It’s a wonder the Gesundheitsfuhrers didn’t shut down gas stations given that people touch the pump handles and the cases! the cases!
Well, that’s coming – even though people will still be touching the pumps. But they won’t be touching money – especially cash money. Instead, the “money” will be automatically extracted from their electronic wallet via something called PayByCar.
The idea is for “contactless” transactions – to “stop the spread” of WuFlu.
How that works when people will still handle the pumps is difficult to understand. What’s easy to understand is that “contactless” means cash-less, which also means – if this system ever became default – that it may become very hard to buy gas with cash or even a credit card. Instead, you’d pay via an “app” on your phone – and a bug buried in your car, as PayByCar envisions.
This company – which is a “provider of in-vehicle payment solutions” – has “partnered” with big-time OEM supplier Gentex Corp to introduce something called the Integrated Toll Module, which works like it sounds. A device is integrated with the vehicle that knows (via RFID chipping) where the car is in relation to gas stations (as well as other things). It then sends a text to the driver, whose identity is paired to the car – who texts back the station pump number and the system obligingly turns on the pump and debits the cost of the fill-up from the person’s account.
Other costs could be — and surely will be – debited as well. Because of the “interest in new revenue streams,” that the parties involved expect to cash in on.
By eliminating cash.
For instance, by electronically debiting the driver for using a road at a given time; i.e., congestion pricing – made automatic and so unavoidable, if your car has the integrated module. It knows where you’re driving and when you’re driving – and makes change.
And tax-by-mile, something already being “pilot programmed” in several states as a way to mulct drivers for avoiding motor fuels taxes by driving electric cars or paying lower motor fuels taxes by driving more fuel-efficient cars.
There are all kinds of possibilities.
One could even imagine the ITM tied into one’s social credit standing; if you don’t wear your Face Diaper or aren’t up-to-date on your vaccinations, you get dunned if you drive.
Gentex has the following mission statement on its web page:
“(We) offer multiple, scalable connected car technologies that allow the vehicle to talk to the home, surrounding infrastructure and more. Our car-to-home automation technology allows you to operate all your home automation devices with a simple vehicle-integrated button push. Our V2i platform lets your car pay for toll road usage. And, it can be all be secured with our biometric system – a vehicle integrated iris-scanning feature that enhances cyber security and allows for unprecedented levels of vehicle personalization.”
Italics added.
Your car will know you. Or rather, those who control your car will know all about you. Not just where you drive but how you live, in your home – everywhere.
But whatever happened to “stopping the spread”?
Never mind.
“It’s about leveraging and expanding the use of the Integrated Toll Module,” admits Craig Piersma, marketing director for Gentex. “We’re being a little more aggressive and opportunistic on technologies that would mesh with ours and expand our capabilities,” Piersma told the industry trade publication Automotive News.
“It’s still ultimately about putting some hardware in the car for us. We have that real estate in the mirror location.”
Piersma refers to the “smart” rearview mirrors Gentex supplies to the car industry, to the tune of almost $2 billion annually. Most cars made since the early 2000s have these mirrors, which include much more than just a rearview mirror. Many also house the integrated garage door opener controls and the “concierge” buttons – e.g., OnStar and similar – drivers use to summon roadside assistance and so on. 
These may soon house your ITM as well.
It’ll be very convenient – the carrot used to draw the donkeys forward, before bashing them on the head with the stick – which will be the freedom (and anonymity) they surrendered for the sake of the “convenience.”
As has been done using the smartphone. So easy to text – so easy to track. The two bundled unavoidably together. You can’t have the one without the other.
And now, you’ll have more.
Or rather, less.
. . .
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The nuts are clearly in charge. In some places around the world they are now social distancing cars in parking lots. You can have up to 4 people over for Christmas in Belgium, but they have to stay in the backyard and cannot come into the house for any reason…even to use the bathroom. The problem with gold and silver is who will be able to make change? You present some gold coin that says $1 on it and it is actually worth an ounce of gold. Store employees won’t know the difference. Normal people won’t know the difference. Somehow, we must do whatever we can to disrupt the new world of nonsense. A little resistance here and there might add up to something. At age 70, I’ve got nothing to loose by being a bit non-compliant. They may shoot me when the Gestapo comes to fill me full of vaccine poisons, in which even a megalomaniac like Gates is dumb enough to admit to us his vaccines will alter our DNA forever. It’s like he thinks it won’t matter. This entire charade is run by arrogant idiots and if many of them are taken out while trying to enforce some of this crap…I am all in favor of the needed push back. Lets the wars begin!
