Austrian leader proposes enshrining the use of cash in country's constitution
1–10 of 176 posts
Re: Austrian leader proposes enshrining the use of cash in country's constitution
#2[flagged]
Re: Austrian leader proposes enshrining the use of cash in country's constitution
#3[flagged]
Do you have a source for the 50.000 € limit? At least where I live, even as of now it is more 5000 € for a single deal/sale. If the sale amount is above that, it must go through a cashless payment.
Re: Austrian leader proposes enshrining the use of cash in country's constitution
#4I certainly would not mind similar provisions in law in the US.
Re: Austrian leader proposes enshrining the use of cash in country's constitution
#5[flagged]
Re: Austrian leader proposes enshrining the use of cash in country's constitution
#6Surprised to see someone I associate with the right wing standing up for privacy, but a win is a win.
Re: Austrian leader proposes enshrining the use of cash in country's constitution
#7[flagged]
> it is a little surprising to see such political news on HN
In my experience, currencies have been of consistent interest in HN. At least, if you consider cryptocurrencies as such ;-)
> But this is a none-issue
> is meant to be a step against organised crime
Perhaps recent developments around the world would change your mind? The Canadian trucker protests of 2022 saw political protestors get bank accounts frozen, and more recently a famous politician in the UK got de-banked partly out of his political views. And these are democratic countries with rule of law. The situation in places like China are a lot more dire, where the government can easily make you cease to be able to function in society, simply by freezing your WePay account.
Re: Austrian leader proposes enshrining the use of cash in country's constitution
#8What makes cash special is that compared to other assets, it puts a bit more power into the hands of the individual and a bit less power in the hands of the government.
To count or seize the individuals cash, the government has to make some fuzz. Aka send men with guns.
There seems to be some divide in our world between people who consider individual power a good thing and people who consider it unnecessary.
Here in Europe, I have the feeling the vast majority of people consider it unnecessary. The vibe I get is "The system works, so why not let the government handle and control everything.".
I wouldn't be surprised if that is a global phenomena and holds steady throughout time. For example, even when the US government seized their citizens gold in 1933, there was no resistance.
That people consider "cash" something they "own" is already a sign that people don't understand and don't care how they are gamed by the government. The government can take the value out of that cash however it pleases by printing more of it.
And no matter how much the government does that, nobody complains:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/BOGMBASE
Governments on the other hand understand very well that money is a sham. Thats why they hold hundreds of billions of dollars in gold:
https://www.madisontrust.com/information-center/which-world-...
Way more than they hold foreign currency.
Gold is hard to pay with though. When Russia had their Dollars frozen last year, it was not like they said "No prob, we'll use gold then". Therefore I wouldn't be surprised if countries will shift their reserves to Bitcoin in the coming decades. As it combines the durability of gold with the usability of money.
Re: Austrian leader proposes enshrining the use of cash in country's constitution
#9Seems a little short-sighted. Constitutions are meant to last for centuries, right? What's the payment landscape going to look like in 2400?
Even now, the enforcement detail is too much to put into a Constitution. There would need to be statute dictating exactly what vendors of what size selling what goods in what way have to actually accept cash. There's no sane way to require this of remote transactions. Nobody is mailing envelopes of cash before receiving anything. At best, a Constitutional provision could say something like "the government can't ban cash," which is great, but in a hundred years when nobody at all accepts it and banks don't carry it, you have a pointless, toothless provision in your Constitution.
Re: Austrian leader proposes enshrining the use of cash in country's constitution
#10[flagged]
Assuming you're Austrian and have a better grasp of this issue than I.
That said, I think this is an interesting news story despite the Austrian politics; privacy & surveillance, fiat currency & inflation, economic access and freedoms... these are all issues that many countries and peoples will have to tackle in the coming years...