Austrian leader proposes enshrining the use of cash in his country’s constitution
Austrian leader proposes enshrining the use of cash in his country’s constitution
Austria’s leader is proposing to enshrine in the country’s constitution a right to use cash, which remains more popular in the Alpine nation than in many other places.
People in his party are known for receiving suitcases of cash (here, search for suitcase). Of course, they want to protect that.
By the way, Grasser was never sentenced for that, because while it's fishy as hell, it's not illegal, as long as the money can't be traced in either direction. At least he got thrown into jail for other corruption offenses in 2020, after about 15 years of court proceedings.
The attachment to cash is something I'll never understand.
It's easy - tax evasion, money laundering, secret financing of things you wouldn't want others to know. All perfectly fine reasons to fight for.
Cashless society is a controlled society. While some may misuse cash for illicit activities, many prefer it to protect privacy, maintain personal control, or avoid digital vulnerabilities. Dismissing cash usage solely for nefarious reasons overlooks legitimate concerns and individual freedoms, and equates privacy with wrongdoing, a perspective that might inadvertently erode fundamental rights and personal autonomy.
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My gut tells me cash should be some kind of baseline. A hedge against digitally enforced tyranny. One should not be forced to use “technology” (beyond that which needs to exist for a cash based system?) to interact with the larger economy.
Privacy. My bank doesn't need to know about every purchase I make.
Valid, I guess. Still I would love a law that if you accept cash, you have to accept electronical money as well.
I prefer cash in situations where alcohol is involved. I can decide in advance a cash amount and when that's done I'm done. That's not easy counting up receipts. If you even get them as om noticing a trend were in a load of places if you don't ask for one you don't get.
Research Central Bank-issued Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and specifically the so called "programmable money" parts of them. Central Banks and states are creating stuff like money that has an expiration date or that can only be spent on certain approved products and services.
Cash is privacy and no one can estimate your "climate footprint" based on its use while their class keeps on riding their private jets to World Economic Forum and other oligarch conferences.
This is not some futuristic stuff. All big countries are heavily invested in CBDCs, have pilot programs and some are already using them.
Cash already has an expiration date...
I mean, that's a thing for quite some time, except now it's moving digital. Here we have something like food tickets (can't think of better translation now) which are untaxed and can't be used for stuff like cigarettes, alcohol, gambling etc. And they have an expiration date. Every company here has to provide its employees with either a company cantina (is that the correct word?) or the "food tickets".
While I do agree that cash is very handy, that sort of thing doesn't belong in a constitution.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
BERLIN (AP) — Austria’s leader is proposing to enshrine in the country’s constitution a right to use cash, which remains more popular in the Alpine nation than in many other places.
Chancellor Karl Nehammer said in a statement on Friday that “more and more people are concerned that cash could be restricted as a means of payment in Austria.” His office said that the “uncertainty” is fueled by contradictory information and reports.
While payments by card and electronic methods have become increasingly dominant in many European countries, Austria and neighboring Germany remain relatively attached to cash.
Protecting cash against supposed threats has been a demand of the far-right opposition Freedom Party, which has led polls in Austria in recent months.
The biggest opposition party in the current parliament, the center-left Social Democrats, has called for at least one ATM in every municipality and accused Nehammer of “pure populism.”
“Even if we write the word ‘cash’ into the constitution 100 times, there won’t be a single ATM more in Austria,” said the head of its parliamentary group, Philip Kucher.
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This is a very good idea, I'm completely on board with this in my country as well.
Ach, Nee, Hammer.
He's an idiot.