Hi Rollie,
The greatest weapon being used against us – the people who simply want to live and let live – is our reluctance to get into a confrontation. Most of us despise violence, which is why we despise all that is going on, which isn’t optional. But the time has arrived – sadly – to be confrontational. Not necessarily violent – but disobedient. Refuse to be forced to bow to this Sickness Kabuki. And if that is not enough, then we’ll be forced to defend ourselves. It is that simple, even if it is simply awful.
So true, Eric. Think of the 1983 movie “Ghandi”, where India folk were gathered in a large courtyard to celebrate some festival and protest against the arrest of two dissidents. A British Brigadier, Reginald Dyer, ordered colonial troops under his command (most Ghurkas) to block their escape and open fire on them, killing at least 379 persons and wounding about 1,200.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jallianwala_Bagh_massacre
As was put to the General in the investigation afterwards, when his superior officers inquire as to his command of this shocking massacre, ask him after he assured them that medics were ready to render attention to anyone that “applied”…”How, Brigadier, does a two-year old child, shot through the belly with a .303 round, ‘apply’ for help?”
It may indeed come to risking overt and shocking Government retaliation, like at Waco in ’93. And we can trust that at least initially those that get gunned down or burned alive will be demonized by the Government’s apologists, especially the Lamestream Media, as “racists”, “anti-government fanatics”, “KKK”, and so on. I’m sure the 17 children under the age of FIVE that burned to death at Waco were a significant THREAT to the public order.
Another crappy thing about cashless, endless fees for spending money!!!
Yet another thing to hate Musk for too (pay pal).
I always come back to the question “Who benefits?” As long as we tolerate Malum Prohibitum (wrong due to being prohibited) by whom? And return to the Constitutional principle of Malum in se (wrong of itself). We will always have robbers dictating policy that they smuggle in under color of law. Barter is the only way I survive anymore, and I quit caring about making money when I realized there is nothing I could acquire that a “Special Interest Group” who dons the mask of government cannot steal under some pretext or another.
In the 1970s in high school most social science teachers said paranoid when I cited statist trends. I knew I was right a 1977 day when a monitor only tried taking a pamphlet I was reading another pupil left once she learnt its source, the libertarian Foundation on Economic Education. 1972 to 1975 I clashed often with a specially anti-cash teacher just on getting interested in the gold standard. The same teacher was fixated on the privilege not right of a competent law abiding person to drive. I truly believe she thought aspirant drivers should clear a steeper bar to cut the net number of psychiatrically approved cashless drivers. Now integrated technology & fiendish devices can do that for her ilk.
As someone said, “legal tender for all debts public and private.” Theoretically, if I fill my tank at the pump and the guy/lady at the register won’t take my dollars, I’m relieved of my debt for the fill up. Theoretically. But soon the pumps won’t turn on without “yaw paypa’s, please” anyhow.
Eventually there may be a cash call: turn in your dollars for digital and the banks will already have done so for our accounts. Our vehicles, extensions of our bodies and soon our minds, will get vaccinated like we will. “You don’t have to get the implant. You just can’t leave the house if you don’t.”
The younger generation won’t mind. They’ll be used to it and will need their government allowances to buy anything anyway. And road/travel credits will be a line item on our social credit spreadsheet. I already put in for Wednesday as my preferred travel day of the week. Best for running midweek errands.
Hi Imbroglio,
My hope is it comes to blows before it comes to that. If it does come to that – digital everything, no way out – I’m done. Punching out. Going Amish, off the grid – under a bridge. I don’t care. I won’t abide it. And – not having kids who depend on me – I can act on that and assume the consequences for myself. I’ve had a pretty good life. I will not accept the life they have in mind for us all.
I will never/ do not now use smart phones or apps. I pay w/ prepaid debit buying gas or eating out, other bank debit used paying bills or buying groceries. We have the right to refuse medical treatments incl vaccines. America is trashing (it is global) 24/7, and A.I. will run the show. Agenda 21 (2030) will mean mass depopulation agendas, forcing people in cities in small apts. and complete slavery. We are retirees over ten yrs now, we chose to be child free studying globalism since the late ’70’s. Young people will become slaves and many people will be bio weaponed to save the planet. Technocracy.news for details. Five percent or less really are tuned in, and there are few if any patriot men of fighting age who will take this country back. Majority adults lack left brain functioning.
