Patrick Barron, over at the libertarian economic site Mises.org, has a nice simple piece on why defenders of freedom and liberty should be deeply concerned about movements to a cashless economy, which are well advanced in Australia. Banks are already working deceptively to eliminate cash, so that in the end, the public will have this sprung upon them. Barron points out that there are many practical reasons for retaining cash, all along the lines of not putting all one’s eggs in the one basket. Thus, if electronic systems go down cash could still be used in a dual system, to the existing limits of cash.
However, the main argument for retaining cash is that it decentralises power. The fully electronic system puts a tremendous amount of power in the government’s hands, as recent debanking events, such as the Canadian truckers’ cancellation, and the debanking of Nigel Farage show with just existing power. Giving the elites absolute power is always a bad idea in principle as corruption and abuse is inevitable. As Lord Acton observed: “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority.”