barter, can you do it?

if you want to control a large society you just get rid of cash, no cash; no secrets. what you buy, when you buy it, were you where, and the details of your life style are all easily deduced from credit card sales. a forum of computer scientist concluded that a card based economy would all but lock the door on freedom. now having said that we have theft or barter. assuming most will not steal as a lifestyle( given the government control aspect of such an action i don't think i would loose any sleep over the moral implication of thief) so what can you make to barter? most of the shallow enders* are not capable of making a decision much less a valuable product. consider also the powers that be will frown ( with swat teams most likely) on tax evasion or what ever they call the attempt to circumvent their control. personal skills are one thing that will be tradable and hard to trace, food stuffs and crafts, so... thoughts ?

*those who occupy the shallow end of the gene pool

[edit on 27-2-2007 by wcssar]

Trading and bartering isn't tax evasion, as long as you aren't making any materially significant gains (such as trading a car for a house, you obviously profit from the trade). If you are trading things that are approximately equal, or that have a rather subjective value, then there is nothing the government can say is wrong.

Plus the majority of your tax is on what you EARN through income tax, not so much through GST on purchases. If you had your whole salary in barter and were given $10,000 worth of food per year, then you would be evading tax. But what would you pay it with if all you have is food anyway?

I think I would be rather good at bartering. I can judge the value of something fairly well. Also, once you know that someone desperately needs something, you can make them give you more in return for it.

If things descend back into a barter system, you're going to have a lot worse things to worry about than the government. Like just defending and safeguarding your possessions, for example.

[edit on 28-2-2007 by Yarcofin]

For information on taxation of bartered goods / services check out the IRS website
IRS Tax Topic 420
Just as Yarcofin stated, ifg SITX were to occur, goverment taxation would be one of the least things that you would have to worry about for quite a while.

Originally posted by kenshiro2012
Just as Yarcofin stated, ifg SITX were to occur, goverment taxation would be one of the least things that you would have to worry about for quite a while.

Indeed. It's rather hard for them to send you your paperwork or track you down when you don't have a permanent address any more . I don't think the original poster intended a Situation X scenario as much as a New World Order one though.

the sit x i am talking about is a slow fall not a bomb drop. I'm not talking about a decent into a barter only system far from it. i am talking about methods of population control without the economy having been disrupted. in one of the scandinavian nations you no longer have coins you have a card this is to reduce the cost of making coins ( or so they say ) so let's say next year we adopt the coin card and what? people aren't going to riot, card payment is second nature to most people now. so them after a while the card system is expanded to include all persons who receive government aid or social security, now a significant percent of the population is completely traceable. so next step now that people are use to it is the universal treasury card for all purchases. at that point you are completely traceable as to the purchases you make which can easily be extrapolated into data about your life and lifestyle, also when and where you go. so it's now a card system and no big sit x just a slow creep, and as to barter not being tax evasion i did not say it was i said the government or rather some of it's agencies could call it so and yes you could prove them wrong. i suppose David Koresh might have been able to prove a lot of things if he could have gotten to court. this is not an argument about tax law or the legality of barter it is a speculation on methods of population control and ways to circumvent them. so