[brandonmenc]

> I think the informal economy mainly exists for tax avoidance

Garage sales and lending your buddy five bucks are also part of that "informal" economy. Without cash, the government would be dipping its beak into those transactions as well.

[tsotha]

That's the real reason they want to get rid of cash. They want to make it impossible for any economic activity to occur without the government approving and getting a cut.

I don't think it will actually work. Were the US to get rid of cash tax cheats and drug dealers would simply switch to GBPs, euros, or yen. Or drugs.

The only people who will be absolutely locked into the system are cubicle dwellers, but that's already pretty much the case.

[Retric]

The governent already ignores small electronic transactions as not worth the time to collect. I don't see how a cashless economy changes this.

[tsotha]

They used to ignore cash transactions for the same reason. The advance of technology makes everything cheaper, and sometimes that's bad.

[brandonmenc]

They ignore it now