General Discussion

We live in Europe, a control-freak society.

The governments here want to know EVERYTHING that every private citizen does. The best way to do that is with a cashless society and everyone having cards. When Cyprus found itself in a budget crunch, it just electronically went into the bank account of everyone in the country and took 10% of every amount over €100,000. *poof* money gone.

I live in a country where the Nazis controlled everything 90 years ago, and just a few hundred KM to the East, so did Stalin (or, at least he tried). Even a couple of years ago, we were in a small town in Massachusetts in a small local grocery store when their electronic payment system broke down. They announced that they could only take cash until the system had been repaired. A young mother burst into tears because she was there to buy a $5 package of baby formula for her infant, and had only a card. My wife took pity on her, and fronted her the $5 in cash. She wanted to actually get our address to return the money. Sending $5 to Germany? Even if she sent a $5 bill in the mail, it would have cost her $1.25 in postage. My wife told her to forget it, and repay her by never forgetting to bring cash anywhere.

No government has any business knowing what food we buy, or where--or what shows or movies we see or when. They have no business knowing what books we buy, or what music we listen to. The socialist governments of Eastern Europe were like that in the mid 20th century, and their secret police collapsed under the very weight of the information they had collected on their own citizens. East Germans were astonished when they got to see the files the Stasi had kept on them. My wife and I use cash wherever and whenever we can. My wife's parents and relatives lived under the National Socialists. Some friends of our lived under their successors, the SED and their Stasi. National Socialists, Soviet Socialists, Unity Socialists, the label didn't matter. Their actions did. It was enough. No, thanks. Control freaks do not belong at the controls of any government. Let the people earn their cash and spend it as they see fit without some misfit in a uniform (or a computer screen) recording every cent and every date.