Ask HN: Why do we need central bank digital currency (CBDC)?

How exactly do you suggest the 'G' part would work? It's short for "corporate governance" you know.

I get the feeling you're getting these bizarre talking points from some right-wing echo chamber where they're coming up with a new scary acronym panic on a regular basis. "Watch out, the ESG will CRT you into the NWO!"

There is also a utopia side to that coin where money like UBI can be easily distributed to all but can only be used to buy necessities like food, shelters, etc but cannot be used to buy stocks and prop up a bubble in the stock market like a lot of the stimulus checks were during the pandemic. One could also easily target programmable money toward low income people without needing to wait a tax statement or having to double check at the end of the year.

Programmable money is a really powerful concept and I do think it is inevitable that we will come to it at some point since it lowers of the cost of implenting economic policies and increases the speed at which they are deployed. But we do need to make sure enough laws are on the book to prevent authoritarian use. In a stable and alive democracy that should not be too much of an issue, but elsewhere...

But I hear you saying, “no, the cake is definitely $10”. Uh, no? No it’s not.

And that’s how we can pay for everyone, by convincing everyone to stop charging each other for everything. Take care of your elders for free Westerners, like every other country.

This is roughly China’s plan. They want to directly send money to people that need it. It stops graft and the black market, but the inevitable end game is that it’s state welfare, which is the easiest currency to manipulate (vs debt markets). You all wanted capitalism to die, it will, and it’s because no one is going to die. Welfare is the dystopia no one ever told you about, not the hedonistic capitalism wolf we’ve all been crying about.