CBDC

When our nation was founded, the intent of the founders was that each state would control many of the aspects of life that are now relegated to the Federal government. And for two centuries, the size and cost of the federal government remained relatively small. But over the past 50 years, both the size and cost of the federal level have risen exponentially—and that's a VERY bad thing.

The reason for concern is that as the size and centralization (not to mention cost) of any government grows, it's tendency toward authoritarian control also grows at just about the same rate. Maybe that's why, over the past decade, we have seen evidence of government censorship of the media (think: the Twitter files) that is both unconstitutional and dangerous. We've seen rogue attempts by government agencies (think: IRS and FBI) to intimidate political opponents. We've seen prosecutorial misconduct leveled at political opposition on a scale that is unprecedented. And we've witnessed attempts at the highest levels of government to demonize and ostracize those who disagree with the approved narrative.

In communist China, the large, centralized government has instituted a social credit score, allowing the government to control its citizens based on arbitrary criteria. That control includes restricting travel, controlling access to bank accounts, limiting the ability to obtain housing, and other more subtle intimidation. Of course, the argument of far too many in the USA is, "It can't happen here!" And yet, there were millions of people in blue states who were perfectly okay with the idea of censorship (e.g., of supposed Covid "misinformation") or social credit (e.g., vaccine passports) as Covid hysteria (promulgated by the federal government and their propaganda media) took hold.  

Now, it appears there's a move afoot to add yet another level of authoritarian control—the CBDC. Gadfly Tulsi Gabbard tweets:

Yet, many people favor a cashless society for its convenience—already apps like Venmo or Zelle are used by millions to transfer money between individuals and businesses. Most of us go the the ATM far less often, and many of us rarely make a cash transaction.

Other people object to a cashless society because they're concerned about privacy, but sadly, in our digital age, privacy is largely an illusion. Unless you live off the grid, everything you do is tracked in some manner. All of your non-cash purchases are recorded, your financial transactions can be easily determined, your travels across the Internet are known and analyzed. A cashless society would accelerate the government's ability to look into our lives and our wallets, but that isn't the main danger. 

If a cashless society occurs organically, so be it. Sure, it might be possible to stitch together onerous invasions of privacy and intimidation, and that should be prohibited. But once the government establishes a system of centralized control like the proposed CBDC, all bets are off. Recent history indicates that our overly large and centralized government has an authoritarian bent. It cannot be trusted to tell us the truth, to act in the best interests of the citizenry, or to make decisions that are not harmful. The 3-year Covid debacle is evidence of that.

A CBDC might be the first step toward establishing a social credit score system. Can't happen? Think Canada just over a year ago. Truckers protested draconian and totally unnecessary Covid restrictions imposed by Canada's socialist leadership. In response, the government of Canada froze the bank accounts of the protestors' leadership in a successful attempt to intimidate them into silence. I suspect more than a few politicians in the U.S. were taking notes. BTW, like blue leaders in the U.S., Trudeau's authoritarian decisions vis a vis Covid have been proven to be catastrophically bad ones.

Now extrapolate to a CBDC. It would be possible to freeze the ability to access one's bank or use one's credit card—not for just a few people, but potentially for millions. It won't happen, you say? Hmmm. Who wouldn't have though that the geniuses in DC would recommend that  schools be shut down for over a year in 2020-2021?

Before any CBDC is put into place, laws MUST be passed to limit its scope, restrict its actions, and absolutely prohibit its use again those who question the nation's leadership or their narratives. Better yet, allow a cashless society to evolve organically, without any centralized CBDC. Less control, fewer authoritarian tendencies, and a much better outcome for us all.

UPDATE (04-18-2023):

----------------------------------

As I mentioned in the body of this post, communist China has already implemented a suffocating social credit scoring system that I'm certain many authoritarians in the west are drooling over. Here's a quick tweet describing one use case:

What if a person questioned the prevailing apocalyptic climate change narrative? Use the CBDC to punish the "denier." Or maybe people who believe that reparations for slavery are logically inconsistent and functionally unworkable should be labeled as "racist" and have their access to a digital wallet restricted?

Based on both rhetoric and recent history, I suspect that more that a few blue state leaders would have jumped at the chance to humilate/punish people who chose not to get vaccinated during the Covid hysteria. Note: The vaccine did NOT stop the spread, did not protect the vaccinated for any meaningful length of time, and did have statistically significant side effects among cohorts that were least threatened by the virus.

If a CBDC was in place, I further suspect that those same catastrophists would have been more than happy to use a billboard system a la China and deduct or freeze a person's digital wallet based on their vaccine status. Beware!