The War on Cash - Prepare for the End of Cash

There is a War on Cash happening, and we will see the end of physical cash within ten years or so. Maybe sooner. Bankers and economists in the US and around the world are now calling for the end of cash, and the establishment of a cashless society. Instead of cash, everyone will eventually be forced to use debit cards and other forms of digital transactions instead of paper money or coins.

Economist and ex-Treasury Secretary Larry Summers has called for the elimination of large bills, such as the US $100 bill and the EU €500 EURO note. Norwegian academic, Communist politician, and anti-Israel activist Trond Andresen has put together a detailed plan to eliminate cash in favor of an all digital economy (click here to download a .pdf of his proposal). Sweden has already committed to eliminating ALL cash within five years. A similar law has been proposed in Denmark. Politicians, bankers, and corporations worldwide are starting to jump on board the cashless society bandwagon.

There are two main reasons behind this push to eliminate cash: 1) using cash makes it harder for governments and corporations to track and control your behavior, and 2) the bankers can't make money off cash that isn't deposited in their banks, and with the likelihood of negative interest rates in the future, people will be incentivized to keep cash on hand and not in the banks. Get rid of cash, and folks will be forced to use the banking system even with negative interest.

Of course, those wanting to go cashless won't admit the two main reasons. Instead, they say it will control crime, eliminate black markets, prevent tax evasion, help track terrorists and fight terrorism, and even smooth out the boom-and-bust business cycle. Folks who are opposed to a cashless society will be painted as anti-technology Luddites, and even potential criminals or terrorists.

Why Is Going Cashless a Bad Idea?

• More power for centralized government and politicians.
• A step closer for consolidated world government.
• More loss of privacy, as government, banks, and corporations will be able to track every purchase made.
• Government will be able to know who is buying and stockpiling guns, ammo, body armor, and other survival/prepper supplies. Makes future confiscation easier.
• Government will be able to know who is buying and hoarding food. Makes future confiscation easier.
• Remember the IRS scandal where Tea Party and Conservative organizations were targeted? 
• Operation Choke Point - where government targets banks doing business with gun manufacturers and dealers - will be on steroids.
• Probability for Operation Choke Points for anything government doesn't approve of...
• Gives government one more way to regulate our lives.
• Forces individuals to be bank customers even in a negative interest rate environment. 
• Forces all charitable donations, including religious tithes and donations, to go through the digital system, giving government an in-road to track and even regulate such donations.
• Forces folks preferring to use cash envelope systems for budgeting and personal debt control to quit using those systems, and become bank customers instead.

How To Prepare For the End of Cash

Some good news: cash isn't going away this year. When it does go away, it won't happen overnight. There will likely be a transition period of several years once the decision is made to go cashless. Large bills will likely be eliminated first, with smaller bills eliminated over the following several years. Some countries in Europe are already working on timetables of about 5 years or so for a transition. The US and Canada probably has about 10 years or so before the complete elimination of cash. This gives you some time to prepare.

The most important thing to do is to get out of the worldly economic system as much as possible (see my previous article Getting Out of Babylon!).  Buying land and setting up a homestead, where you and your family can be as self-reliant as possible, is a good way to go. Doing this with a community of similar folks also seeking self-reliance would be even batter.  Either move to a fairly rural area with lots of farms and country-folk, or get together with some other families and start your own self-reliant community!

Try to put aside at least one year's worth of food (more is better) before being being forced into the all-digital system. You than can keep your stored food "topped off" without it being as apparent to their algorithms that you are stockpiling (or in their terms "hoarding") food.

Get your financial house in order. Getting out of debt is very important. The fewer bills you have, the less dependent on the cashless system you will be (see my article (see my article Prepping 101: Finances - Get Back to Basics, for more ideas).

I recommend you buy any guns, ammo, body armor, and other politically incorrect items sooner rather than later. Between the move to a cashless society and a probability of an anti-gun majority on the Supreme court within the next year or two, it may get very difficult, if not impossible, to buy arms and armor in the not-too distant-future.

Metals, such as gold, silver, and even lead (in the form of ammo), will likely become the primary means of exchange for those wishing to avoid the digital system. The government may attempt to confiscate metals at some point (they done so in the past), but that may push our unsustainable economic system over the edge into collapse. At that point, folks will pay little attention to the failed government and its authorities.  (You may be interested in my article Prepper's Guide to Junk Silver.)