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Government Plan Would Transform Israel Into The World’s First Cashless Society
Submitted by Michael Snyder of The End of the American Dream blog,
Will Israel be the first cashless society on the entire planet? A committee chaired by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief of staff has come up with a three phase plan to “all but do away with cash transactions in Israel”. Individuals and businesses would still be permitted to conduct cash transactions in small amounts (at least initially), but the eventual goal is to force Israeli citizens to conduct as much business as possible using electronic forms of payment. In fact, it has been reported that Israeli officials believe that “cash is bad” because it fuels the underground economy and allows people to avoid paying taxes. It is hoped that requiring most transactions to be conducted in cash will reduce crime and help balance the national budget. And once 98 or 99 percent of all transactions are cashless, it will not be difficult for the Israeli government (or any other government) to go the rest of the way and ban cash transactions altogether. But is a cashless society actually desirable? This is a question that people all over the world will have to start asking as governments increasingly restrict the use of cash.
Back in September, it was announced that the Israeli government had formed a committee to “examine ways to eliminate cash from the Israeli economy”…
The government on Tuesday authorized establishment of a committee that will examine ways to eliminate cash from the Israeli economy – the better to prevent citizens from cheating on their taxes. The committee will be chaired by Harel Locker, director of the Prime Minister’s Office.
This committee had the full backing of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and some of the goals of the committee included finding ways to increase tax revenue and prevent money laundering…
Officials in the Prime Minister’s Office declared that “around the world, it is recognized that cash is a key element of the illegal economy and money laundering. It allows a wide gap between reported and actual incomes, with the corresponding effect on tax revenues.” By eliminating cash, the PMO said, “it will be possible to expand the tax base, and prevent money laundering.” The committee will study the issue from all its perspectives and make recommendations, the PMO said.
The committee has had quite a few months to examine these issues, and now they have come back with their recommendations. Just this week we learned that a three phase plan is being proposed…
A special committee headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief of staff, Harel Locker, has recommended a three-phase plan to all but do away with cash transactions in Israel.
The motivation for examining a cash-less economy is combatting money laundering and other tax-evasion tactics, thereby maximizing potential tax collection and greatly expanding the tax base. This is important considering the enormous strain put on Israel’s national budget by the army, healthcare system and other public services.
The committee estimated that the black market represents over 20 percent of Israel’s GDP, and cash is the facilitating factor. Cash enables tax evasion, money laundering and even financing terrorism.
So what do the specifics of the plan look like?
Well, there will be very strict limits on the use of cash for individuals and businesses, any violations will be considered criminal offenses, and all Israeli banks will be required to issue debit cards to all account holders…
What the committee would like to see happen, pending government approval, is greater restriction on the use of cash, limiting the use of checks as a means of payment and exchange for cash, and promotion of the use of electronic (and therefore verifiable) means of payment.
The following guidelines were set out by the committee for the short-term:
- Limit business transactions done in cash or by check to NIS 7,500 ($2,150) immediately, and reduce that further to NIS 5,000 ($1,433) one year from the date of legislation;
- Limit private transactions done in cash or by check to NIS 15,000 ($4,300);
- Any violation of these limits would be a criminal offense warranting a stiff fine.
In conjunction with these new restrictions, Israeli banks would be required to provide all account holders with debit cards to further promote electronic payments.
But of course this move toward a cashless society is not just happening in Israel.
In Sweden, it is estimated that just 3 percent of all transactions involve cash at this point. In fact, according to an article in the Washington Post, some Swedish banks do not handle cash at all anymore…
In most Swedish cities, public buses don’t accept cash; tickets are prepaid or purchased with a cell phone text message. A small but growing number of businesses only take cards, and some bank offices — which make money on electronic transactions — have stopped handling cash altogether.
“There are towns where it isn’t at all possible anymore to enter a bank and use cash,” complains Curt Persson, chairman of Sweden’s National Pensioners’ Organization.
And the U.S. is starting to move in that direction as well.
According to a study conducted by MasterCard, approximately 80 percent of all consumer transactions in the United States are now cashless.
But isn’t there a downside to all of this?
Just about everything that we do in life involves money. So yes, a government can track electronic payments to make sure taxes are being paid and money laundering is not happening, but it would also enable a government to do so much more.
If a government can track all of your transactions, it will essentially be able to monitor everywhere you go and pretty much keep track of virtually everything that you do.
If you doubt this, just try to live without any money some time.
You won’t get very far without putting some gas in your vehicle.
And without being able to buy food, you will get hungry pretty quickly.
Are you starting to understand?
This is why governments love the idea of moving toward a cashless society. It would give them an immensely powerful surveillance tool.
So let us hope that this does not happen in Israel or anywhere else in the world either.
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"The new World Bank, at 666 6th St in Tel Aviv, is 666 stories high."
Yes, this is about maximising tax revenues and preventing evasion. That's the only reason that will be admitted.
But it's also about mass State surveillance as others have said. And it will provide The State with the ability to "disconnect anybody from buying anything or going anywhere for any reason".
The implications are huge. The profits for the banks are huge.
... so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name ...
-John
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mHe6FMs46o
The Number of the Beast -Iron Maiden
"The motivation for examining a cash-less economy is combatting money laundering and other tax-evasion tactics, thereby maximizing potential tax collection and greatly expanding the tax base. This is important considering the enormous strain put on Israel’s national budget by the army, healthcare system and other public services."
