Agree. Would get rid of a lot of it, though. It seems that almost
everyone who offers to do work on our house wants to deal in cash. And
there are a large number of anecdotal stories about cash transactions.
An electronic bartering system is possible and eliminating cash could force
it into being. This would get the revenuers to zero in on one (or a few
"grey economy networks") and would thus make their job easier.
The beauty of cash is that it is almost universally a medium of exchange
within the country/economy in question. I can't imagine a grey network or
LETS system with that kind of exchangability.
arthur
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Hollinshead [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Monday, May 28, 2001 11:48 AM
To: Cordell, Arthur: ECOM
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: "Downturn, Deflation Haunt Japan, IMF Finds"
Arthur,
Getting rid of cash would not eliminate the grey economy. It would
hamper it, but it wouldn't eliminate it. A large part of it already
functions through exchange of services - the plumber fixes the dnetist's
pipes and the dentist fixes the plumber's teeth. And people would just
pick a commodity to serve as a currency - like cigarettes became the
German currency in 1945-46. As you said in a previous post, money is
whatever is accepted in exchange.
In today's electronic world, it would not take long for someone in the
grey economy to create an electronic bartering system or even an
electronic currency. You could run them with PGP or some other advanced
cyphering system in the public domain, so the government wouldn't even
know for sure they existed.
Mike
