get at it and as the people in Cyprus learned when the government decides to have to pay for a bail-out they will, quite happily, seize your saving and your assets held in your accounts at the banks.
We have always been told that having cash at home was bad because burglars could take it from you and that having in the banks was a great deal safer, and this claim has been going on for ages. However, already the Great Depression showed the world of savers that having their money in a bank was not the safest way to go as the banks could not, actually, pay them back the money.
In fact, if everyone would go to take their money back from the banks they actually would collapse as they would not have the cash to hand to actually pay everyone. Banks do not have all the cash of all the people in some vault somewhere; far from it. Most of the money that they “hold” is, in fact, lent out to people and corporations and they have a great problem fulfilling even the requests to pay out several thousands in whatever currency and, in addition to that, paying for anything at around a thousand Pounds Sterling, in the UK, or the same in Dollars in the US, will, more than likely immediately bring the police into the game as sellers have to, by law, inform the police immediately if and when someone tenders cash in large sums for payment and they will stall you for so long until the police arrives on scene.
However, having said that, when the proverbial hits the air moving device or has hit it then cash will truly be kind (once again) as no one will be accepting debit or credit cards or even checks. Those will then just be worthless pieces of plastic or paper, nothing more. Only real money – and not even, as said already, gold and silver coins – will be accepted as payment, or you will have to revert to barter trade.
While barter will work with individuals, maybe, it will not, however, do so with shopkeepers and other traders, at least not for some time after the event. Thus the coin of the real, so to speak, is what will be needed, at least, as said, for some time to come after any breakdown scenario, aside from barter amongst individuals and groups.
If you want to make purchases, now or later, without leaving, especially in our current surveillance society, a paper or electronic trail then you will have to have cash ready to hand with which to conduct business.
However, because the powers-that-be do not like to be kept in the dark they try to push everything towards a cashless economy and society and are almost as far as outlawing cash for all but the most trivial of purchases. I can see a time coming not far hence when shops will no longer be allowed to take cash for purchases over hundred Pounds or Euro, or will have to involve the police if sums above such an amount are being tendered.
Our governments claim that the cashless payments are for our protection so that we do not have to carry (vast amounts of) cash around with us but in reality things are rather different and we best understand that now. It has noting to do, in the same way as CCTV cameras and other surveillance measures, with our safety and security but everything to do with government wanting to know what we buy and where we buy the things that we buy.
The problem is, however, that the majority accept the claims by the governments and swallow what they are told hook, line and sinker. And they, unfortunately, do that also with regards to CCTV and other surveillance measures directed against each and every one of us, spying into every nook and cranny of our lives. If you want to make anonymous purchases then cash is the only answer or barter or alternative currencies; nothing else will work.
© 2013
