I would love to fight this but it is seeming like an inevitability. If you have the means, it’s time to leave the big cities. Sell your houses for what I consider to be an insanely high price (given today’s market) and buy a plot of land with a well for the same money. Once everyone gets on this boat the city houses will be cheap and farm houses expensive. You get bonus points if your country house is over 250 miles from the city.
The death of cash brings a social credit system (linked to corporate control like conspirologist says), and the alternative is a regression to bartering - which will be made illegal. If you live in the country this is possible. A split cord of wood is worth three honey wagon visits. Frozen raspberries trade for fresh honey at about 3:1 pound for pound. Bakers are setting up and now deliver once a week, and they accept Wild game and berries. The weird thing is that we have other “job” jobs, but wondering when they will end...gotta buy flour somehow and that doesn’t grow in the mountains. Fortunately, gold does. The only hurdle for newcomers is overcoming that label - the sooner you move, the newer you aren’t. Alaska is great, by the way.
Yep. We are going to need to set up an entire parallel economy at some point, so we had better start thinking about mechanisms and tactics right now. With lots of people out of work, it might be possible to jump-start a local currency by partnering with farmers. Unemployed people do work, get paid in the new currency, and use the new currency to buy food. Now the farmers can use the currency to buy whatever labor they need from the workers. The pay rate of the workers sets the value of the currency, at least at first. Once you have this kind of back-and-forth going, other people and businesses will be more willing to get involved. The biggest challenge will, of course, be counterfeiting. If you start to have real success and the ruling class can't shut you down through the law, they'll try to devalue your currency. I don't have a good answer to that.
One possibility I've thought of is silver dollar communities. Morgans, eagles, peace -whatever silver dollars you want. Even quarters and dimes (got to be careful to only accept ones minted up to 1964). Everyone only accepts silver dollars as payment for goods/services. The market value is around $30 (and up) right now but let's say $30.
One benefit is sales and income taxes. Say, for example, you want to buy a refrigerator that would cost around $1,200 (in federal reserve notes). If you went to a store that only accepted silver dollars as payment, you could buy that refrigerator for 40 silver$ instead. If your state charges 7% sales tax, that's an extra 2.80 silver$ on top of the purchase price (instead of $84 in federal reserve notes). So on your receipt and on the shopkeeper's books, you paid a total of $42.80 for your refrigerator.
Legal tender laws are for payment of debts. Purchasing goods from a store is not a debt, so I see no reason why stores couldn't refuse payment in federal reserve notes. However, taxes could still be paid in fiat. So that 2.80 silver$ in taxes the shopkeeper collected for your refrigerator payment could be paid to the state in federal reserve notes.
Similarly, another example: 0.50 silver$/hr would be a decent wage for unskilled labor. But due to minimum wage laws, hired employees in the traditional sense wouldn't be feasible to pay with silver dollar payments. But a workforce of self-employed contractors could be possibly be raised. 20 silver$/week per contractor is what unskilled labor would cost. The contractor would owe $4 in taxes (payable in federal reserve notes).
The big drawback I can think of is that it isn't too scalable (assuming the US mint doesn't increase their production). Also there are no more silver dimes and quarters being minted. Only the US government can create these. The silver dollar economy would not work the same legally if silver rounds were used (silver that doesn't have an official face value). That would be considered barter by taxing authorities, so "market value of the property" (silver) would need to be considered, and capital gains taxes calculated and paid out (a complicated pain in the ass).
Delightfully subversive, but watch out for the enemy suddenly bringing a bunch of old silver coins out of storage and flooding your local market with them or just straight-up counterfeiting them.
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WhyNoDonuts ago
I would love to fight this but it is seeming like an inevitability. If you have the means, it’s time to leave the big cities. Sell your houses for what I consider to be an insanely high price (given today’s market) and buy a plot of land with a well for the same money. Once everyone gets on this boat the city houses will be cheap and farm houses expensive. You get bonus points if your country house is over 250 miles from the city.
The death of cash brings a social credit system (linked to corporate control like conspirologist says), and the alternative is a regression to bartering - which will be made illegal. If you live in the country this is possible. A split cord of wood is worth three honey wagon visits. Frozen raspberries trade for fresh honey at about 3:1 pound for pound. Bakers are setting up and now deliver once a week, and they accept Wild game and berries. The weird thing is that we have other “job” jobs, but wondering when they will end...gotta buy flour somehow and that doesn’t grow in the mountains. Fortunately, gold does. The only hurdle for newcomers is overcoming that label - the sooner you move, the newer you aren’t. Alaska is great, by the way.
itsALWAYStheBANKERS ago
Live in an area with like minded people. Create your own barter economy and scrip to support it. We dont need bankers.
waucka ago
Yep. We are going to need to set up an entire parallel economy at some point, so we had better start thinking about mechanisms and tactics right now. With lots of people out of work, it might be possible to jump-start a local currency by partnering with farmers. Unemployed people do work, get paid in the new currency, and use the new currency to buy food. Now the farmers can use the currency to buy whatever labor they need from the workers. The pay rate of the workers sets the value of the currency, at least at first. Once you have this kind of back-and-forth going, other people and businesses will be more willing to get involved. The biggest challenge will, of course, be counterfeiting. If you start to have real success and the ruling class can't shut you down through the law, they'll try to devalue your currency. I don't have a good answer to that.
albeit ago
One possibility I've thought of is silver dollar communities. Morgans, eagles, peace -whatever silver dollars you want. Even quarters and dimes (got to be careful to only accept ones minted up to 1964). Everyone only accepts silver dollars as payment for goods/services. The market value is around $30 (and up) right now but let's say $30.
One benefit is sales and income taxes. Say, for example, you want to buy a refrigerator that would cost around $1,200 (in federal reserve notes). If you went to a store that only accepted silver dollars as payment, you could buy that refrigerator for 40 silver$ instead. If your state charges 7% sales tax, that's an extra 2.80 silver$ on top of the purchase price (instead of $84 in federal reserve notes). So on your receipt and on the shopkeeper's books, you paid a total of $42.80 for your refrigerator.
Legal tender laws are for payment of debts. Purchasing goods from a store is not a debt, so I see no reason why stores couldn't refuse payment in federal reserve notes. However, taxes could still be paid in fiat. So that 2.80 silver$ in taxes the shopkeeper collected for your refrigerator payment could be paid to the state in federal reserve notes.
Similarly, another example: 0.50 silver$/hr would be a decent wage for unskilled labor. But due to minimum wage laws, hired employees in the traditional sense wouldn't be feasible to pay with silver dollar payments. But a workforce of self-employed contractors could be possibly be raised. 20 silver$/week per contractor is what unskilled labor would cost. The contractor would owe $4 in taxes (payable in federal reserve notes).
The big drawback I can think of is that it isn't too scalable (assuming the US mint doesn't increase their production). Also there are no more silver dimes and quarters being minted. Only the US government can create these. The silver dollar economy would not work the same legally if silver rounds were used (silver that doesn't have an official face value). That would be considered barter by taxing authorities, so "market value of the property" (silver) would need to be considered, and capital gains taxes calculated and paid out (a complicated pain in the ass).
Thoughts?
waucka ago
Delightfully subversive, but watch out for the enemy suddenly bringing a bunch of old silver coins out of storage and flooding your local market with them or just straight-up counterfeiting them.