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The War on Cash

“The cashless society is the IRS’s dream: total knowledge of, and control over, the finances of every single American.” ~Ron Paul

If you follow economic or international news, you may have already heard about the elites’ War on Cash.

The elites, particularly the left-wing ones which are in the majority all over the world, hate cash. When you conduct cash transactions, they can’t regulate them, they can’t tax them, and they can’t spy on them. Cash transactions also make it harder for the elites to restrict the sale of things they’d prefer you not to buy, such as marijuana, sugar, guns, gold, and many other things.

The elites know they can’t suddenly take your cash away. You’d revolt, and the elites don’t like revolts. Instead, the elites are well aware of the concept of the slowly boiling frog. They know that if they very slowly take your cash away, bit by little bit, in a few decades, you will consider it “normal” to not use cash any more. And they’re right.

So, they’ve started doing things like making certain large-denomination bills illegal and large cash transactions illegal. The stated reason for these things is to make it harder for drug dealers and terrorists, but this is bullshit, since most of the nations with the highest denomination cash bills have the lowest levels of organized crime and violence.

The real reason they’re doing this is to make sure you eventually do all of your transactions without cash so they can tax and regulate your ass (as if they don’t do that enough already).

The most recent and stark example of this was India. As Donald Trump was being elected president, Prime Minister Modi decreed that the 500 rupee note (equivalent to $7.50), and the 1000 rupee note ($15) were no longer legal tender. Also, that ATM withdrawals will be limited to INR2000 ($30) for some.

Just think about that. Imagine if Obama suddenly announced that you couldn’t use $20 bills anymore.

Needless to say, this was a very bad idea for the people of India, because:

Over half of India’s population doesn’t have any sort of bank account at the moment and about 300 million don’t have basic ID such as Aadhaar either and hence, cannot access the banking system at all. About 130 million Indians have mobile wallets (about 25 million have credit cards) and there are maybe 550 million-600 million debit cards in circulation. So access to cash is very, very important for average Indians.

Liquidity in the economic system will be sucked out for several weeks at the very least, due to the very stringent restrictions on cash withdrawals from ATMs, and bank accounts. Plus there’s the sheer logistics of getting that massive volume of new notes into circulation. In addition there will be a cost to printing and distributing the new notes and taking the old currency out of circulation.

India is a cash economy. Well over 90% of all transactions are done in cash. Most of these transactions are legal, consisting of relatively small amounts, and frequently done by people who don’t make enough money to pay income tax. Your domestic worker pays for her bus ticket. You pay her husband, the plumber, for fixing your flush. The security guard at the bank ATM buys cigarettes.

So what happened? Mass chaos of course…

Tempers frayed as hundreds of thousands of people queued for hours outside banks for a third day to swap 500 and 1,000 rupee bank notes after the notes were abolished earlier in the week.

The banned bills made up more than 80 percent of the currency in circulation, leaving millions of people without cash and threatening to bring much of the cash-driven economy to a halt.

“There’s chaos everywhere,” said Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, a rival of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing the premier of wreaking havoc on poor and working Indians while the wealthy found ways to skirt the new rules.

Customers argued and banged the glass doors at a Standard Chartered branch in southern Delhi after security guards blocked the entrance, saying there were too many people inside already.

And that’s not all

Although deliveries of notes to the ATMs has increased, the banks simply cannot make up for the sudden loss of 86% of the nation’s money. Not only can the delivery trucks not meet the demand, the machines cannot store the volume of notes needed.

The result has been a partial breakdown of commerce. With millions of people beginning each day with insufficient funds to function, one byproduct of the money shortage is that over 9.3 million trucks have simply been abandoned by their drivers. (Nearly two-thirds of all freight in India moves by road.)

This is all coming soon to you, too. If you’re not paying attention to international news, you’d probably assume that “this is just India.” Oh, how I wish that were true. The amount to which elites all over the world are taking your cash is chilling.

Just in the last few years:

1. Citibank in Australia declared that it will no longer accept any cash (no coins or banknotes)

2. Italy made cash transactions over €1,000 illegal

3. Russia banned cash transactions over $10,000

4. Spain banned cash transactions over €2,500

5. ATMs in Mexico have ceased issuing the 500-peso note (US$24). The largest note is now the 200-peso note (just US$10!)

6. Mexico made cash payments of more than 200,000 pesos ($9,600) illegal

7. Uruguay banned cash transactions over $5,000

8. Switzerland has proposed banning cash payments in excess of 100,000 francs

9. France made cash transactions over €1,000 illegal, down from the previous limit of €3,000

Think the US won’t do this? Larry Summers (Former US Treasury Secretary) published an article last week saying “nothing in the Indian experience gives us pause in recommending that no more large notes be created in the United States, Europe, and around the world.”

