Yes, I know. Jim thinks a lot like me.
The fact is, with every passing second, the number of possible futures goes down, and some of those that remain become very likely. War and extinction, for instance, is VERY, VERY likely. It approaches near certainty since there are now numerous avenues leading to it, with the only means of escape being to get permanently off-planet. And that ain't easy. We've got two hundred years tops.
As Jim Rogers speculates, it's also a near certainty that there will be a push to eliminate cash and have nearly all transactions be electronic. That, unfortunately, isn't a "two century" prediction. Twenty years is more likely. Maybe ten. Nobody will ever stop me from trading my cow for your bicycle, but they will be able to mess pretty well with people who don't own cows and bicycles, people whose only tradeable goods are derived from a weekly stipend, currently received from an employer but later on . . . maybe not.
The advantages of going electronic will be touted by government and media. They usually get their way: "Drug lords will be devastated," they will chant. "Muggers will look for new careers! Nobody will ever lose their wallet and a chunk of their wealth at the same time. Nobody SHOULD ever again find themselves stranded without any money - not if the ID required to facilitate financial transactions is intelligently safeguarded" (in a chip located just under the skin of the right forearm, f'rinstance.)
Those are indeed advantages. They sound good! The disadvantages, though, are horrifying: Government will have evidence of nearly everything individuals own. They'll know where every individual is and has been. They'll know what every individual does. They will have the ability to halt certain activities (by turning off people's ability to purchase political literature, for instance.) And they will be able to force people to do certain things (by turning off their ability to shop at supermarkets other than Uncle Wigglies, or removing from sale all vegetables but broccoli and snow peas.) They will have the ability to take products off the market. They will be able to destroy business. They will be able to kill people. It's marvelous what can be accomplished when you control the mechanism that allows people to buy the things they need.
It will be a nightmarish existence worthy of Huxley and Orwell - one I never care to see but which is already being tested in places throughout the world. It's a bad, bad, BAD idea, but I think it will happen.
February 14, 2017
Big Brother is watching you: Jim Rogers prophesizes death of cash & total govt control of spending
RT.com
The time will come when you won't be able to buy a cup of coffee without being traced, warns investment guru Jim Rogers. To control people, governments will increasingly seek to hunt down cash spending, he adds.
“Governments are always looking out for themselves first, and it's the same old thing that has been going on for hundreds of years. The Indians recently did the same thing. They withdrew 86 percent of the currency in circulation, and they have now made it illegal to spend more than, I think it's about $4,000 in any cash transaction. In France you cannot use more than, I think it's a €1,000,”said Rogers in an interview with MacroVoices Podcast.
“Many countries are already doing this. Some states in the US you cannot make cash transactions above a certain amount. Governments love it. Then they can control you. If you want to go and buy a cup of coffee, they know how many you drink, where you buy them, etc., if they can all put it into electronic formats and they will. The world is all going electronic,” the investor said.
According to Rogers, governments will claim they are doing it for the public good, not for themselves.
“When it's done, the governments are going to be very, very happy they are going to say they're doing it for our own good, this is not them, this is for our good. That they're doing this, but it’s coming, and it's going to be a whole different world in which we live. Probably we are not going to have as many freedoms as we have now even though we are already losing our freedoms at a significant pace,” Rodgers told the radio.
This month, the European Commission proposed a bill targeting cash payments.
"Payments in cash are widely used in the financing of terrorist activities… In this context, the relevance of potential upper limits to cash payments could also be explored. Several Member States have in place prohibitions for cash payments above a specific threshold," said the Action Plan.
Jim Rogers is an American businessman, investor, and financial commentator, currently based in Singapore. Rogers made his name in the 1970s after founding a top-performing fund with George Soros.
http://www.rt.com/business/377307-jim-rogers-currency-control-cash/
Gold is $1,581/oz today. When it hits $2,000, it will be up 26.5%. Let's see how long that takes. - De 3/11/2013 - ANSWER: 7 Years, 5 Months
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