Debanking

[Mr. Dazzle]

As above though, you and Jack only want me to give you gold cause its worth "real" money. You wouldn't accept 5kg of my original spoken word albums would you?

So you're not really getting away from the system in this case?

[Screwdriver]

What you gonna do with the gold though? And who's gonna pay Tesco?

I will use my CBDC account to buy my groceries. It will be rationed of course. One roll of bog paper per asshole, can’t top up the bike fully because I’ve used up my carbon credit limit. One steak per week yadda yadda. The writing is on the wall

No doubt there will be other less obvious mechanisms for state control. You might not be allowed to travel beyond a state authorised distance per month (you simply won’t be allowed to use your CBDC in certain locations) or at their whim if the WHO decree there is a new pandemic response you must adhere to.

Recipe for perfect totalitarianism control. Probably won’t affect to me, I don’t expect cash to be phased out for a decade or two (and I won’t be around) but who knows, Sunak is absolutely in bed with the WEF I just doubt if he’ll be able to swing it in time and no one is going to vote for him anyway.

CBDC is being set up now. No one has voted for it, it is being foisted upon us. Do you seriously think they’re doing it for the benefit of humanity?

[Mr. Dazzle]

Yeah but its gonna be called "Britcoin" so it's got that going for it

[Cousin Jack]

In most parts of the world gold can be exchanged for paper money. £, dollars, rupees, (especially rupees), you name it. It is portable, and a 5kg lump is worth a sizeable fortune in a rich country, and a kings ransom in a poor one. Good luck with any government in banning that, many cultures have a long tradition of storing wealth in gold rather than in a bank.

[Mr. Dazzle]

But in this hypothetical scenario where paper money (either literal or figurative) doesn't exist....what then?

It's not a ban on gold which would make gold worthless, it's the complete replacement of traditional money with a centralised database style currency.

Unless you're talking about having a second economy, which governments have been trying to get rid of forever

[Cousin Jack]

The US/UK/EU may ban paper money. Good luck in achieving any meaningful ban in Asia or Africa.

Even in the UK the black economy is alive and well, anf 5kg of gold would buy a lot of stuff. Virtually any sort of stuff.

[Screwdriver]

Well, I don’t know about that. There’s BRICS to consider, China is in deep trouble and Russia too are in a deep decline.

Impossible to predict especially with the USA heading for a big (HUGE) depression.

We may live in interesting times….

[Potter]

Whenever I'm in the west, especially USA and UK, then it seems to me that pretty much everywhere is in decline, but when I'm over in the east then they're all building, and every time my Russian friend goes back to Russia on vacation he shows me new shopping malls and houses, they seem to be booming.

The narrative that the west are the chosen ones on the path of good/righteousness and being conditioned to look down on everyone else is really way off what I see as reality in the 21st century.

[Count Steer]

Whenever I'm in the west, especially USA and UK, then it seems to me that pretty much everywhere is in decline, but when I'm over in the east then they're all building, and every time my Russian friend goes back to Russia on vacation he shows me new shopping malls and houses, they seem to be booming.

Not sure that shopping malls are the best indicator of progress in a civilised society.

Perhaps schools might be a better one.

Oh.

[Screwdriver]

Whenever I'm in the west, especially USA and UK, then it seems to me that pretty much everywhere is in decline, but when I'm over in the east then they're all building, and every time my Russian friend goes back to Russia on vacation he shows me new shopping malls and houses, they seem to be booming.

The narrative that the west are the chosen ones on the path of good/righteousness and being conditioned to look down on everyone else is really way off what I see as reality in the 21st century.

The headline figure of GDPR or nominal "success" of a capitalist economy is no measure for the success of the wider society. This is especially true with the accelerating trend for wealth concentration into the hands of the few global corporations and super rich. They're simply not reinvesting into their host country's infrastructures. They seem to be more concerned with how they can acquire more money and more power/authority for themselves. The mechanism for that appears to be squeezing as much money out of the individual citizen as they can possibly get away with.

Meanwhile, Russia with the largest land mass of any country is nominally in deep trouble due to "sanctions" but has tons of resources like fossil fuels. Plenty of farmland too, enough space everyone can find a home etc. Stick a roof over my head, keep me warm and feed me - I'm good.