There is plenty of patriot men of fighting age, but there is no leadership since that is efficiently and ruthlessly removed via lawfare and propaganda. The only realistic option is Irish democracy- just refusing to obey, being difficult, accidentally breaking stuff, etc. Just taking as much outside the system as possible works wonders.
Up to recently, most of the country have been slow and reluctant to stand up to the gov and its legions of enforcers. Since they got arrogant and think they’ve won, their enforcers are messing with mothers and kids over totalitarian mask mandates and house arrest of free people.
The fuse is lit- the safety valve has been tied down for decades, the corruption is endemic. They already imprison millions of us every year trying to maintain control- and the system is breaking under the strain.
The troubles are coming- prepare yourself.
Ernie and others: This needs to be done since we are being taken down into a Marxist style dictatorship when Biden takes office. http://www.louisbeam.com/leaderless.htm
Excellent, Laura –
In my sphere, I’m talking with the few like-minded (and local) friends I have about what steps we’ll take when/if such steps become unavoidable. I urge everyone else to do the same.
Eric, I’m reminded of the contrast between the two different types of tyrant.
The first is the out-and-out “bastard” who’s in it for HIMSELF, and he makes no bones about it, it’s His way, or the Highway (to Hades, often). Various 20th century jerkwads like Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, or various Latin American “Jefes” were infamous for that pattern. And as “bad” as life could be (but in many cases, was it all that ‘bad’, as often they got things done that NEEDED to be done, and at least for a time, were VERY popular), when they got what they wanted, they LEFT YOU ALONE. That is, most of them understood how the “world” REALLY works, and all their political BS aside, as long as you weren’t actively fighting against them, you could go on with your life fairly much as you wanted to live it.
It’s the SECOND form of tyranny that’s taken ahold in this country, though…one of the tyranny of GOOD INTENTIONS. These idiots see the world as they WANT it to be, not as it IS. Everything…and I do mean, EVERYTHING, that they mistakenly perceive that’s gone “wrong” in society, they seek to “fix” whether you LIKE it or not. Things like the “Patriarchy”, “racism”, “income inequality”, and so on. Their most onerous cause is the “environment”, this mistaken notion that “Spaceship Earth” is inherently FRAGILE, save that it’s care and feeding is left to THEIR “tender mercies”. When that happens, sky’s the limit insofar as their idiotic schemes, of which issuing various “fatwas” regarding what should be strictly a MARKET choice in how we transport ourselves and our goods. Eric, “environmentalism” is simply another means to promulgate Marxist-Leninist ideas, and done ostensibly for our own “good”, but somehow, just as happened in the former Soviet Union, and has been going on in Communist China ever since, as the Vulcans say, only Nixon could go there back in ’72, it seems to benefit the “Nomenklatura”, especially the massive multinational corporations that back them. I know, these big businesses back these idiot socialists, why is THAT? Well, again, regardless of the ostensible cause, it’s all about CONTROL. While “Tricky Dick” may have thought he’d pulled off a diplomatic feat in breaking the ice with the Chicom’s back in ’72 (and thus breaking the Communist ‘bloc’ and giving him a means to wind down US involvement in Vietnam), what ended up happening, one Mao was “dead” by ’76 (he might have already passed on by ’72, as a trusted aide that knew Mao well advised Nixon that the Chicoms were using a double), and once the “hard-liners” that had pushed China through its terrible “Great Leap Forward” in the 50s and the “Cultural Revolution” of the 60s were deposed, we had a “pragmatist” in Deng Xiaoping whom brought in some free market capitalism to revive the stagnant economy, and more or less let the Chinese people be…until Tiaminien Square in ’89. What emerged from all that was, from both the CCP and their multi-national corporate investors, was a perfect society of educated (indoctrinated?), productive serfs, given a higher standard of living to keep them content and working but not actually allowed to “rock the boat”. They’d honed that overall corporate state to “perfection”, and now these same tyrants seek to remake the USA in THAT mold…using their useful idiots in the Democratic Party to do their bidding, and buying off enough corrupt GOPers to go along with it. There’s been a gradual erosion of American education by these elitists, until nowadays we’ve got hordes of “young skulls full of mush”, perfectly indoctrinated to do the tyrants bidding in a manner that would have been Hitler or Stalin’s wet dreams!
As Churchill, not necessarily a “defender of freedom” put it, we have to fight for our very lives, certainly the ability to reasonably live them on OUR respective terms and negotiate with others where they conflict to achieve PEACEFUL resolution. Or we may have to go down fighting, for as Churchill put it (“Sometimes Winston gets carried away…” “with LIQUID courage, from what I’ve heard”), better to die fighting than to live as SLAVES.
