Dear Friends,
(01:01) The great cash vs card debate;
(16:55) Confronting renewable energy’s environmental impact;
(34:19) Envisioning a future beyond nuclear weapons;
(54:28) Beans, beans the magical crop, with Kathy Byrnes Fallon.
I love it when Charles and I disagree, i.e., when Charles is wrong.
Kidding, of course. There’s plenty of room in the discussion about important issues for a wide range of opinions, although “climate change is a hoax” is not one of them. Sorry, Gary.
When it comes to cash, I believe it should remain the primary currency of the future, along with barter. Charles is of a different mind. You’ll have to listen to the first segment of this week’s program to hear his take, and my knock-out rebuttal (exaggerating for sport).
Charles and I would be interested in hearing whether you’re a cash, credit, or crypto kinda person, and why you make that choice. Contact me at ed@fallonforum.com.
Bottom line for me, I don’t want a big bank taking a cut out of my purchase. Case in point: I recently sold an audio version of my book, Marcher, Walker, Pilgrim, for $10 using Stripe and Payhip (alas, as far as I know, there’s no option to independently market an audiobook). Stripe, owned by billionaires John and Patrick Collison, and Payhip took a cut of over 10%, leaving Climate March, the book’s owner, with $8.91.
(Note: If you buy a physical copy of the book directly from Climate March, billionaires lose out and 100% goes to climate action.)
Furthermore, I don’t want corporations or the US government knowing how I spend my money. It’s none of their business.
As Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the ACLU, says, “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.”
This is more than an invasion of privacy. It’s an elimination of privacy. It further enmeshes corporate interests with the surveillance state inaugurated in 2001 with The Patriot Act. Fighting that Act and excessive and unwarranted government/corporate surveillance was one reason I ran for Congress in 2008.
Once again, quoting from the American Civil Liberty Union’s (ACLU) website, “[T]he Patriot Act was the first of many changes to surveillance laws that made it easier for the government to spy on ordinary Americans by expanding the authority to monitor phone and email communications, collect bank and credit reporting records, and track the activity of innocent Americans on the Internet. While most Americans think it was created to catch terrorists, the Patriot Act actually turns regular citizens into suspects.”
I don’t traffic in conspiracy theories, and I hope we agree that the ACLU is above reproach when it comes to defending liberty and the First Amendment. (Heck, the group not only defends marriage equality and reproductive rights but also the right of the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis to protest.)
So, sure, it’s small change, but using cash is one thing we can each do to push back against the growing erosion of our freedom and privacy. Using cash also means more money stays in your community.
We can all get on board with that, right?
Thanks for reading, listening, and doing your part for a better world.
Ed Fallon
*******
In addition to our PODCAST, listen to the Fallon Forum on these affiliates:
– KHOI 89.1 FM (Ames, Iowa)
– KICI.LP 105.3 FM (Iowa City, Iowa)
– WHIV 102.3 FM (New Orleans, Louisiana)
– KPIP-LP, 94.7 FM (Fayette, Missouri)
– KCEI 90.1 FM (Taos, New Mexico)
– KRFP 90.3 FM (Moscow, Idaho)
– WGRN 94.1 FM (Columbus, Ohio)
– KKFI 90.1 FM (Kansas City, Missouri)
Please support the local businesses and non-profits who make this program possible. Click on their logos on the Fallon Forum website and in our weekly email, and visit Bold Iowa, and Birds & Bees Urban Farm. Thanks to Des Moines Irish Session for providing our bumper music, and thank you for supporting a civil alternative to the shock jocks!
Ed Fallon