Education is a key indicator and it seems to me "the West" has effectively gone a bit mental. I think there is a sickness within modern society and like "1984", more effort appears to be being made convincing people how well off they are than actually making anything better for the wider community.

[Count Steer]

Education is a key indicator and it seems to me "the West" has effectively gone a bit mental. I think there is a sickness within modern society and like "1984", more effort appears to be being made convincing people how well off they are than actually making anything better for the wider community.

Probably time to read 'Decline of the West' by Spengler. Growing cultures, develop into imperialistic civilisations* which ultimately collapse with democratic forms of government becoming plutocratic (as that's rule by the rich I'd add kleptocracy for many states/nations) and imperialism.

All pretty familiar and I'd say Russia (and probably China) fits the western model anyway in those ^^^ terms.

* Apparently the word comes from 'city' so maybe 'civilisation' is how we cope with living too closely together.

[Cousin Jack]

Crowding rats leads to a breakdown in many areas of normal rat behaviour. Including a significant increase in rat homosexuality.

[Count Steer]

Crowding rats leads to a breakdown in many areas of normal rat behaviour. Including a significant increase in rat homosexuality.

Which is a pretty logical ratty response to overpopulation n'est-ce pas? Get your mating urges satisfied without adding to the problem. Humans OTOH tend to breed less when crowded depending on education, income etc etc none of which seem to bother rats.

[JackyJoll]

Crowding rats leads to a breakdown in many areas of normal rat behaviour. Including a significant increase in rat homosexuality.

Which is a pretty logical ratty response to overpopulation n'est-ce pas? Get your mating urges satisfied without adding to the problem. Humans OTOH tend to breed less when crowded depending on education, income etc etc none of which seem to bother rats.

Humans in crowded, deprived conditions breed more.

[Count Steer]

Crowding rats leads to a breakdown in many areas of normal rat behaviour. Including a significant increase in rat homosexuality.

Which is a pretty logical ratty response to overpopulation n'est-ce pas? Get your mating urges satisfied without adding to the problem. Humans OTOH tend to breed less when crowded depending on education, income etc etc none of which seem to bother rats.

Humans in crowded, deprived conditions breed more.

Usually due to high infant mortality but there are other factors. Tokyo's pretty crowded and they don't have a population boom. As I said, 'depending on education, income etc'. You can add in religion, patriarchy and access to contraception if you like, none of which affect rats much.

[Cousin Jack]

I dont think it is the homosexuality we need to worry about, that is just one obvious example of the altered behaviour and failure to accept cultural norms. Surely that is exactly what humans are doing in many overcrowded cities. You dont find too many serious criminals in small villages.

[Mr. Dazzle]

I dont think it is the homosexuality we need to worry about, that is just one obvious example of the altered behaviour and failure to accept cultural norms. Surely that is exactly what humans are doing in many overcrowded cities. You dont find too many serious criminals in small villages.

Never been to Midsomer then!

[JackyJoll]

I dont think it is the homosexuality we need to worry about, that is just one obvious example of the altered behaviour and failure to accept cultural norms. Surely that is exactly what humans are doing in many overcrowded cities. You dont find too many serious criminals in small villages.

Never been to Midsomer then!

Nor St Mary Mead.

[mangocrazy]

This will come as no surprise to @Yambo but it seems like Santander are being their usual unhelpful and uncooperative selves again...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-66890530

[Potter]

Has anyone seen the Netflix documentary about Wirecard?

This is a great example of what was actually going on in terms of hacking, spying, political skullduggery, foreign intelligence interference, election rigging, and good old fashioned fraud.

A few people were screaming from the rafters about it for years but being ignored by the masses as conspiracy nutters and ridiculed - in fact if Screwd had posted about it a few months before the bubble burst then no doubt he'd have been called a conspiracy nutter again - but there it is, all exposed now for everyone to see.

It's actually quite incredible how long these things take to bring down, but just like Jimmy Saville, grooming gangs and things like Wirecard, the general public don't want to believe it, so they don't.