Hi Eric,
Y’know that Amish idea don’t sound all that bad. I’ve been thinking about it myself for quite a while. From what I can see, they’re not all the same either. Some are pretty traditional while others are a bit more progressive. The one thing they all seem to have in common is they don’t need a smart phone, computer laptop, etc. to live. I’ve come to loathe my cell phone, and laptop. I can’t stand how long it takes just to make a phone call. High tech is not only too complicated, but it takes forever to get anything done. How often do you click on something only to have your device go blank, and have to start all over again? How many times to you get disconnected from the person or automated menu you were trying to interact with?
IMO, the Amish with regards to technology have fairly much decided that “the only WINNING move is…NOT TO PLAY”. While obviously my presence on this forum indicates I don’t agree with them, I’ll certainly uphold THEIR rights to lead their lives as they see fit. From what I can see, even though their “uniforms” (I saw a somewhat elderly Amish couple traveling on the Amtrak San Joaquin down the Valley, I chatted but briefly with them) are quaint, as is their reliance on horse-drawn wagons and WALKING, and farming w/o a Massey-Ferguson, they keep to themselves, are peaceful and QUIET, and just want to be left ALONE.
IMO, while much of the technical advances I’ve seen in my 61 and change years have proven a very much NET benefit, it’s not w/o cost in other ways, including what I see as a much-lessened ability for problem solving, creative thinking, and SELF-RELIANCE among Americans today. That was one thing about being a farmer, at least until recently…fairly much, you were a “fixer” of things, be it the plow, the tractor, the gas pump, whatever, to keep the ol’ homestead going…because often you didn’t have the funds to just “call the guy”, and even if you did have plenty of money, you didn’t have the TIME, especially to leave a crew of hired hands idle while a stubborn tractor needed repair! This level of self-reliance was even more seen in “city folk”, as many a residence had a garden in the back yard and fruit trees on the property, even if the owners were prosperous enough to afford whatever groceries and produce from the local grocer. It was simply that if you had SOME land, you put it to use, and fended for yourself as much as possible! It’s for that reason that mine final place, out in the Great Basin hinterlands, I’m building with mine own hands…not only because I CAN, but because I SHOULD. Even if I hit the Lottery and have scads of “Eff You money”, I’ll still build it myself. Not everything in life should be a matter of “hiring the ‘GUY’ “.
And when that place is complete, overhead flights from the Left Coast to the East Coast, carrying plane loads of the “woke”, will get to behold, absent when there’s cloud cover, a nice “message” for them! Either the hardpan will suffice, or I’ll put some effort in a huge concrete pour of a pad, to have plants, colored tiles, and other items (including lights for night time) to make various “figures”…I’ll start, maybe, with a certain “pattern” like a certain Navy building in Coronado (heh, heh), because, FUCK THEM!
Douglass, it’s not just their ability to fix things. It’s their ability to fabricate things because it isn’t worth the long drive into town to discover that the hardware, or big box store doesn’t actually have what they need. In many cases, they fabricate stuff that wouldn’t exist otherwise.
In times past if someone was obsessed with the activities of others it was considered a sickness. Now it’s a resume enhancement.
The upside (or downside depending on your view) of all this technology is the fact that one big ol’ electromagnetic pulse blast will render it all useless faster than you can say, “welcome to the stone age”.
And the U.S., the most vulnerable society to this type of weapon, is at the forefront of the development
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo2mNFF6uGw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPzIWsdnj0w
Yes, this is the ‘reverso world’ that we have now. In times past if someone went to a bank with any kind of mask, they would be told to remove it by the guard at the door, before entering, and treated with suspicion.
Now, it is the reverse.
Technology is always that double edged sword that can and will be used for nefarious purposes by nefarious people. It is also vulnerable to failure. It would take much less than an EMP to break the internet.
There are also the unintended consequences from things such as mask wearing, which defeat and render useless the facial recognition technologies. The more electronic and cashless we become, the more hacking and ransomware there will be. Covid has provided cover for all sorts of nefarious activity…
“[A]llows for unprecedented levels of vehicle personalization”? It allows for unprecedented levels of people shoving their nose in my goddamned business. Fuck that. Jesus, don’t these assholes have lives of their own?
They are satanic rich old busy boddies and control freaks.
