It’s getting illegal to have money these days. Don’t carry lots of cash on your person, that’s for sure. If somebody from law enforcement bumps into you while the cash is on you, they could grab it and you might never get it back. Not unless you can prove it belongs to you. If ever.
Yeah, thanks to the drug war, that kind of thing has happened, even in these United States. Guilty until proven innocent. And oh don’t deposit or withdraw any large amount of money in your bank account, either. Don’t inherit from your uncle, don’t get a big bonus at work, don’t win the lottery. Banks must report transactions larger than $10,000 to the government, and you could be tagged for investigation. Guilty until proven innocent, remember?
A few years ago federal banking agencies wanted to tighten these reporting requirements even further. So-called “Know Your Customer” rules would have forced bankers to monitor your bank accounts and report any deviation from “normal” activity to the feds. Well, there was such an uproar over this Big-Brother-like proposal that the government backed down. But now an international organization, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is pushing its 28 member nations to impose “Know Your Customer” laws anyway. It seems that OECD and other global groups don’t like it when some countries have more freedom than others. They want everyone to be equally oppressed. Let’s hope our government will not only resist this new demand, but also act to restore the presumption of innocence that has already been eroded.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.