Cash: Use it or we lose it

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Dear Friends,

LISTEN TO THIS WEEK’S PROGRAM (Charles Goldman joins Ed Fallon):

(00:44) Cash: Use it or we lose it;
(18:54) Republicans hope to capitalize on UAW labor dispute;
(37:46) Kudos to President Biden for taking on Big Pharma;
(53:21) Big Puff and the junk food industry, with Kathy Byrnes.

Politics often makes strange bedfellows. Case in point: I had lunch with former US Congressman Steve King last week. More on that some other time.

The strange bedfellows I want to talk about this week are Italy’s right-wing prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and the “liberal” cities of New York, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. All have taken action to oppose a cashless economy.

“Cash must be king,” Meloni declared last year, pushing back against European Union efforts to eliminate the euro.

More specifically, Silkie Carlo, director of Britain’s Big Brother Watch, writes: “A cashless society is a surveillance society … not only can governments, banks and tech companies monitor what you have earned and spent in a cashless world, they can preemptively control it too.”

Beyond the frightening prospect of a complete surveillance state, here’s who gets dinged in a cashless economy:

  • Poor people, since those earning less than $25,000 a year rely on cash for more than one-third of their purchases (by contrast, 60% of Americans in a household earning over $100,000 use NO cash);
  • Women in an abusive relationship who are at risk of losing financial independence without access to cash;
  • People with physical or mental health problems who find using digital services difficult;
  • Those who live in areas with poor internet service.

Who stands to gain if cash is abolished? Big Bank, Big Tech, and Big Government.

Here’s Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the ACLU, quoted from this story in The Hill — The cashless future is here. So is Big Brother.: “When you pay cash, I give you money, you give me a good, end of story. If you’re using your credit card for all of your transactions, then data is being collected about an enormous range of your activities, including medical conditions, political donations, sexual activities, how much liquor you buy, how many cigarettes you buy.”

From the same article: “Credit card companies typically charge transaction fees that range from 1 to 3 percent of the purchase price. Together, Visa and Mastercard collected $138 billion in service fees in 2021. They are among the most profitable companies in the world … Credit card companies and retailers conspire to sell consumer data to advertisers, who use it to predict — and even to subtly influence — the shopper’s next move. In this transaction, the consumer is the product.”

So, forget about the points, perks, and rush of adrenalin you get from swiping your credit card. Use cash for as many transactions as possible. Do it to support local businesses. Do it to push back against the surveillance state. Do it for freedom.

Thanks for reading, listening, and taking action!

*******

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Ed Fallon