This is a worldwide trend. It’s going to get much worse, folks. Get ready.

What Can You Do?

As I usually say, I don’t think the cash in your wallet is under threat today, or even next year, or the year after that. As a matter of fact, the US Dollar is probably going to do every well over the next year or so as more nations, like in Europe, have more problems, and international citizens flock to the Dollar, incorrectly thinking it’s safe, which it is not.

But regardless, in the long-term your cash is indeed at risk. I wish this wasn’t the case, but as left-wing and/or authoritarian governments solidify their domination over the Earth, you’re going to have to be aware of your government’s hatred of you being able to buy and sell things using cash. Nothing pisses off an elite globalist like free citizens using their own private property as they see fit.

The best ways to avoid future problems in this area are:

1. Diversify your cash reserves into several different strong currencies from reasonably stable countries (Singapore, New Zealand, etc).

2. Have a decent percentage of your savings in gold. If you have a lot of gold, store most of it outside of your country using a private vault service (not a bank!).

3. Look into cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, experiment with them a little, and start to get comfortable using them.

It’s silly that we have to eventually go through this stuff just to have something a simple as some cash reserves in our lives, but sadly, that’s the world we live in now.

Enjoy the decline!

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19 Comments

  1. VS

    Hello, I am a regular reader of your blog from India. I have been following the manosphere since 6 years now and fully embraced the MLTR kind of lifestyle. Here I comment about your reference to India. While on a higher level I agree and understand about elites wanting cashless society and this as a control measure. But in the case of India this step by Indian Prime Minister is a welcome step. Let me explain a bit here. Economy & business in India are VERY different from USA or Western Europe. Here many businessmen, politicians and so on do not disclose their actual income or actual sales and hence avoid taxes – all this is done using cash. As a result the tax collections are very less as they should be. So this step is very good to control this sort of tax evasion. Now with this single step all the cash that these dishonest business people or politicians or others had is defunct. They have no option but to deposit it back into banks and pay 60% penalty or burn the cash. Also for future they will come under the scanner of tax authorities. Overall this is a welcome step for all honest taxpayers in India like myself. In the long term this is a great step but yes for the short term there are pains as mentioned above in the boxed comments in your article. But majority of people have no problem with pain in the short term. India is very very different from USA or western europe when it comes to rules and law implementation. So the normal discussion in manosphere about perils of cashless society are not applicable here.

    I sent these comments so that readers here have a balanced view of things. This is one of the reasons I like your blogs since you mostly have balanced views about things.

  2. hey hey

    As I’m a tech guy, I experimented with digital coins few years ago. I even mined them. I really believe in them as the market is keep on growing online and more businesses accept those year by year.
    I was too late in that, as you need to pay big electricity bills, so it is better to just trade. But at the time there was another big issue with trading them. There were banks that did not accept transactions from the middlemen. So I believe for some it was a pain in the ass.

    I haven’t follow up with this the last couple of years(even if i still own some, on some USB). Being a miner though should be out of question. As a trader, a problem might arise in the future with governments trying to impose rules for these coins(they were trying to trace transactions back then).

    But its a very good alternative which will pay off in the future, in my opinion.

  3. Tale

    Good post. That quote about trucks being abandoned sounds like something out of Atlas Shrugged.

    Another reason governments might want money in bank accounts rather than physical form is so they can skim off the top whenever they choose, for example the 10% “tax” on deposits in Cyprus banks a few years ago.

  4. Caleb Jones

    in the case of India this step by Indian Prime Minister is a welcome step. Let me explain a bit here. Economy & business in India are VERY different from USA or Western Europe. Here many businessmen, politicians and so on do not disclose their actual income or actual sales and hence avoid taxes – all this is done using cash. As a result the tax collections are very less as they should be. So this step is very good to control this sort of tax evasion.

    You are wrong on so many levels. Your country, which in all honesty could be the greatest country and economy in the world, is literally destroying itself, using the same excuses you’re giving. It’s horrible to watch.

    I have many Indian friends who are very intelligent, good people, and they often defend India’s insanity just like you’re doing. Just remember that false cultural Societal Programming is the strongest there is.

    So the normal discussion in manosphere about perils of cashless society are not applicable here.

    India is not some magical exception to the laws of economics.

    In 10-20 years, you’ll look at India with sadness and see very clearly if they apply or not.

    That quote about trucks being abandoned sounds like something out of Atlas Shrugged.

    Indeed. A sign of the times. Get ready to see more of this stuff.

    Another reason governments might want money in bank accounts rather than physical form is so they can skim off the top whenever they choose, for example the 10% “tax” on deposits in Cyprus banks a few years ago.

