Just Say No to Central Bank Digital Currencies
I don’t really get the author’s argument. A lot of it seems very “slippery slope” to me.<p>The government already can (and does) restrict what people can and cannot buy. The idea of limiting spending on certain things (like gas) is interesting, but that isn’t exactly a new thing. The government could already just straight up ban the sale of anything, this would just give them more nuance to their policy.<p>Other things mentioned, like automatic taxes and preventing money laundering, seem… good?<p>The more extreme authoritarian uses cases like financial “imprisonment” are certainly bad, but similarly can already basically be done. Look up what happens to those few people each year that are accidentally declared dead and can’t open lines of credit etc. The government can already ruin your life with the press of a button.<p>I’m not sure I support CBDCs, but these seem like weak arguments. There are definitely benefits to taking away power from existing financial institutions.