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It was under emergency legislation. Account freezing can’t just happen out of the blue.

sethammons 4y ago
It would never be used against political rivals or to prolong a corrupt government; nope, never.
rightbyte 4y ago
"Emergency legislations" can happen out of the blue. And flipping a bit to trash my card might take some hours after that. Removing cash at least would have one or two elections between the ban and it taking effect.
- kragen 4y ago
  modi demonetized most bills overnight
  - rightbyte 4y ago
    Sure. My point is also that "revoking all bills" is a bigger step than "disable a card", even though both or possible. Having cash is a bigger buffer against politicians up to no good. Also you can't target an individual by revoking bills, so the threshold is way higher.
    - kragen 4y ago
      fair point
tokinonagare 4y ago
This doesn't change anything. It's actually even more scary that governments can pull up laws that quickly that are restraining liberties this much so quickly. I saw it in my country, which I hopefully didn't live in at the time: in less than half a year millions of citizens were stripped of basic liberties such as movement. And despite decades of anti-racism propaganda, it took less than a pair of months to create a state-enforced cast of paria with less rights than others (we're speaking of access to businesses, to healthcare, etc.) And they would have no legal way of exiting the country except by doing it illegally or by forging documentation. Most Western states are a few bills away of turning full China. They now it, and will surf on any perceived or real crisis to get to that point somedays. In the meantime, they do it step by step.
- zirgs 4y ago
  So how does having physical cash in your mattress prevent your government from going full China?
  - fsflover 4y ago
    This is all-or-nothing security fallacy. Having physical cash makes such transition harder for the country, because the dissidents can stay anonymous easier.
version_five 4y ago
That's literally exactly what happened. People did something the government didn't like, and they made it an "emergency". It's a completely arbitrary power. If they can use it for a protest they can use it for anything.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

It would never be used against political rivals or to prolong a corrupt government; nope, never.

"Emergency legislations" can happen out of the blue. And flipping a bit to trash my card might take some hours after that. Removing cash at least would have one or two elections between the ban and it taking effect.

kragen 4y ago
modi demonetized most bills overnight
- rightbyte 4y ago
  Sure. My point is also that "revoking all bills" is a bigger step than "disable a card", even though both or possible. Having cash is a bigger buffer against politicians up to no good. Also you can't target an individual by revoking bills, so the threshold is way higher.
  - kragen 4y ago
    fair point

tokinonagare 4y ago

This doesn't change anything. It's actually even more scary that governments can pull up laws that quickly that are restraining liberties this much so quickly. I saw it in my country, which I hopefully didn't live in at the time: in less than half a year millions of citizens were stripped of basic liberties such as movement. And despite decades of anti-racism propaganda, it took less than a pair of months to create a state-enforced cast of paria with less rights than others (we're speaking of access to businesses, to healthcare, etc.) And they would have no legal way of exiting the country except by doing it illegally or by forging documentation. Most Western states are a few bills away of turning full China. They now it, and will surf on any perceived or real crisis to get to that point somedays. In the meantime, they do it step by step.

zirgs 4y ago
So how does having physical cash in your mattress prevent your government from going full China?
- fsflover 4y ago
  This is all-or-nothing security fallacy. Having physical cash makes such transition harder for the country, because the dissidents can stay anonymous easier.

version_five 4y ago

That's literally exactly what happened. People did something the government didn't like, and they made it an "emergency". It's a completely arbitrary power. If they can use it for a protest they can use it for anything.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]