We have a significant global representation on this forum and that prompts me to raise these important issues.
The Australian Government is presently pushing very hard for the introduction of a Digital ID (read QR code), Digital Currency and a cashless society. I have undertaken a great deal of research and now fully understand the potential ramifications. Consequently I am dead against these proposals as is the majority of the Australian population.
What is happening around the globe?
Agree,
there is no way to maintain your privacy and you don’t know where your information is going (to others) and they ramifications that you could be tracked day or night is very unsettling.
It’s a mix bag in the states. While states & local governments who think themselves more advanced & sophisticated are constantly searching for ways to track & tax citizens, many of them claim to believe minorities & the elderly are too dumb to obtain the old fashioned paper/plastic ID. Requiring dumb people to have an ID is racist & a means to carry out voter suppression. If digital ID’s ever become mandatory in the US, I think it will only be required for tax payers & citizens who produce labor/things. Perhaps a true 2 tier society like in the land of Orwell’s Oceania?
EDIT:
According to cnbc a big portion of the poor & disadvantaged don’t have banking accounts. Those in the margins won’t be able to go cashless imo.
Forget about your privacy, it will control when where and what you can spend money on.
While I love easy, fast internet as much as the next guy I never believed the coast to coast, border to border broadband coverage idea was pushed for purely benevolent purposes. And I don’t think this is a left/right debate. There’s no good side. Imo, it’s the uber few who want to keep/increase control against us peasants.
If we who oppose this tyrany are a majority, we can stop it by refusing to comply and preventing it by law.
There are numerous sleeper laws already enacted which allow wide-ranging, draconian powers delegated to “authorised officers” to, for example, “take control and make use of any place, vehicle or thing” and do that “without a warrant or the consent of the owner or occupier”. Those are direct quotes from the legislation in Western Australia.
All that’s required to implement the laws is for the declaration of an emergency eg Covid or the next plandemic or perhaps a possible invasion by space aliens (see Project Bluebeam). Who knows? The person who declares an emergency here is the Police Commissioner as the state emergency controller - not even the elected government.
Solution; never sign up for digital ID (which will include digital vaccination status) and buy everything possible with cash. Refuse, resist, react.
It’s as though we’ve never survived previous emergencies with sensible protection of individual rights. Those rights get trampled by a single declaration perhaps even triggered by a UN declaration beyond our governments.
its not the internet although you can get tracked to the ISP’s router then they need to be inside there to find you house, the big issue is your phone, that collects all your data and data aggregators keep expanding your file.
You wireless network constantly gets reported by any phone that has wireless turned on.
How do you think mac air pod works, the device broadcasts constantly and all iphones report on them, you cant turn that off.
I’m less on the conspiracy side and more on the convenience side.
When you say Digital Currency are you strictly talking about digital coins like bitcoin? Or do you count tap-to-pay and credit cards as cashless in this cashless society? Cause we’re already a pretty cashless society, I almost never carry or use any cash, but I’m certainly not opposed to its continued existence.
As for Digital ID, my state already has, uses, and accepts digital drivers licenses. It is just as legal here as the hard copy. If you get pulled over or get IDd buying alcohol the digital version scans the same as the hard copy, no need to have your wallet on you.
I’m not sure I understand what everyone means by “being tracked” by the government. Verizon (cellular provider) knows absolutely everything there is to know about me already.
I’ve got no real interest in the debate. But I know Sweden is nearly “cashless” and Denmark is moving that way. Swedes still have cash but it is used for incidental things. No one buys a car with cash. Kids still buy candy with coins.
Like I said, I have no real opinions in the matter.
The thing we are afraid of is the central bank digital currency, not bank issued credit cards or crypto currency. The big-brother aspect of all transactions being in a digital-only currency issued by the government is that the government then can see every transaction you make and furthermore, decide if the purchase you want to make is in compliance with government directives. So swipe your digital device (containing your digital id) and the system says purchase denied eg for exceeding your allowable carbon footprint or being outside the boundaries of your geo-fenced 15 minute city. A further option is that your stored savings may have a use-by date preventing accumulation of wealth.