    Correct. Governments hate cash for so many reasons.

  5. David

    Caleb, first off, thank you for sharing this information. In my rural neck of the woods, I’ve NEVER heard anything about this topic. This has certainly gotten my attention and I will begin taking some of the recommended steps you laid out and urge others to do so as well.

    Secondly, I have to admit another reason I’ve never heard of this issue is due to the fact that I don’t engage in reading or listening to any MSM (not that it would be greatly discussed via that medium, I’m sure.) I checked out some of the links to the sites you had inserted, but do you recommend any other daily news sources that are generally unbiased and helpful in a similar regard?

  6. Caleb Jones

    do you recommend any other daily news sources that are generally unbiased and helpful in a similar regard?

    There is no such thing as unbiased news. You have to consume left-wing news, right-wing news, libertarian news, and corporate MSM, and then do your best to distill the facts between those four imperfect news sources. (Even libertarian news is often biased and slanted, and I’m a libertarian.)

  7. Andrew

    David,
    You should subscribe to soverign man newsletter. That’s how I first heard about the war on cash, and other scary trends. Good luck?

  8. David

    @Caleb Ah, very true. I’ll start “ingesting” more news sources and filtering it as best as possible.

    @Andrew I’ll definitely sign up over there and check out similar sites. Thanks.

  9. Anton

    Hey Caleb,

    Just curious about your opinion of Warren Buffett’s humorous bit on gold— “you can fondle it, it looks pretty, but it doesn’t grow, etc.”

    Sure, he’s a somewhat left-leaning super-elite, but it seems like good advice to suggest taking on the role of grower instead of hoarder (miner instead of trader as ‘hey hey’ posted) the greater majority of the time.

  10. Caleb Jones

    Just curious about your opinion of Warren Buffett’s humorous bit on gold— “you can fondle it, it looks pretty, but it doesn’t grow, etc.”

    He’s correct. Gold is not an investment. Gold is a hedge. Many people don’t understand that you can’t buy a pile of gold and sit on it for 40 years and it will make your rich. It doesn’t work that way. Gold is simply an insurance policy against your own currency taking a dump (which it eventually will, if you live in the Western world).

    I own plenty of gold, but I don’t expect it to make me rich. (Making me rich is what my businesses will do.)

    Sure, he’s a somewhat left-leaning super-elite, but it seems like good advice to suggest taking on the role of grower instead of hoarder (miner instead of trader as ‘hey hey’ posted) the greater majority of the time.

    Absolutely. His investment advice is fantastic and you should listen to it. His political or economic advice you should ignore.

  11. Shura

    Spain has just joined the 1000€ club. I don’t know about other countries, but I know that in Spain the limit in cash transactions is only applicable to business. I can buy a second hand car from another person and pay 5000€ in cash, no problem.

    (no problem, except that any 500 and 200€ note can only enter the bank system if he identifies himself at the bank hahaha).

    This is truly horrendous. I wish the excuse that the governments give were as debunkable as “drugs and terrorism”. No, it’s about tax fraud, and on that they have the whole support of the population, as our Indian colleague has just showed. If you defend cash in Spain you will be called a defender of tax fraud, as if all that money in Bermuda had got there in suitcases. What’s worse, they think taxing the plumber will solve the country’s woes. Really, they think so. They think 3%-5% GDP in taxes can be extracted from tiny everyday transactions.
    Societal programming…

  12. Caleb Jones

    they have the whole support of the population, as our Indian colleague has just showed. If you defend cash in Spain you will be called a defender of tax fraud, as if all that money in Bermuda had got there in suitcases. What’s worse, they think taxing the plumber will solve the country’s woes. Really, they think so. They think 3%-5% GDP in taxes can be extracted from tiny everyday transactions.
    Societal programming…

    That’s the problem, and that’s why this cashless thing will eventually succeed. Most people in the world are left-wing to a degree, so if the government does something radical and says it’s for the people’s own good, most people, particularly Europeans and Asians (that includes Indians) are going to go along with it despite the problems it causes.

  13. Elkay Mann

    I’m interested in knowing more about cryptocurrencies, any recommended reads?

  14. Stork

    Hey Caleb, Spain very recently banned cash transactions under 1.000€. Apparently not many people even knew there was a 2,5K limit but now the limit will be more noticeable. Of course this generally only affects businesses, because the prohibition is pretty much unenforceable for person-to-person transactions. I as an anarchist I see it as the greatest thing that could happen: the underground economy (aka untaxed economy) is pretty big over here, ~30% GDP last time I checked, and this law will only help it grow even further.

