[home_boi]

From the utilitarian perspective, what is the point of financial privacy (from the government)? It looks like money laundering and purchases of illegal substances seem to be the biggest "benefits". Those are benefits that aren't beneficial to the government or the people that are governed.

[smichel17]

Spending habits can reveal a ton of information about a person. At that point, financial privacy has the same justification as encrypted communication or any other kind of privacy: protecting people from Government overreach. Knowledge is power.