Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) will give governments the power to determine what you can and can’t buy, according to a recent discussion at the World Economic Forum’s “Summer Davos.”
Speaking in China at the WEF’s annual meeting last month, Cornell University professor, Eswar Prasad said the world is on the cusp of physical currency essentially disappearing and being replaced with a digital currency that’s not only track-and-traceable but also programmable.
According to Prasad, programmability will potentially allow CBDCs to have expiry dates, and even deny the purchase of products the powers deem “less desirable,” such as ammunition, drugs, or pornography.
“If you think about the benefits of digital money, there are huge potential gains,” he said.
“It’s not just about digital forms of physical currency. You can have programmability – units of central bank currency with expiry dates.
“You could have a potentially better – or some people might say a darker world – where the government decides that units of central bank money can be used to purchase some things, but not other things that are deemed less desirable, like say, ammunition, or drugs, or pornography, or something of that sort, and that is very powerful in terms of the use of a CBDC, and I think also extremely dangerous to central banks.”
This comes as no surprise to those with their finger on the pulse. WEF is notorious for saying the quiet part out loud, but of course, the wider public is just as notorious for not believing them when they say it.
You only need to consider the past three-year beatdown which most people happily endured because those doing the beating assured us it was for our own good, and who are you to ask questions, anyway?!
As is often the case, the citizen’s right to self-governance and privacy is usually undermined under the guise of controlling or prohibiting things that most people deem “less desirable.” This is to ensure as little pushback and resistance as possible.
While many people may be in favour of prohibiting ammunition, drugs, or pornography, it’s not all that difficult to imagine how these powers might be wielded against anyone who dares to challenge the prevailing narrative. For the “good of society,” of course.
“No jab, no job,” could just as easily become “no dose, no dinner,” “no meds, no meal.”
What makes this especially concerning is that the powers have entirely abandoned any notion of a higher, objective standard to which their wills are subject and curbed. In other words, without an objective means of measuring good and evil, the powerless will be, once again, at the mercy of the powerful.
We’d do well to think long and hard about the implications of handing power over to people who so explicitly reject the idea that there is any power over them. You will purchase what they say you can purchase, you will eat what they say you can eat, and you will earn what they say you can earn. Because when there is no God over government, the government is god, and they know it.