Oh they DO have their own lives to live.. and thos elives are lived by minding YOUR life and mine.
Three editions back of the psychaitriasts’ DSM manual listed such behaviour as a mental condition warrenting rreatment. We live in an opposite day world these days.
There are some work aronds, but they all bring some cost.. convenience, ease of use, availability, time…. I love to ride bike wherever I can, and have made some long multi-hundred mile interstate and inter-country trips. Cheap, private, reasonably fasst (no, not sixty miles an hour) but in the big picture, not too bad.
Trouble comes when winter hits, or I need to carry some signicant quantiity of “stuff”. Keeps me skinny, blood pressure and cholestrol under contrl not a trace oof blood sugar issues, I sleep like a rock and eat what I want. Not bad.. except in the nasty winter.
Crypto currencies are coming and can’t be stopped. Cash may in some form still exist but crypto will eventually be king. There will likely be numerous currencies from around the world in addition to bank currencies (CBDC’s – central bank digital currencies.) All of the big boys (ECB, BIS, IMF, FED) have their systems ready. What is missing is the necessary regulation to make it all safe for the bankers to proceed. The biggest holdup is with the US as they want to try and keep the reserve currency and also have the debt forgiven. As most of our politicians are older, talking to them about digital currency is a challenge and therefore slow. China, Korea, Japan, etc, are all way ahead of us and are already rolling out their digital currencies in pilot tests. European banks are experimenting with UBI. It’s all preparation for the digital revolution and the internet of value. It’s not all bad though. Crypto may just be the thing to diminish the stranglehold that the bankers have over us. DeFi or Decentralized Finance may just put some power back into the hands of the people.
Crypto-currencies aren’t the problem. It’s lack of competition as you point out. There’s a reason why FedGov doesn’t allow the export of 256-bit encrypted products. Even they can’t break it in theory with quantum computers. So the market given a chance will find a solution to any problem. Of course physical currency has some anonymity advantages being so widely fungible but most of us don’t really leverage that since we tie our Dollars to credit cards and banks. We tinker at the margins with it but the main things – your salary, shelter, transportation, food – are probably already well known and but a key stroke from being shut down now. The RICO laws about $10,000 transactions have made it very difficult for even a marginally honest citizen to do any major transaction without Big Brother’s knowledge. So while I do use cash for groceries there’s really no reason to try handing over a bag of cash for a car because unless you’re already off grid working with a dealer willing to look the other way they’re going to follow the law and report you to the IRS anyway and they’re already able to garnish wages and get Visa/MC/Discover/FDIC/SWIFT to “de-platform” you at a whim.
Yes, and I would expect that national governments that issue a CBDC of their own will not want any competition from other crypto currencies. So they may ban other crypto currencies in any way they can.
The banks will most likely only accept the official CBDC, and not other crypto currencies.
It was possible to exchange gold and silver for paper cash in banks long ago, but not any more.
There are stories of people who wanted to pay their mortgage payment in cash, but it was refused.
When CBDCs are rolled out, banks will probably only exchange paper cash for the CBDC, as a form of cash confiscation. Expect that exchange rate to be very bad for the cash holder.
The insurrectionists are fomenting discord!
‘This aggression will not stand, man.’ – The Dude
It’s not that bad, it’s worse than bad.
I see plenty of grey markets, black markets, ditched phones like ditched bicycles in China.
I expect plenty of sabotage, might have private jets falling from the sky, stuff like that.
Mangled railroad tracks, wrecked highways, no power, no water systems, just general chaos night and day. Endless ways to bring a society and its economy to its knees.
It’ll be fun. Yeah, right. A few unhappy campers can make life miserable beyond belief.
Better to drink coffee, costs less, less trouble.
I don’t use cash, I use a card, cash is for accumulating, not spending. You should know that by now. Good grief.
I still don’t get why anyone would want everything they own connected to the internet. Why not just invite Uncle to be your roommate, and pay him for the privilege? Completely nuts.
“Bcuz I haz nothin 2 hide”
Ugh! I hate that saying. Most people don’t have anything to hide, but that doesn’t mean they don’t deserve some semblance of privacy.
My entire family (accept my household) has either a stupid Alexa, Google Mini, or a Ring doorbell. I don’t even trust baby monitors. Everything today can easily be hacked. The last thing I want is something controlling the lights in my home, my refrigerator ordering my food, or some electric company somewhere adjusting the settings on my thermostat.
