No More Paper Checks For Federal Benefits

[Terry Hammonds]

We can forget about the paper vs metal dollars debate.

Like many states, Federal Government announced today that all recipients of monetary benefits will no longer have the option of getting checks in the mail. There will be no more paper checks sent out effective next year. Those with no bank account for direct deposit will get "debit" cards. Only tax refunds will be exempt, but the IRS is encouraging everyone getting refunds to go digital. I expect it be required soon. Probably within ten years there will no longer be any "currency" in circulation. Science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein wrote about this, as did others, in the 1960's.

Oh, and get ready to sell shares of any cash register maker you may have. We won't need them. With smart phones that process cards and technology we don't have yet, cash is going the way of the Do Do bird.

What will this mean in calculating M-1 and supply/demand for "money" and deposits if large sums are issued and carried on cards?

[helge nome]

What happens if we have a major electric power failure?
We loose the heating/air conditioning of our homes and now our money as well?!
This is getting ridiculous.
Please give me a lump of wood and a silver coin, any time.
Also, root cellars and pork barrels don't need any power input.
Helge

> Subject: No More Paper Checks For Federal Benefits
> From: hammond...@yahoo.com
> Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2012 14:26:21 -0400
> To: understan...@googlegroups.com

[Mark Bachmann]

Terry,

 

That last question is interesting, although the existence of "near monies" already makes conventional money supply calculations less meaningful than most economists seem ready to acknowledge.  Lines of credit available on cards, for example,  are arguably hotter and have more impact on economic activity than money parked for safekeeping in checking accounts, even though the latter is included in M1 while the former is not. Futuristic concepts about money, like futuristic  concepts in general,  mostly extrapolate from technologies already in place on a smaller scale. The shifts in scale when they occur, however, create waves of add-on effects, some of these being dangers, that prove to be more important than the technologies themselves. All of this is too complex for futurists ever to get right. Like most of us, economists tend to be wedded to tools growing increasingly irrelevant as time moves on.

 

     Mark Bachmann  

[Terry Hammonds]

Sounds like the "survivalists" aren't so paranoid after all.

Sent from my iPad

[helge nome]

I think that the "maps" we use in describing the financial/economic system are woefully inadequate,
rather akin to medieval world maps, filled in by guesswork. Our concept of "money" likewise.
With changing technologies, "money" is a moving target.
Helge

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Subject: Re: No More Paper Checks For Federal Benefits
From: hammond...@yahoo.com
Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2012 12:01:10 -0400
To: understan...@googlegroups.com