So, of course the solution to a budget crippled by copious amounts of spending is to enact an Orwellian system of control over every financial transaction. Nice.
Yep that ought to stop the black market. You know, the one that's existed since the beginning of time and trade.
Darkcoin, darkwallet etc are only the first steps in combatting this kind of manic ideology, in a year or two it'll likely be harder to trace than any cash transaction.
I have a feeling that if cash is abandoned by governments and replaced by a cash-less transaction model to facilitate total State surveillance, it won't be long before they impose digital currency regulations too. Or even ban them altogether.
How would a person with a wallet stuffed with Bitcoins et al exchange them for State run digital cash or pay them into a State surveilled bank account? You could end up with two entirely alternative digital cash systems with no points of exchange between them.
This is where the criminals will clash with the criminals. This policy will cripple organized crime, and my guess is they won't take it lightly.
It seems to me that this will be merely the revelation of the unity of government and certain organized crime.
Somebody has got to stand up. Law abiding citizens are content to just accept the encroaching government. Although banks have gotten in trouble for laundering the drug cartel's money-it was just a slap on the wrist. They may have joined forces so they have us surrounded. I hope not.
There is a bankster behind this. Sales tax for the gummint and a service charge for the banksters. 666 will be my PIN code.
The One Worlders are bringing this on through Israel as the tip of the spear, because they are so good with money, they'll lead the way. But Geo HW's "bright idea" of a new world order, which wasn't very bright or new will be disaster for humanity, in that it will bring in a totally satanic system of not just buying and selling, but of owning you, slave. And by this system he will seek to utterly destroy Israel bec in doing so he knows their Messiah cannot return to bring in righteousness.
How fitting that Stanley Fischer, the former governor of the central Bank of Israel, now takes his place on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors to push for a “more activist Fed” and to design more “permanent tools” for the Fed to micromanage the U.S. economy while he shadow manages Janet Yellen.
It's obvious that Obama and the Fed are not entities whose primary concern is the American economy as this promotion of Israel’s Fischer demonstrates. We are dealing with a world body and their installed puppet. And with all the world's debts owed to the bankers, Fischer and Yellen have the authority to pay them from the accounts of Americans. America has not only lost control of her medium of exchange, she has lost control of her country.
Is also is fitting that Fischer holds dual citizenship – both with Israel and America.
What happens when the power goes out?
When money is outlawed, only outlaws will have money.
Sabra liqueur will become the tribe's new currency...better get some while you can.
If, as in G. Edward Griffin’s pessimistic scenario of the future from his book, The Creature From Jekyll Island, the Fed is allowed to continue on its present course, a cashless society is one of the forces that it will use to drive society into global totalitarianism. In that future, wrote Griffin in 1994...
“Electronic transfers gradually replace cash and checking accounts. This permits UN agencies to monitor the financial activities of every person. A machine-readable ID card is used for that purpose. If an individual is red flagged by any government agency, the card does not clear, and he is cut off from all economic transactions and travel.
“It is the ultimate control.”
This cannot be allowed to happen. Make your Congressional representatives aware that you will not accept this. If we don't start now it will happen here.
This cannot be allowed to happen. Make your Congressional representatives aware that you will not accept this. If we don't start now it will happen here.
"But is a cashless society actually desirable? This is a question that people all over the world will have to start asking as governments increasingly restrict the use of cash."
Why will people have to ask that at all? The government is supposed to work for us, not the other way around.
moneybots I agree yet no one I know demands anything from their government. I have my senators and house rep. in my phone contact list and call when I see something I want answers to or voice my opposition/support for. My husband believes that because I do not just accept that I have no power I am nuts. My mother thinks I have issues. Who is crazy? Those who care and stand up or those who bury their heads and watch god awful TV. I also am given a bad time because I vote with my money. I don't like that Apple uses slave labor when they could make their phones here for $6 more a unit so I have an old phone- yet people who stand in line are hip and I am a dip. I feel like I am living in bizzaro world.
A cashless society will be a disaster for society. The government will have a record of everything you do and control all transactions. I get cash out of my Credit Union ATM at the beginning of the week and that is it. I do not need to be tracked. Not because I am up to no good but because it is a waste of our government's time and our money. I think bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are a good idea if you conduct business online because you are bypassing the Central Bank.
I know one person calling a corrupt government is not going to change things but what if other people did too? What if politicians realized we were watching them? What better way to screw with them than to clog their lines and email boxes with messages. It is awkward at first but after awhile you work it into your schedule. Anyhow I am not going down without a fight. Taking up arms is pointless we would be dead before we even got to the door but psyops could drive them crazy. Give them a taste of their own medicine. Another way to get to them is refuse to pay taxes. No representation- no taxation. Now I am just hoping maybe one more person could get on board and start calling them out. Zero Hedge provides me with a lot of ammo and I appreciate it a lot. To live feeling "that's just the way things are" is not for me. If I am on some list so be it. Life isn't worth living if the rules are only for you. This is America and although it is not perfect it should be better than what we've got now. Call your Congressional reps- let them know we are not going to just stand by and take it anymore. PLEASE- THANK YOU.
How long until the ban bartering I wonder?
"I see you have this nice new TV in your house! I don't recall seeing records of you paying for it, so it must be stolen!"
Test
OK it works sorry bout that.
Reminds of Demolition Man future, they just better not have the swear monitor!
Very bullish for Bitcoinz if I do say so myself:-)