In a cashless society, would cold, hard cash be illegal?

Well, after having a discussion with a friend of mine at work who was watching the propaganda show called 'Homeland Security', which our convo erupted into him walking away and not wanting to discuss it with me any more and throwing his hands up.

In the show he was describing was how HS 'caught' a couple with like 100,000$ cash in the van/suv. Granted, they may have been drug deals, who knows. A couple of days later, the thought occurred to me,...what if.....

"what if I wanted to purchase a item with ONLY cash, i.e,..boat, home, car furniture ect....would it be acceptable?? Would I be targeted as 'an evil doer'? What would happen if I was stopped with 50,000$ on my person and was questioned by authorities and all the references were correct, would I still be under the 'all watchful' eye'?

In light of the current credit crisis, banking mongers, would storing our cold hard cash be illegal?

I didn't do a search on this, only because I forgot to. However, it would be interesting to see if anyone has testimonies out there of this kind of activity.

Originally posted by Komodo
Well, after having a discussion with a friend of mine at work who was watching the propaganda show called 'Homeland Security', which our convo erupted into him walking away and not wanting to discuss it with me any more and throwing his hands up.

In the show he was describing was how HS 'caught' a couple with like 100,000$ cash in the van/suv. Granted, they may have been drug deals, who knows. A couple of days later, the thought occurred to me,...what if.....

"what if I wanted to purchase a item with ONLY cash, i.e,..boat, home, car furniture ect....would it be acceptable?? Would I be targeted as 'an evil doer'? What would happen if I was stopped with 50,000$ on my person and was questioned by authorities and all the references were correct, would I still be under the 'all watchful' eye'?

In light of the current credit crisis, banking mongers, would storing our cold hard cash be illegal?

I didn't do a search on this, only because I forgot to. However, it would be interesting to see if anyone has testimonies out there of this kind of activity.

Short answer is yes. Your 50,000 would be gone thanks to forfeiture laws that have become amazingly corrupt.

Whats worse, is that in all of these cases of seized property it becomes the owners job to protest and claim his innocence, he is guilty until HE proves otherwise. Which could mean a lengthy battle in court requiring tens of thousands of dollars in lawyers fees.

So in cases where the value of the item seized is not in excess of at least 50k, theres little point in pursuing it in court whether guilty or innocent.

But, if you could prove it and could afford the court costs, then yes you could get it back. But the cost is very great, so make sure your fighting for something worthy.

reply to post by Komodo


I will tell you that I bought my house in cash. Not only did the person selling the house look at me like I were a criminal but I made sure to hire a body guard for the day. I for one am not going to be pulled over for something stupid and arrested just because I happen to have a large amount of cash on me.

I did the same for my car and let me tell you the car dealership freaked out on me for no reason. After I showed them the withdrawal slip from my bank they shut up, but you would have thought I killed their babies.

Originally posted by Tentickles
reply to post by Komodo

 

I will tell you that I bought my house in cash. Not only did the person selling the house look at me like I were a criminal but I made sure to hire a body guard for the day. I for one am not going to be pulled over for something stupid and arrested just because I happen to have a large amount of cash on me.

I did the same for my car and let me tell you the car dealership freaked out on me for no reason. After I showed them the withdrawal slip from my bank they shut up, but you would have thought I killed their babies.

Thanks for the reply and personal testimony.

Yea, just as I thought. What even makes it more intresting is...why is cash such a 'scary' thing?! I dunno, maybe because of the cop shows (brainwashing IMO), or because of the false sense of security that cashless is better? (if that makes any sense)

I'm curious, what the banks thought/did when you asked for cash? I can almost picture it. Hopefully it wasn't a mound of red tape, but, I'm thinking it was.

you can U2U me if you'd like.

In a cashless society, cold hard cash would be worthless. It's just paper and zinc. if it ceases to represent money, it isn't good for anything. It wouldn't have to be illegal.

Storing money as cash as a hedge against financial collapse isn't that great an idea. You might want to invest in things that would hold their value even if the dollar becomes worthless. If the status quo remains the same, and there's a breif depression, then a store of cash is a fine thing to have. If everything goes to hell, you've got a pile of paper.

So really, it depends on how paranoid you are about the economy.

[edit on 22-2-2009 by mdiinican]

reply to post by Tentickles


You bought a house with paper money? Please tell me what firm accepted a huge sack of greenbacks for payment (or was a check written?)

