Monday, April 21, 2008 4:00 AM
Commentary: Drugs in America
Thanks, Sharon Harris makes some very good points in her speech. My concern would be the increased number of drug addicts driving under the influence. Other than that, I agree with her position.
I have long thought about this drug problem in America and it seems to me one answer would be a Greenback Cashless Society.
I would suggest introducing 1, 5, and 10 dollar gold coins for small purchases such as bread, milk, cigarettes and gratuity tips. All others purchases would be made electronically, by Debit or Credit card.
All forgery would cease and it would save billions of dollars making paper money. This would put drug growers and drug dealers out of business.
There would be an increase in credit card and identity theft. However, a few changes in banking regulation would make tracing much easier.
What are your thoughts on this matter?
Don
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Don:
Decriminalizing drugs should not have the effect of increasing drug usage, addiction, or an increase of driving under the influence. It will not lessen the desire of those who now rely on drugs for recreation or for those who are addicted to them, either. Decriminalizing drugs will bring about a new way of thinking about drugs: drug users are not criminals; the evil doers who exploit addictions are criminals. Decriminalizing drugs will take the criminal element out of the disease of addiction; although I am sure there will be somewhat of a black market for them.
The real problem is addiction, and that is a medical problem. That is where our focus should be, just as with alcohol, tobacco, gambling, eating and so many other ways in which humans become obsessive.
There are two problems I have with the evolution to a cashless society.
1. The potential for a greater loss of privacy, security, and freedom is a real probability.
Homeland Security has issued guidelines for a national ID known as the Real ID Act that will create a single database that marries the DMV with the Department of Homeland Security. The Real ID Act is in process for inception in May of 2008 (“The Real ID Act, slipped into an emergency federal funding bill without hearings, originally required states to begin issuing the ID documents by May 2008”). I see a future that will marry the DMV, the DHS, and the personal history of Americans -- medical, financial that would include credit history, or anything else the government might want to know about us -- into one single tool for their use: a Federal ID Card.
American Civil Liberties Union attorney Tim Sparapani, said that “the bill increases government access to data on Americans and amplifies the risk of identity theft, without providing significant security benefits.”
With the promotion of a cashless society, an increase use of credit cards only plays into the hands of our government who sees a need to reduce our freedoms in order to control us. There eventually will be one card designed to be used to acquire credit and driving licensure; that same one card would include health insurance data, medical data, and everything and anything that the government, employers, creditors, and others feel they need to know about any American.
We should be concerned, especially with the enlightenment of our government’s willingness to circumvent our laws with federal wire taps, the issuance of national security letters, circumvent the writ of Habeas Corpus, and the willingness to use torture to acquire information. The saddest part is that neither Americans nor Congress have been able to curtail these unacceptable policies. In an unacceptable number of cases America’s leadership and Americans don’t see anything sinister or unmoral in these policies.
2. There is no cost associated with fiat money, except in some indirect, not out of pocket ways. One works for the dollar and spends the dollar in whatever way one feels it is appropriate, and if they keep the dollar under the mattress it will generate no cost to them. Credit and debit card usage is associated with fees, and credit cards charge usury interest rates (although legal some of these interest rates would be considered illegal 30 years ago). It would put unacceptable burdens on the poor, or those who don’t have the where-with-all to manage the disciplinary commitment that credit or debit cards demand.
A cashless society would additionally contribute to our national debtor status and to our problems with overextended credit. As it is now, the amount of debt generated is used as a basis for printing additional fiat dollars and generating loans. Debt is used as a tool by the Fed and government to manipulate our economy. Debt is used by government and others to coerce in order to control Americans and the poor are to be kept poor for the same reasons. Today it is practically impossible to live without generating debt; in some cases the good old American dollar is not acceptable. Just look at the problems Americans have today living within this paradigm of credit. A cashless society would simply foster even greater very severe societal ills. Our whole economy is fueled by waste and destruction, consumption and handouts; not investment. War is the capitalist cash cow because war is about waste, destruction, and consumption.
A cashless society would only contribute to our economic quagmire.
I don’t know the comparative cost of printing money versus plastic cards, but I do know that plastic is a derivative of oil, and we all know how that has inflated.
