Restricting the circulation of cash is an attack on freedom
One of the first proposals of the new Meloni government was to raise the ceiling for cash payments to 5,000 euros, compared to the current 2,000, and to raise the threshold for the obligation for merchants to accept payments with POS to 60 euros.
Immediately afterwards, an uproar arose against these proposals defining them as an aid to evasion, an incentive to steal undeclared income, an indecent stimulus towards criminal activities.
As usual in Italy, the topics are debated according to a now classic scheme: on the one hand the cash ultras and on the other the fans of electronic money. The field on which this match is being played is, or at least is presented by the single thought media, that of legality.
Let's try to look at what is happening around us to understand if this ideological clash is justified or not.
In the first place, there is a fundamental point on the question that no one talks about: content is currently the only legal currency in circulation, while bank money is voluntary acceptance currency (such as the Superbomus 110% tax credits for understand each other). While seigniorage belongs to the state on legal tender currency, seigniorage on bank money, i.e. the interest that its use generates, belongs to the banking system… in short, it is not the same thing.
Secondly, we note that the position of many countries on the use of cash is very different; they range from Germany, Austria, Hungary, Holland and others where there are no limits to the use of cash, up to Greece which makes payments possible for only 500 euros. Not to mention the fact that in Europe no one has introduced the obligation for merchants to accept payments with POS.
The vision is therefore much less monolithic compared to how it is presented to us by the national press, always and only able to play a single identical note.
Finally, just in recent weeks, we have recorded the probable new gigantic case of tax evasion by a large multinational, Pfizer Italia , which allegedly stole profits of over 1.2 billion dollars from the Italian tax authorities. To imagine that these operations, as well as others in the past, could have been carried out through the withdrawal and movement of banknotes is something so improbable and grotesque that it does not deserve any comment.
The truth is that the progressive limitation of cash reflects the idea of soon arriving at a new digital currency, this time however created by central banks and not by commercial ones, capable of being used for any form of payment.
https://www.bis.org/about/bisih/topics/cbdc.htm
This central bank currency, linked to digital identity and the certifications necessary to be able to use it, in fact represent an attempt to achieve total social control over people, businesses and families on the model of Chinese social credit.
For this reason, cash must be defended without any doubts, just as its use must always be made possible and without limits.
A war of freedom is being fought and we must all be clear which side we are on.
Stephen DiFrancesco
Vice-President of the Moneta Positiva association
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The article Limiting the circulation of cash is an attack on freedom comes from Scenari Economici .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/limitare-la-circolazione-dei-contanti-e-un-attacco-alla-liberta/ on Thu, 08 Dec 2022 13:00:10 +0000.