The War on CashIt is not only the federal government that is waging a war on cash. By harassing and intimidating innocent persons, bureaucrats and many businesses are trying to stop you from using cash. Many gasoline stations charge you more for paying in cash than if you pay by debit card. The solution there is simply to stop buying things from those gasoline stations. Let them go out of business. That is the orthodox libertarian extremist solution. It is one thing for private businesses to establish their own policies, but it is quite another for government institutions to participate in the war on cash. If somebody wants to become a United States citizen, the first step is to buy a permanent resident card. There is no reason United States Citizenship and Immigration Service cannot accept cash. For all that free money, they can afford it. The Infernal Revenue Service will take your house and your car, but their Nashua office won’t take your cash. You see, they are part of the United States Department of the Treasury, which is supposedly not equipped to handle and safeguard cash. That is garbage. For all that free money, they can afford a cashier and some cash-handling equipment. If the Nashua Transit System wants to make its quarterly tax payments in quarters, I.R.S. needs to be ready. Of course, in a free country, there wouldn’t be an income tax or a government-run bus system. There is no excuse for a police station holding prisoners hostage for ransom and then requiring money orders. I understand, there is too much risk of somebody walking in with a gun and holding up the police station, and cops are too crooked to be trusted with cash, but if you are not a threat to the public safety, then you have a right to be released pending trial, rich or poor; and if you are a serious threat to the public safety, you must not be released at any price. Even if you are guilty of breaking the law, the government has no right to make you enroll in a court-ordered program if the school does not accept cash. One of the many problems with Obamacare is that you are forced to buy health insurance from businesses that do not accept cash. Repeal Obamacare. There is no excuse for configuring the Farecard vending machines, operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority at D.C. Metro stations, to reject $2 notes and half dollars. Frankly, I can see how privatizing the subway system would not be as easy as selling the buses and letting the free market provide bus service, but re-configuring the machines should be simple enough. HOME PAGE |