4 ms·

You already live in a society where the food, water, and shelter you freely purchase has to be certified and authorized by faceless people you've never met and

You already live in a society where the food, water, and shelter you freely purchase has to be certified and authorized by faceless people you've never met and will never meet. Even your labor you are willing to give has to be certified at some level. That's why you don't have to worry about salmonella in your chicken sandwich or a steel beam falling onto your head at work. You're welcome.

deleted 8y ago
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sparkie 8y ago
Another false comparison. There's a big difference between implementing society-wide regulations and unpersoning individuals.
- Paperweight 8y ago
  And the black market is a key safety valve for a fully-functioning capitalist economy (like it or not). Hell, even the USSR had paper cash in circulation allowing some privacy and trade between individuals. Having solely account-based money under complete regulatory control amounts to a huge increase in what is practical to put under political control. It could drastically increase the incentives to ban and regulate trade in anything of interest to special interests. E.g. the pharmaceutical industry could finally get rid of herbal medicine.
- jnurmine 8y ago
  If the government wants to "unperson" someone, cash or no cash or electronic money, they will just come and collect you. You having pieces of plastic/paper and/or metal trinkets in your pocket plays will not save you from this. I understand the apparent privacy angle, but if you analyze it further, cash won't help in the presence of a malicious system. If the government cares enough about you to stop you from using e-cash/credit cards to buy or sell, they will also care enough to not let you roam free.
pessimizer 8y ago
> That's why you don't have to worry about salmonella in your chicken sandwich or a steel beam falling onto your head at work. You have to worry about both of those things. Why? Because instead of forcing the placement of every steel beam and the sale of every chicken sandwich to pass through the hands of an intermediary who both profits from and regulates the action, we just decided to regularly inspect places where problems were likely to occur, and to investigate reports of possible violations. The argument you're making would work just as well for recording all human speech at all times, and processing it for suspicious topics - which is totally currently technologically possible. Even if it weren't, why not require that all conversations be had over a telephone? That's pretty much the same as having rules about the amount of arsenic allowed in salt...
- yongjik 8y ago
  "If I take your argument and extrapolate until it sounds absurd, then it sounds absurd, therefore your original argument is invalid." Sorry, I'm not buying it.
  - ryanwaggoner 8y ago
    No extrapolation needed, your original argument sounds absurd.

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sparkie 8y ago

Another false comparison. There's a big difference between implementing society-wide regulations and unpersoning individuals.

Paperweight 8y ago
And the black market is a key safety valve for a fully-functioning capitalist economy (like it or not). Hell, even the USSR had paper cash in circulation allowing some privacy and trade between individuals. Having solely account-based money under complete regulatory control amounts to a huge increase in what is practical to put under political control. It could drastically increase the incentives to ban and regulate trade in anything of interest to special interests. E.g. the pharmaceutical industry could finally get rid of herbal medicine.
jnurmine 8y ago
If the government wants to "unperson" someone, cash or no cash or electronic money, they will just come and collect you. You having pieces of plastic/paper and/or metal trinkets in your pocket plays will not save you from this. I understand the apparent privacy angle, but if you analyze it further, cash won't help in the presence of a malicious system. If the government cares enough about you to stop you from using e-cash/credit cards to buy or sell, they will also care enough to not let you roam free.

pessimizer 8y ago

> That's why you don't have to worry about salmonella in your chicken sandwich or a steel beam falling onto your head at work. You have to worry about both of those things. Why? Because instead of forcing the placement of every steel beam and the sale of every chicken sandwich to pass through the hands of an intermediary who both profits from and regulates the action, we just decided to regularly inspect places where problems were likely to occur, and to investigate reports of possible violations. The argument you're making would work just as well for recording all human speech at all times, and processing it for suspicious topics - which is totally currently technologically possible. Even if it weren't, why not require that all conversations be had over a telephone? That's pretty much the same as having rules about the amount of arsenic allowed in salt...

yongjik 8y ago
"If I take your argument and extrapolate until it sounds absurd, then it sounds absurd, therefore your original argument is invalid." Sorry, I'm not buying it.
- ryanwaggoner 8y ago
  No extrapolation needed, your original argument sounds absurd.