backandbeyond
God Like
Some time back I was pondering how the governments of the world would institute a cashless society. As we all know the populace in general has been well prepared for this and I would 'assume' the majority would not kick-back against it. But what about the holdouts? What about the 10 or 20% that do push back? The idea that governments steamroller over everything is not the case at all, they really do need the consent of the governed in most cases.
One day I was going over the 1933 act that withdrew gold coinage as the nation's currency and came to believe that it would have been nearly impossible to pass that action in any other context than a national disaster, as the depths of the depression in 1933 was. The bank failures, the unemployment, all that turned the people's eyes to the government for salvation. And so gold was withdrawn, and things didn't get better.
Actually the idea that ALL gold was confiscated is false. Citizens were allowed to retain up to 10 ounces, and numismatic coins as well. This was a bone thrown to the die-hard holdouts no doubt, a loophole, a pressure valve to appease, but the die was set and gold was never again to be used as daily currency. this paved the way for big government spending increases, for a big shift of power to the federal government who through the Fed had access to vast amounts of created money.
Now we face a similar transition and I think it's quite possible that the same tried and true method of allowing the economy to collapse into a similar state as was in 1933 will be the method used to get all the holdouts to hand in their "hoards" of cash in exchange for digital entries. Time will tell I guess, but from where I sit we are well on the way to such a collapse of the economy. All it will take if the rug being pulled on the stock market and housing markets and the majority of people, who are of course heavily invested there, will lose all hope.
One day I was going over the 1933 act that withdrew gold coinage as the nation's currency and came to believe that it would have been nearly impossible to pass that action in any other context than a national disaster, as the depths of the depression in 1933 was. The bank failures, the unemployment, all that turned the people's eyes to the government for salvation. And so gold was withdrawn, and things didn't get better.
Actually the idea that ALL gold was confiscated is false. Citizens were allowed to retain up to 10 ounces, and numismatic coins as well. This was a bone thrown to the die-hard holdouts no doubt, a loophole, a pressure valve to appease, but the die was set and gold was never again to be used as daily currency. this paved the way for big government spending increases, for a big shift of power to the federal government who through the Fed had access to vast amounts of created money.
Now we face a similar transition and I think it's quite possible that the same tried and true method of allowing the economy to collapse into a similar state as was in 1933 will be the method used to get all the holdouts to hand in their "hoards" of cash in exchange for digital entries. Time will tell I guess, but from where I sit we are well on the way to such a collapse of the economy. All it will take if the rug being pulled on the stock market and housing markets and the majority of people, who are of course heavily invested there, will lose all hope.
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