So if you protest the wrong thing, they can stop your ability to buy groceries.
Wrong think is immediately punishable by clicking a button.
Bank of England and Treasury think UK is 'likely' to need digital currency
61–70 of 103 posts
Re: Bank of England and Treasury think UK is 'likely' to need digital currency
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
I suppose ideally your money can’t be stolen? E.g., if someone hacks you or something similar, the government can invalidate that currency. Plus reduced money laundering, since it’s tracked, which theoretically reduces crime and makes it easier to track. Personally I only see physical currency being deprecated over the next several decades, considering most people don’t really care about privacy anymore (including me…
It's 2032. Covid Alpha variant is running rampant. In an attempt to prevent Americans breaking mandatory isolation electric cars have been disabled unless authorised by your neighbourhood state leader and all non-online transactions have been blocked.
I’m not saying this is necessarily a good thing. When I say I don’t care about privacy, I mean that I don’t use VPNs, I don’t use ProtonMail, I don’t disable cookies or JS, I don’t use cash—all because I value convenience. Is this short-sighted? Maybe, but I am in a position where I (generally speaking) trust the government. That’s not true of everyone of course.
Re: Bank of England and Treasury think UK is 'likely' to need digital currency
#63I understand the advantages of this for the government. It will be much easier to track and control how we spend our money and ensure that we pay every last possible cent of taxes. What is the advantage for me as a citizen?
It is also difficult to see what good scenarios this enables. This tech in China is being used to un-bank people who the government thinks are troublemakers. It also looks like it would enable direct-to-consumer money printing which will end poorly (but, I suppose, is better than handouts to the wealthy). The UK government, and Western governments more generally, have a terrible history of lies about who they are goi…
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Re: Bank of England and Treasury think UK is 'likely' to need digital currency
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
The point there being that the bank is the middleman not the government. Maybe the same thing given how incestuous things are sometimes.
> The point there being that the bank is the middleman not the government. The current UK government is not going to be the one to "expand the role of government", eliminate the private sector and avoid allowing "private enterprise" (i.e. their pals and donors in big business) a role (i.e. a cut). They're ideologically opposed to that. Mr Sunak, The current PM has ties to banking, he's not going to leave them in the…
All governments will expand the role of government. Can you find me one that has ever decreased its scope in a meaningful and permanent way?
Re: Bank of England and Treasury think UK is 'likely' to need digital currency
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
> no government today has tax rates at what empirical analysis suggests would be revenue maximizing Because of all the friction in raising taxes on a cash based system. That's the whole point.
What? No, the Laffer curve already describes that. And best approximations of the rate at which the incentive to shirk taxes is so high as to lower total revenue are nowhere near where rates sit now, basically everywhere.
No. The Laffer curve is about taxable income elasticity. It says nothing about the practical challenge of tracking taxes owed and actually collecting them in a cash based system as the parent was suggesting
Re: Bank of England and Treasury think UK is 'likely' to need digital currency
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
In theory if the gov can collect all tax then taxes should be lower.
In practice, a government with unlimited capacity for raising taxes will just expand its scope indefinitely.
If only the population of the UK was allowed to choose their government.
Re: Bank of England and Treasury think UK is 'likely' to need digital currency
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's 2032. Covid Alpha variant is running rampant. In an attempt to prevent Americans breaking mandatory isolation electric cars have been disabled unless authorised by your neighbourhood state leader and all non-online transactions have been blocked.
I’m not saying this is necessarily a good thing. When I say I don’t care about privacy, I mean that I don’t use VPNs, I don’t use ProtonMail, I don’t disable cookies or JS, I don’t use cash—all because I value convenience. Is this short-sighted? Maybe, but I am in a position where I (generally speaking) trust the government. That’s not true of everyone of course.
And, key here, you trust the government now. If a government you trust erodes privacy over time & then a government you don't like gets into power you're screwed.
Re: Bank of England and Treasury think UK is 'likely' to need digital currency
#68I understand the advantages of this for the government. It will be much easier to track and control how we spend our money and ensure that we pay every last possible cent of taxes. What is the advantage for me as a citizen?
> ensure that we pay every last possible cent of taxes. Is that a bad thing? (The end, not the means)
The issue isn't the taxes but the way in which they are used to transfer money from the middle class to the other wealth classes.
More taxes won't mean better quality of life for the governed but more waste and the lining of the pockets of the politically connected.
Re: Bank of England and Treasury think UK is 'likely' to need digital currency
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's 2032. Covid Alpha variant is running rampant. In an attempt to prevent Americans breaking mandatory isolation electric cars have been disabled unless authorised by your neighbourhood state leader and all non-online transactions have been blocked.
I’m not saying this is necessarily a good thing. When I say I don’t care about privacy, I mean that I don’t use VPNs, I don’t use ProtonMail, I don’t disable cookies or JS, I don’t use cash—all because I value convenience. Is this short-sighted? Maybe, but I am in a position where I (generally speaking) trust the government. That’s not true of everyone of course.
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Re: Bank of England and Treasury think UK is 'likely' to need digital currency
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
What? No, the Laffer curve already describes that. And best approximations of the rate at which the incentive to shirk taxes is so high as to lower total revenue are nowhere near where rates sit now, basically everywhere.
No. The Laffer curve is about taxable income elasticity. It says nothing about the practical challenge of tracking taxes owed and actually collecting them in a cash based system as the parent was suggesting
Is tax avoidance/evasion not a part of taxable income elasticity? My understanding was that it is