I've bought many expensive items for cash (check), but it's on paper... through a bank

reply to post by Komodo


I am lucky I have had a very good relationship with my bank for along time. My parents made sure I had a credit history before I was even 10. It's been a grace to me later in life.
The first time I asked for a large sum of cash the bank was a little curious about why I wanted this amount of money. I explained it to them and pointed out I had hired a body guard to escort me while I had the cash. I also made sure to have my withdrawal slip given to me and signed by the bank manager in case something happened.

reply to post by king9072


thanks for the reply! Interesting site after doing a quick google on forfeiture laws....

In April, 2000, FEAR achieved the nation's first major federal forfeiture law reform, the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000 (CAFRA).

The sponsor of the act, Rep. Henry Hyde, thanked FEAR in the April 11, 2000, congressional record "for their long and dedicated work on behalf of forfeiture reform." Though the final compromised version was stripped of many of the reforms for which we lobbied, for the first time since civil asset forfeiture laws were passed, under CAFRA the government:

* must prove its case;
* is liable for damages to seized property; must return property to owners pending trial when possession would cause substantial hardship;
* may no longer require an owner to pay 10% cost bond just to contest the forfeiture in court;
* can no longer forfeit property from owners who prove their innocence; and
* must appoint counsel to some indigent claimants.

Further changes are still urgently needed at both federal and state levels.

Many innocent owners still face the untenable situation of having to prove a negative—that their property was not involved in a crime, or that they had no knowledge of criminal activity. Most owners of seized property still lack the financial resources to even bring their cases to court. A final hour amendment to CAFRA won by the Dept. of Justice allows appointed counsel only for property owners who have court appointed attorneys in related criminal charges, and for some owners of seized homes. Innocent owners who are never charged with a crime still must prove their innocence in complex proceedings, where many cases are lost before even coming to trial.

source

Originally posted by Zarniwoop
reply to post by Tentickles

 

You bought a house with paper money? Please tell me what firm accepted a huge sack of greenbacks for payment

(or was a check written?)

I've bought many expensive items for cash (check), but it's on paper... through a bank

I bought with greenbacks. I got a 10% savings buying my house with cold hard cash. That's a huge savings on a house.

I believe the firm I bought it from was having some issues and offered me the one time deal to buy my house with cash at huge savings and it would keep them afloat.

I am not sure of all the details. I just know I got a wonderful house for a great price.

Originally posted by Tentickles
reply to post by Komodo

 

I am lucky I have had a very good relationship with my bank for along time. My parents made sure I had a credit history before I was even 10. It's been a grace to me later in life.
The first time I asked for a large sum of cash the bank was a little curious about why I wanted this amount of money. I explained it to them and pointed out I had hired a body guard to escort me while I had the cash. I also made sure to have my withdrawal slip given to me and signed by the bank manager in case something happened.

Good tips! I shall store them for future events, as needed. Interesting why they even asked the question! You could have lied and they knew that was a possibility. I wounder what would have happened if you told them "for personal reasons"...

reply to post by Tentickles


OK. Gotcha.

Although, I'd advise to just use cashiers checks... that is until Obama nationalizes our banks much safer and no need for bodyguards.

- Z

reply to post by mdiinican


excellent points! So, looking at the current situation in the US and abroad, I'm wondering if we are in a 50% cashless society or 80% cashless society? And you are correct, in a cashless society cash would just be paper (obviously)

In my OP I was thinking of the state that we're in right now. Sorry, should have made that clearer I guess.

reply to post by Komodo


Oh yeah... I forgot the OP

Well. I think any purchase made with over 10K cash is a bit suspect. Just personal experience with buying used boats, cars, etc.

Over 10K you are risking losing some serious cash due to unforseen events. Of course, if you have millions of dollars, this potential loss amount would go up... I guess. It's al relative.

Cash talks! BS walks!
What more is there to say?

reply to post by Komodo


I guess *sniff* I should have told them the truth *sniffy nose* Times are hard *snifffffff* man does the sky look really blue too you? Duuude...

reply to post by Komodo


In that case, still no. There are better investments. The inflation rate is pretty low because we're in a recession, but it's better to invest in things that will increase in value over time, instead of decrease. Government bonds, stock in markets that do well during recessions. Even things that simply keep the same value over time are a better investment, like land or precious metals.

Keeping a few hundred around the house somewhere for emergencies that fall short of economic collapse isn't a bad plan though. I'd just question the utility of keeping a thousand or more in cash handy unless you're rich.