My sister threatened to buy me an Alexa for Christmas. I have a pretty nice sledgehammer sitting in the garage that would love to meet her.
I have to ask the obvious question, RG. Does that sledgehammer want to meet you sister, or Alexa?
Joking aside, I’m the only one in my family that isn’t tied to their electronic leash. Mine usually sits on the counter. Lived for years without one, see no reason for it now.
Hi Lonewolf,
Whoops. I can see how that can be misinterpreted. 😊
The sledgehammer is clearly for Alexa or Google Mini. I love my sister although we do not see eye to eye on “technological advances”.
The bad thing about “talking” on a screen is the loss of the personal. Facial expressions, voice inflection, and many other cues that we don’t even realize that we look for are a huge part of communication. Something that is missing in the written word, and when speaking with a diaper zombie.
On the contrary, RG, EVERYONE has something to hide. Because we’re human and make embarrasing mistakes or fall to temptation. That’s the real problem with the “nothing to hide” BS.
As to Alexa Google, demonic be thy name, my wife and daughters got one. Apparently it’s magic to turn on a couple of lights with a voice command- they don’t appreciate that I point out the Clapper was available 20 years ago and we rightfully laughed at it.
Hi Ernie,
The only temptation I suffer from are chocolate croissants. 🙂
I remember the Clapper. I believe my grandmother still has one. I loved that as a kid. What is more fun than clapping your hands and the lamp turns on. This will entertain any 4 year old for at least 10 minutes.
Alexa will never find her way into my house or her little side kick Mini Google. I still have the ability to use the on/off switch, although I may see if the Clapper is still available. At least, it isn’t recording me.
“Our car-to-home automation technology allows you to operate all your home automation devices with a simple vehicle-integrated button push.”
Eric, you’ll be able to turn on your toaster from I-81. What are you complaining about? 😉
Hi Roland!
Not my truck! It’s a 2002 – and so free of all this dreck. It has two air bags, one with a cut-off switch and the other I plan to remove entirely – to be replaced with a spare Trans-Am steering wheel (no air bag) I have in the garage!
Or, when either the great DPRK EMP “First Strike” that cripples the USA electronic infrastructure (never mind that the Chinese side of the Yalu river becomes beachfront property), or the USA’s “Dear Leader”, “Kamel-Toe” Harris, declares by executive order that the rides of those deficient in their “social credits” are hereby electronically “impounded” until they’ve reported to FEMA “re-education” camps, the great ’66 Plymouth Fury will be fired up, all 360 cubes of that “Franken-Poly” engine, it’s thirst sated by a Carter Thermoquad, will be headed for Utah where likely a “Free State of Deseret” will have already been declared.
Every business wants to be a bank. Every bank wants to be a spy agency. Welcome to the “data is the new oil” dystopia.
You know what they’re going to find when they start looking at all this data? We’re boring. We’re not at all interesting, and probably not going to change our ways once we get past 25 years old or so.
RK, very true, been noticing this for ages. The reason is that once a company cant actually make any real products they look to all sorts of financial screwing around to give the impression of making money (or hope of one day making money), leading to higher share prices. This happened decades ago to some of Americas biggest companies, but slowly is moving to every company. If you look at used car dealerships – they hardly make anything on selling cars anymore, but everything on selling financing, insurance, protection for this and that and a bunch of other crap you dont need….
Oh, this sounds nightmarish. I have noticed more and more stores trying to push Apple Pay down our throats. I refuse to link my credit card to my phone. I do use my credit card at the pumps for convenience, so I guess I am part of the problem. That and I don’t want to deal with the mask Nazis if I were to go in and pay in cash.
Question though – 25% of Americans and almost two billion people worldwide do not have a checking or savings account. If you don’t have a checking account it is likely you don’t have a credit card. The DC council recently passed a resolution to outlaw cashless stores (I believe it was enacted a few days ago), stating it was discriminatory for those that did not have access to debit or credit cards. This proceeds in the opposite direction that the WEF or these large corporations would desire.
Cash is still king and there are still a variety of loopholes that we can use to get around it. Why couldn’t I get a prepaid debit card and add $500 in cash to it every month or so and use this to pay for my groceries, my fuel, and any other miscellaneous charges. No name, no tracking, etc.
This world has a huge discrepancy between the rich and poor. People in Nepal or some small village in India or a tribe in Zambia are never going to have access (or want access) to these capabilities. Even in the USSA if I drive 10 miles up the road I am out of range for my phone to dial or connect to the WWW. I can imagine it is even worse than places like Appalachia or in the midst of a large agricultural region in Kansas or Nebraska. This may be fine for city people, this not going to work everywhere.
