Sounds Good

[Don]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/comment/11602399/Ban-cash-end-boom-and-bust.html

A proposed new law in Denmark could be the first step towards an economic revolution that sees physical currencies and normal bank accounts abolished and gives governments futuristic new tools to fight the cycle of “boom and bust”.

The Danish proposal sounds innocuous enough on the surface – it would simply allow shops to refuse payments in cash and insist that customers use contactless debit cards or some other means of electronic payment.

....

In this futuristic world, all payments are made by contactless card, mobile phone apps or other electronic means, while notes and coins are abolished. Your current account will no longer be held with a bank, but with the government or the central bank. Banks still exist, and still lend money, but they get their funds from the central bank, not from depositors.

Having everyone’s account at a single, central institution allows the authorities to either encourage or discourage people to spend. To boost spending, the bank imposes a negative interest rate on the money in everyone’s account – in effect, a tax on saving.

This apparently is already being done in a couple of European countries.

Sounds good; but is it?

 

[Rolfe]

From the article:

Having everyone’s account at a single, central institution allows the authorities to either encourage or discourage people to spend. To boost spending, the bank imposes a negative interest rate on the money in everyone’s account – in effect, a tax on saving.


Bad. I bolded why I believe so. Laissez faire.

 

[Revmitchell]

Marxism pure and simple.

 

[Don]

Not just penalizing you for not spending; also penalizing you when they don't want you to spend:

What about the opposite situation – when the economy is overheating? The central bank or government will certainly drop any negative interest on credit balances, but it could go further and impose a tax on transactions.

So whenever you use the money in your account to buy something, you pay a small penalty. That makes people less inclined to spend and more inclined to save, so reducing economic activity.

So--behavior modification....

 

[sag38]

How can this be a good thing? When has the government ever been good with money? Here, the citizen, is at the mercy of the government. Businesses are at the mercy of the government. Imagine your funds being cut off simply because you supposedly made a politically incorrect statement or you don't purchase enough items deemed necessary for you by the government. The bad scenarios are endless not to mention the fact that Revelation 13:17 comes to mind. "And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." (Rev 13:17)

 

[Don]

How can this be a good thing? When has the government ever been good with money? Here, the citizen, is at the mercy of the government. Businesses are at the mercy of the government. Imagine your funds being cut off simply because you supposedly made a politically incorrect statement or you don't purchase enough items deemed necessary for you by the government. The bad scenarios are endless not to mention the fact that Revelation 13:17 comes to mind. "And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." (Rev 13:17)

Sag - you're absolutely correct, but consider: You keep saying "government." The article mentions one banking facility for the entire world. Nation-banks would be in effect, but all monetary transactions basically go through this one system.

So whose government?

In order for such a thing to work, all governments have to agree to use the same system; getting such an agreement seems like a nigh-impossible task ... unless you ascribe to some of the things Poncho has posted in the past, and such a system is already in the works, or even possibly already exists.

But I do agree about this mentality being a sign for the mark that each person must have in order to buy or sell....