But they aren’t the government. And they don’t control your money and don’t aggregate your whereabouts with a view to restricting your movements as I described above. The centralised control by a single entity is the frightening aspect.
Spot on. The complete conversion of all accumulated wealth to government controlled digital currency. No cash.
With regard to the Digital ID, each individual will be identified by a QR code. You will be told by the government what is required to ensure that the code will function. Should you refuse to comply with these requirements then daily functionality will be severely compromised. For example, if your DI is not functional then internet usage and searches will be stopped. Think about that. Many people are currently moving away from particular search engines, email addresses and video streamers which the Australian Government are presently targeting.
EDIT: This is all about total population control. This is not fanciful nor alarmist……it is being partially introduced into Australia on 27th December 2025. From Senator Babet just recently……..
This motion was recently supported by all Senators from every political persuasion apart from 25 Labor Senators who are the presently elected government. They had their instructions.
And the utterly stupid Australian government have just signed up to this pandemic agreement.
In Europe……from the President of the European Central Bank.
“But they aren’t the government. And they don’t control your money and don’t aggregate your whereabouts with a view to restricting your movements as I described above. The centralized control by a single entity is the frightening aspect.”
I actually find the deep access and control by private corporations that may be globally based far more frightening. My government is a democracy, and while incredibly dysfunctional (perhaps by design) at least I and my fellow citizens get somewhat of a say even indirectly in what happens and most act with what they think is best for the Nation and its citizens, even if we don’t agree on what that is. The military, controlled by the government is the protection I rely upon to preserve my freedom, so having the government know more about me is pretty small potatoes given the faith and reliance I already place in that government.
A private corporation on the other hand is only driven by profit and is willing to do anything legal (and perhaps even illegal), whether moral or not, to maximize that profit regardless of the consequences. That is a far more frightening entity that arguably has no reason to do any good thing at all ever unless it happens to be profitable. Global corporations are borderless and can migrate freely to seek the least possible regulation where they are free to operate as “profitably” as possible without having to worry about pesky notions such as the public good.
Your unwavering faith in government is heartwarming … but fatally and naievely flawed.
Unless governments are controlled by and responsive to the people, they will gradually accrue more and more powers to remove your freedom. We now also have international organisations (UN, WHO, Bank of International Settlements etc) accruing power over you that you didn’t vote for. Politicians now seem more responsive to the lobby groups which pay them (how do politicians become millionaires on a politicians salary?) and the biggest payers are Big Pharma, the military industrial complex and the big banks and money managers.
The military (and police) won’t protect your freedoms. They will do what they are ordered, so your freedom depends on the unimpeachable quality and integrity of the politicians in control. Good luck with that.
Your aversion to profit is similarly naive. The sole purpose of businesses is profit. That’s the engine of a successful market economy. It must be encouraged, and constrained only as necessary. Check out Venezuela for a demonstration of the quick effects of transition from the capitalist profit motive to the benign, benevolent, tender care of an all-knowing government intent on the “public good”.
At issue in this thread is the forthcoming installation of another government instrument of control and coercion over otherwise free people. You should resist with all your might, because there’s no going back from this one.
bc9930,
Thanks. Some scary stuff in there.
“However, CBDCs are being developed for important reasons. Central banks just can’t openly tell the public about it. If the public really understood the issue, they would rebel. And they should rebel.
Central banks are looking to CBDCs to effect a new world order with a medium that is a bastardization of money. The USA shot their wad with the weaponization of the SWIFT system in effecting economic sanctions against Russia and Iran. The BRICS are rebelling and dollar hegemony hangs in the balance. As the SWIFT system loses it’s stranglehold on global payment clearing, the BIS, IMF and others are busy developing a global CBDC framework for a new world order. This will usher in an unprecedented era of financial surveillance and control.”