Greenland literally has the highest suicide rate in the world.
In fact more then twice as much as number two S.-Korea:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_r...
Meanwhile having a slightly non-danish name/face (photographs are near mandatory on resumes and Danes are shocked when told its a terrible idea) makes it significantly harder to get a job, at least in my anecdotal experience from my fellow students. Not to mention several of my friends being confronted in public and subject to verbal abuse based on their skin color. It's a society very much in denial about having problems, which makes it appear much better from the outside. I can't speak as much for other wealthy western european nations but from my understanding from others its also very much the case there.
There have also been several successive significant political scandals around treatment of immigrants. Such as systematically forcibly separating couples at the border, theft of valuables from immigrants in exchange for asylum, deporting folks back to syria during the civil war there etc. Several successive immigration ministers have been literally prosecuted yet the laws they made remain in place. Turns out when your news articles aren't in English, things like this are much easier to hide.
The country has been good to me personally, and I try to do what I can to help (volunteered with Frelsens Hær, especially over covid etc. Incidentally, heard lots of horror stories while volunteering there about the dysfunction of society in Greenland proper, largely due to government/colonial interference in families in many ways such as this & moving children thousands of km to take school far from their parents, refusing to teach in native languages etc, all happening far more recently than anyone wants to admit). It (Denmark) is a nice place in many ways, and I don't want my negative comments to dissuade anyone from a visit, I just sometimes feel I have to balance the often unquestioning and glowingly positive view that exists out there.
Is there really a big problem with cashlessness? It was something everyone used to look forward to. Then social media came along and with it a parade of zerohedge weirdos, paranoid neo-confederates, well-funded anti-taxation think tanks.
It is now the case that every financial institution is:
>Echoing every transaction over $600 to tax authorities >Filing an SAR anytime activity exceeds a particular threshold >Filing an explicit notice for law enforcement when a good chunk of money goes to cash, because it can't be tracked anymore.
I.e. We have decided that a swathe of financial transactions that were previously legal, aren't, or are likely to coincide, despite them being reasonable sums for the economic conditions.
Financial surveillance is still surveillance, and I'm getting just a bit tired of people looking at people who have some aerious concerns over things like this and brushing us off as crazies. With inflation in the mix, CBDC's on the horizon, and a lazy/LE leadable legislature, we're about putting a bow on any sort of financial privacy in the United States.
Like it or not, not everybody is okay with that continuing to getting parceled off.
That you've apparently got Governments nodding at sterilizing folks is... Well... It's a bit further down the path, but certainly a trend I have been expecting as we've slid down the 1984/Brave New World-as-a-Manual existence.
The grandmother of someone I know got actually stuck in limbo. The postal bank would not release her account until the gov OK'd it, and the gov wanted taxes paid before giving an OK. But the taxes could not be paid because the account was locked at the postal bank. The gov nor thecpostal office didn't care. After a year, her family paid the taxes, everything unlocked, and she paid back her family.
Variants of this story afd not that uncommon. Live trough it once, and you don't want governemental bureaucrats having full access to your money.
I see banning cash as dismal, because state and corporate power over the individual is high as is, and blocking your bank accounts would grant them absolute power.
No cash, no paying for food, fuel, utilities, and so on. Sure, it would limit crime, but it would also limit dissent, due to chilling effects, and then there is no obstacle to tyranny.
It is now the case that every financial institution is:
>Echoing every transaction over $600 to tax authorities >Filing an SAR anytime activity exceeds a particular threshold >Filing an explicit notice for law enforcement when a good chunk of money goes to cash, because it can't be tracked anymore.
I.e. We have decided that a swathe of financial transactions that were previously legal, aren't, or are likely to coincide, despite them being reasonable sums for the economic conditions.
Financial surveillance is still surveillance, and I'm getting just a bit tired of people looking at people who have some aerious concerns over things like this and brushing us off as crazies. With inflation in the mix, CBDC's on the horizon, and a lazy/LE leadable legislature, we're about putting a bow on any sort of financial privacy in the United States.
Like it or not, not everybody is okay with that continuing to getting parceled off.
*: only between 6 and 22, and if there is personel at the shop
In the US, it wasn't something everyone looked forward to. There was very strong opposition to the idea from the beginning, well before social media was a thing. There still is plenty of opposition, although less now. That's what decades of PR efforts can get you, I guess.
Marketing.
The US is one of the most prosperous countries on earth. Just don't look at Puerto Rico, Guam, etc.
Tada! Your current circumstances are suddenly (by comparison) so much better! And they didn't even change!
But it going cashless and now this, it looks to me more like a scene of Brave New World.