Our government does not the money or man power to bring the Internet to every part of America and these technologies will demand that. If the infrastructure isn’t there, these systems will never be implemented or only implemented in the cities. The way to get around this…..leave the city.
How the hell do they get away with forcing businesses to pay merchant fees to do business with credit card companies? Most of them have offered an ATM as it is, it’s not discrimination. The customer pays the bank fee to convert to cash, or they leave, how’s it on the store to cover that cost? That’s real discrimination
RG – interestingly there seems to be very widespread adoption of cashless technologies around the world. In please like Pakistan where im from, a number fo the mobile phone companies have basically become banks wherein you can hold money and use it to transfer others. And surprisingly the adoption is quite widespread…. the way it works is you give your cash to a corner store which offers balance popup for your phone – you transfer that balance to another phone via an SMS. The guy who gets it, if he wishes either transfers to someone else or goes to a similar corner store and gets the cash back. Many stores (including the smaller ones) also accept this. I was quite surprised at how widespread this has become. Now personally dont think this was an issue – but recently there was a drive to link all cell phones to a person via a fingerprint and national ID card (which is another interesting story – but something we got thanks to the War on Terror)….. When I was in India there were very similar systems. I understand they are in Africa as well. So I dont think that this is just something that will stop in the western world…. (and if you’re worried about not getting connectivity somewhere – dont worry they are already planning satellites to get you connected places where theres poor reception now :P)
Though I do hope my fellow countryman back home quickly find the loophole quick and bring the whole system crashing down- as they did the original attempt to bring in digital biometric National ID cards, along with many other such initiatives…
Hi Nasir,
I don’t want connectivity, that’s my problem. 🙂 I like driving toward Skyline Drive and knowing my phone is out of range (when I actually take it).
Digital biometric ID cards, required fingerprints, and phones that track your every move freak me out. That is one of the reason I stopped taking the phone with me. I would arrive to a store and upon leaving it would say “Rate your visit at Target today” or “leave a review about so and so Restaurant” or my personal favorite “you walked 6,273 steps today.” WTH!
I honestly believe the invention of the cell phone was the worst creation ever. It was fine when it was just a phone – you could call people to let then know you were running late, set up reservations, etc., but then it became tied to everything you did. My cell phone is six years old and I have no desire to upgrade. It took me an hour after I purchased it to disable and delete most of the stupid ass apps they have clogging up my screen.
“Our government does not the money or man power to bring the Internet to every part of America” – what a blessing that is!
“The way to get around this…..leave the city” Great idea!
Here in the Tampa metro area, big brother is not too far away, even though most every county-level position is in the hands of the repugnant republs. Nothing against the elephant party, I am a registered libertarian.
Hi MA-SH,
I hold no great love for the Republican Party, especially after this previous election. The Republicans are no betters than the Dems. Such things as controlling the deficit, staying off foreign soil, and free trade and capitalism took a back seat with the Republican Party about 30 years ago. I am still waiting on the return of the bygone days of Reagan. I think he was the last decent President we had.
A barter system will arise, out of sheer necessity and will be enhanced by OUTRAGE.
Never use credit or bank cards at pump, use prepaid cards because some placesv have installed skimmers to retrieve your info and clean out bank acct. More common in Fla and other tourist spots esp along interstates.
There is no end to the evil that can be inflicted upon us if we go cashless. Post wrongthink on Facebook, your account is frozen and you can no longer eat or live indoors.
Right. Every service and item will be barcoded which gives the banks and governments easy ways to control your purchases? On unemployment? Won’t be able to buy lottery tickets, sex toys, alcohol, smokes, out of state trips, turn scrap metal in for useful “cash”, no sport events, no dashcams, movies, dvds, books. And not being able to sell second goods at garage sales. No way to earn extra cash by performing a service for your neighbor. The list is endless. The banks and governments working together in their own evil ways.
Long past time to understand the phone in your pocket is your overseer. I use mine as a land line. It stays home, and has the WiFi and bluetooth disabled. I usually take it with me when I leave home, but keep it in a metal box, only bringing it out in an emergency. You can’t turn off the GPS, nor can you buy a phone without it. But you can faraday cage it. Your microwave is a ready made faraday cage. Or as above, a metal candy box. As for a car with phone like connection, I haven’t an answer. Research it and find where to put the cage. Of course cell phones are convenient, but they are not a nutritional requirement.
