PowerSwitch

Is a cashless society what we actually want? http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/arc ... -come-true

The underground and off book economy would certainly not want to go cashless. What are you going to place your illegal gambling bets with or collect your winnings? Or the workman working a cash side job while collecting unemployment benefits? And you don't want the wife to be able to go over your bank statement and know you only spent $25 on her birthday present on the same day you blew $150 on Angle down at the stripper bar. (pun intended)
If the government bans cash some form of barter system or off book bitcoin like system will spring up to replace the cash.

vtsnowedin wrote: If the government bans cash some form of barter system or off book bitcoin like system will spring up to replace the cash.

Barter does of course already exist , I've used it myself on several occasions although strictly speaking I'm still meant to declare it to the taxman. I'm not really sure how widespread such a system could ever become however, it would be very unlikely that a utility , supermarket or even that stripper would accept payment in potatoes.

Lurkalot wrote:

vtsnowedin wrote: If the government bans cash some form of barter system or off book bitcoin like system will spring up to replace the cash.

Barter does of course already exist , I've used it myself on several occasions although strictly speaking I'm still meant to declare it to the taxman. I'm not really sure how widespread such a system could ever become however, it would be very unlikely that a utility , supermarket or even that stripper would accept payment in potatoes.

Strippers and even doctors took payment in chickens back during the 1930's great depression.
Back in eighteenth century America there was a chronic shortage of specie (hard money) and much commerce was done by barter. A very cumbersome system as ones man's days work seldom equaled another and a days work at the height of the harvest season is not equal to a days work in mid winter. But they made do and made progress and the negotiation and computation process gave rise to American ingenuity and thriftiness.
Even as late as 1913 my father worked for a dollar a day plus board and room. If the Farmers wife was a good cook and housewife this was a fair deal because you had no expenses in the week, had your laundry washed and mended by Saturday and were well fed with six dollars in your pocket. Other farmers with poor board and rough rooms would have no one working for them after one week.

I'd agree that historically it was far more common . On the subject of bartering I asked that question some time ago on another forum and while the number of replies is hardly huge the majority seem to think that the present population would have few skills and little to actually barter with.
http://www.diynot.com/diy/threads/cashl ... ty.360195/

Necessity is the mother of invention. If people were placed in a situation where the only way to get by was bartering, they would find a way to barter, you can be sure of it.

http://www.powerswitch.org.uk/forum/vie ... 834#269834

It's been pretty obvious for a long time that a cashless society is what certain factions want - but how would those same factions make the money they currently do from the 'illicit' drugs trade, which is practically 100% cash at point of use?