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Australian senators who are tired of people spending their own money using cash want to put a stop to it with an audacious plan to limit cash transactions to $10,000 with a penalty of jail time for anyone who oversteps. This may sound a bit harsh, but what they really want to crack down on is the so-called 'black market' of cash transactions and dodgy people like drug dealers who have wads of cash stacked away and of course criminals who buy houses with suitcases of bills and then sell the house a while later effectively cleaning the money.
The first iteration of the proposal received significant criticism as personal transactions, such as buying a car, would be caught in the net. The Australian government has been clear about its intention to move society to cashless payments which benefits the government in many ways. Already in place are systems to force house buyers to lodge monies for properties with an escrow service (PEXA) where their money can be stolen with no recourse and no way to avoid the system.
If passed, the law would come into effect on January 1, 2020 and would apply to all cash payments made to businesses with an ABN. The penalties, jail time and fine would apply to both the individual and the business part of the transaction.
There are a couple of exemptions to the cash ban.
- The $10,000 cash limit would not apply to individual-to-individual transactions, such as the private sale of a second-hand car.
- The limit also wouldn't apply when depositing or withdrawing money from a bank.
[...] Head of CPA Australia, Dr Gary Pflugrath, agreed there needed to be a crackdown on the black economy but said linking criminal activity to all large cash transactions was "a step too far".
"This legislation is attempting to deal with a symptom, not the cause, of the black economy. While the use of cash in a large transaction may be an indicator of risk, it does not prove by itself that the behaviour is criminal," Dr Pflugrath said.
"The presumption that only tax evaders, money launderers and criminals use cash, and the mindset that these new offences are required to address criminality, has resulted in a proposed bill and instrument that run counter to well-established criminal law principles and have the potential to affect many Australians.
"The focus on criminalising certain cash transactions is an extreme response to the problem of avoiding scrutiny."
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 25 2019, @11:11AM (7 children)
Alternatively: Australia degrades to a barter economy because the government destroyed its currency system.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by fyngyrz on Sunday August 25 2019, @01:49PM (6 children)
I think one of the things that will happen once governments finally cross the rubicon into "no cash" or "very little cash" is that an alternative, easy currency, be it tradable IOU chits, or whatever, will arise. Such chits could be used for all manner of untrackable transactions. There are all kinds of options and trivial conversions open; hours of specific types of labor, calories, carbs, protein, weight of specific goods, sex, daycare, etc.
Bitcoin and the like are too formalized (and far too much of a PITA, and too unstable) to be practical. It'll be something simple and easy. People like simple and easy. That's one of the significant reasons they like cash. Once government issued-currency is dysfunctional enough, I'm confident it'll happen naturally. And quickly.
As for barter... there's a lot of barter going on already. It's completely untraceable, and people who barter are mostly already too wary to admit it. Here in my rural community, I see it all the time. And it's a very good thing in a world where governments take excessive amounts of money and then waste what they take on things that have little or no merit. Or are outright harmful. Like the drug war. Or the broader war on personal choice. Or most war in general. Etc. And at least here in the USA, while also underperforming significantly in the area of social safety nets and healthcare.
Currency requires trust. Trust is not encouraged by invasive spying into personal finances, repression of personal and consensual choice, inflation, gross mishandling of trade, and profligate waste.
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🎶When you're down by the sea
And an eel bites your knee🎶
🎶That's a moray
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Monday August 26 2019, @02:55AM
I expect it will eventually be something even simpler -- amateur coin minting. Real-value coins would be very small and easily concealed.
And then everything old is new again, as we reinvent 'money'.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Monday August 26 2019, @04:55AM (4 children)
Damn, but that is an unclear emoji.
🎶
I had to look it up as it doesn't look like musical notes to me, maybe a purple squirrel...but not notes even close up.
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Monday August 26 2019, @06:40PM (3 children)
Looks just like notes to me [ourtimelines.com] (and I'm a musician) here under OS X within Safari... what OS are you running? Perhaps also significant, what font are you using? How an emoji looks is pretty system-dependent.
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I run like the winded.
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Tuesday August 27 2019, @12:13AM
Win10. I have installed a bunch of fonts for a project I did for a friends wedding invitations and her sons graduation. Not something I normally do, I'm more of a traditional (ink, paint etc) artist and not a graphic artist. Not a dev either so I didn't consider that possibility. But wherever it came from, it sucks. It seriously looks like a purple squirrel head with it's cheeks full....
After a little research, it's the MS emote, shrunken down to the fairly small size I use on my computer, it looks like a squirrel. Blown up it's clearly notes but WAY too busy and packed together to be clear when it's small.
https://emojiguide.org/images/emoji/v/9nelqr1vb15zv.png [emojiguide.org]
Yeah I know, my own fault for using MS, but never was a dev so never needed to learn Linux and was never a fan of Apple. I built a (6 years ago) great gaming system that still holds its own. That and my work laptop covers all the bases I need.
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Tuesday August 27 2019, @12:16AM (1 child)
By the way, your little song got my wife rolling. Very clever. Kudos!
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Wednesday August 28 2019, @05:11PM
Oh, nice. Well, that's at least two of us that think it's funny then. 😊
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What if slugs are just snails that have gone
through a divorce? "Yep, she got the house"