Now ya know why they took lead paint away from us- because anything (like a garage) painted with lead paint can become a Faraday cage….NOT because a few retards and niglets were eating the paint off the walls…..
There are phones where the GPS is inactive if you take out the main battery (no motherboard battery), and there are even some with hardware switches to disable cellular and GPS. Additionally it is still possible, surprisingly, to get an anyonymous “burner” phone that is not tied to your identity.
A far as the “connected car” nightmare is concerned I’d like to see them try that on my 1972 Matador.
Helluva idea. And one can pick up a spare small micro at a thrift store for a sawbuck, so you don’t accidentally “zap” your “Sail-Fawn”.
I don’t understand how cash can be denied.
Isn’t it legal tender?
Doesn’t it say “all debts public and private” right on it?
We need many more Libertarian minded folks to stand up to nonsense like this.
It’s not bad enough that we have fiat currency so incredibly devalued it’s almost better to barter anymore?
Not enough people are upset or even aware of all this 1984 stuff coming later than 1984 but still all too soon.
It’s not quite that clear cut. This blog post talks about it (notice too it was written August 2019 about coronavirus, curious).
https://blogs.findlaw.com/free_enterprise/2019/08/is-it-legal-for-businesses-to-refuse-to-take-cash.html
Interesting, thank you. Reading with a discerning eye.
Try to get silver using a silver certificate.
Our overlords’ reptilian minds tread predictably simplistic, brutal paths. In 1986, to aid the floundering war on drugs, they made ‘money laundering’ a federal offense. ‘Dirty money’ went from being a metaphorical to a literal term.
The manufactured ‘crime’ of money laundering is of a piece with older kitchen-sink offenses such as mail fraud and wire fraud. That is, if prosecutors can’t prove an actual crime against an identifiable victim, they need merely show that public facilities such as the mail, the internet or means of payment were used for an alleged crime, creating a derivative crime for the (mis)use of an otherwise legal service.
Most paper currency is contaminated with long-lasting cocaine residue, tests show. Covid adds another (ephemeral) contaminant to the toxic mix, alleges the latest narrative: virus.
Dirty money is getting even dirtier, comrades. Something must be done — think of the children!
As Eric details above, the smart phone is the Trojan horse of Stasi II. Now ubiquitous, phones have been weaponized for tracking and spying. A research project called SignalFrame will hijack our phones as base stations to forcibly tether every nearby phone and Bluetooth device (cars, Siri, Alexa, etc). Quarantines and mobility restrictions will be imposed seamlessly — ‘transaction denied,’ etc.
Welcome to the Panopticon.
Along with not licking doorknobs not putting money in my mouth was a lesson given early in life. And if you ever needed reinforcement of that basic tenet let your mind consider how bills are given over at a strip club.
I am willing to step up and do my part if anyone no longer wants to deal with cash or coins. I will take my chances with cocaine and Covid as I am depositing it into coffee cans strategically placed around my backyard. It is the least I can do as an American.
Careful putting too much U.S. specie aside. Don’t over hoard in lieu of a diversity of things to store wealth and use for potential barter. Keep some for emergencies, some for black market potential. Just be smart and remember the Dollar hasn’t been money since 1971.
Hi A,
I am all about diversity. I will also accept silver and gold coins, rounds, or bars. 😉
I just paid off the house and pick up truck last month so hoarding monies is not a problem I am suffering from lately. I am just trying to replenish the coffers.
I’ll gladly barter for .223 Remington, .40 S&W, 10mm auto, and .357 rounds. I’ll also keep 9 mm auto and .22 LR on hand as more “currency”.
Hi Doug,
Let me know if you find any .223. I will be there with my gold bars to barter.
Ever see that classic Twilight Zone episode, “The Rip Van WInkle Caper?” Where one of the long-sleeping crooks, DeCruz (Simon Oakland), being stronger than the other surviving crook (one died during the 100-year hibernation, the other was murdered by DeCruz with the truck, whom then crashed it, hence they had to lug some of the gold on their backs) played by Oscar Beregi, keeps extorting him for more and more gold, until the tiring and frustrated crook clocks him with his remaining bar. Of course it’s all for naught, as lugging the weight of their haul in the desert sun finishes him off, and he’s found, dying, by a couple in their flying car, who wonder why this strange old man proffers them a bar of gold as if it has significant value..i.e, in about the year 2061, “science” has figured a way to reproduce it cheaply.