In an effort to pry the last bit of the “good ‘ol days” from the cold dead hands of the elderly, the Treasury Department announced that all payments from the U.S. government will be made electronically to consumers. So people receiving Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, Veterans, Railroad Retirement and U.S. government benefit recipients will receive benefits either through direct deposit into a bank account or through Treasury’s Direct Express debit card.
The full story can be read here.
I’m sure that works out well for the Treasury Department, but all it does is force others into the virtual currency system. What’s the problem with that?
- The banks have first dibs at your money. They have it to do whatever they want with it before you do. They will decide when you can have it, how much of it you can have at a time and in the case of Chase, attach all sorts of fees to your access of it.
- Goodbye to anonymity. I was always a true believer in direct deposit and debit cards, but now realize in this Google world, that it just makes it easier for someone to compile a database of the who, where, why and what I spend my money on and then sell it to the highest bidder and/or simply centrally warehouse it for a nimble hacker.
- Backed by what? I know that now its urban legend that the US dollar was ever back by gold, but that green piece of paper, that is not longer worth the paper its printed on, gave me the illusion that the currency was worth something. Now, someone types on a keyboard that you have money, but all it takes is a couple of “uh-uh gurl! no he didn’t! and you’re broke.
- Job loss. Someone printed those checks. Someone delivered those checks. Someone processed those checks. And for some, waiting for that check was their entertainment for the day.
- The slippery slope aka The Conspiracy. When everyone is on the debit card/credit card system, how long will it be before they implement the 1 card system, one card that will access all of your banking data, medical data, etc. And then how long before it turns into a Max Headroom episode and you find yourself on the domestic terrorist credit fraud list for questioning the government and that one card, that is also the key to your apartment, locks you out of your home, your job, all stores, travel and basically your life. And don’t let me get started on the RFID chips!
To be fair, I could list all of the positives for this new system, but I’ll let the mainstream media can do that for you.
Interesting note:
I wanted to include an embedded video of the Max Headroom episode I referred to in this story (Season 1, Episode 4 – Security Systems), but I couldn’t find the clip online, which is odd, because I remember watching it online a while ago, when it wasn’t available on DVD. Maybe it’s just a copyright issue and not a conspiracy, that the closer Max Headroom gets to be more fact than fiction, the legal videos of it online disappear.
hmm…