    I love it when the state makes it so expensive to comply because this is nothing but another nail in the coffin. People will begin doing their transactions without reporting to the state and without paying and this will be the death knell of not only Spain but of most European nation-states. Of course people are demanding more socialism and more government control so my country is going to learn things the hard way, but someday people are going to learn to have disrespect for authority again.

    The more laws there are, the more crime there is.
    ~Lao Tzu

  15. Caleb Jones

    I’m interested in knowing more about cryptocurrencies, any recommended reads?

    Nothing that’s very user friendly. Maybe other commenters have some recommendations.

    Hey Caleb, Spain very recently banned cash transactions under 1.000€. Apparently not many people even knew there was a 2,5K limit but now the limit will be more noticeable. Of course this generally only affects businesses, because the prohibition is pretty much unenforceable for person-to-person transactions. I as an anarchist I see it as the greatest thing that could happen: the underground economy (aka untaxed economy) is pretty big over here, ~30% GDP last time I checked, and this law will only help it grow even further.

    Haha, that’s an interesting perspective! I can’t say you’re wrong.

    I love it when the state makes it so expensive to comply because this is nothing but another nail in the coffin. People will begin doing their transactions without reporting to the state and without paying and this will be the death knell of not only Spain but of most European nation-states.

    I agree, at least to a point.

  16. Stork

    Haha, that’s an interesting perspective! I can’t say you’re wrong.

    It’s an agorist point of view, and agorism is a strategy for libertarianism. Really, ¿why wait until economic freedom is legalized? Counter-economics (aka “free trade even when illegal”) is the most solid libertarian strategy and it has worked in the past in bringing down socialism in Eastern Europe and in many other places. Just think about the American Revolution: smuggling, tax evasion, illegal gun ownership… Acts of Civil disobedience not necessarily meant to attack a government but to withdraw your support from it. The agorist is someone who disobeys laws and acts on freedom instead of waiting and/or voting for his freedoms to be legalized.

    ¿Failed to report to the IRS the benefits of your yard sale?
    ¿Failed to comply with ridiculous speed limits?
    ¿Outsourced labor instead of complying with ludicrous employment or affirmative action laws?
    ¿Exploited a tax loophole?

    Everyone who has drawn a breath has broken a law. The only matter is whether it’s worth for the authorities to bother messing with you. A libertarian recognizes this and lives as if he was already living in statelesness and the state was just one big mafia with lots of connections: as soon as the thugs aren’t watching you can do whatever you want so long they won’t notice, and the thugs can’t be everywhere. Everyone is an agorist to some extent, no matter how vocal they may be for socialism or some arbitrary “reasonable” level of compliance to an authority, and the more expensive compliance becomes, the more agorist people will tend to act, despite of whatever their words.

  17. Stork

    Aaaand what I meant with this, in relation to this post’s topic is: you just act as if the law (in this case against cash) didn’t exist unless they can enforce it on you. So you won’t be able to make +1000€ payments to buy something in an registered business, but you can use it for private debts you have with acquaintances or to access to undergroung market goods. For example you said buying gold is a hedge because fiat currency will eventually go down the shitter, but what if you have bought gold that is registered somewhere and the state has you listed as an owner of X ounces or Y kilograms of gold? In that case your gold would be as good as fiat as it would be subject to confiscation, which is a practice that’s widely known troubled states have done over and over again over the course of history. In that case you not only would have to buy gold to protect your savings for the future, but do it in the underground if you don’t want it to become pointless.

    Sorry for double post, I lost myself in the writing. But I think this is what I wanted to say.

  18. Felix

    Not trying to be a nitpicker here, but I remember reading a post on your time management blog (the one you talk about not using checks anymore) where you apparently imply that you would like a cashless society (something along the lines of thanking god that cash will soon become a thing of the past). Either you changed your mind or I misunderstood. Would you mind clarifying what you meant?

  19. Caleb Jones

    I remember reading a post on your time management blog (the one you talk about not using checks anymore) where you apparently imply that you would like a cashless society (something along the lines of thanking god that cash will soon become a thing of the past). Either you changed your mind or I misunderstood. Would you mind clarifying what you meant?

    You’re absolutely right. On a personal level, I absolutely hate using cash, think it’s a massive inconvenience in terms of day-to-day use, and never use cash for typical transactions. I think you personally should avoid using cash whenever necessary from a purely time management standpoint.

    But on a societal level, you should be allowed to use cash (if you choose) and store cash. If it was legally impossible for me to store some cash somewhere for a rainy day or for privacy reasons, that would be a real problem and be a little frightening. You and I should be able to use cash whenever we choose, as free citizens.

    It’s the same thing as cheating on your wife. Is cheating on your monogamous wife bad? Yes. Should you ever do it? No. But should cheating on your wife be made illegal by your government? Of course not.