Again, this makes no sense:
Cold hard cash. It’s good everywhere you go, right? You can use it to pay for anything.
But that’s not the case here in Louisiana now. It’s a law that was passed during this year’s busy legislative session.
House bill 195 basically says those who buy and sell second hand goods cannot use cash to make those transactions, and it flew so far under the radar most businesses don’t even know about it.
“We’re gonna lose a lot of business,” says Danny Guidry, who owns the Pioneer Trading Post in Lafayette. He deals in buying and selling unique second hand items.
“We don’t want this cash transaction to be taken away from us. It’s an everyday transaction,” Guidry explains.
Guidry says, “I think everyone in this business once they find out about it. They’re will definitely be a lot of uproar.”
The law states those who buy or sell second hand goods are prohibited from using cash. State representative Rickey Hardy co-authored the bill.
I’m not sure how this is legal, given that federal law states that US currency is considered legal tender for all transactions. Private business don’t have to accept cash, but I’m not sure how a state can ban private business from accepting it.
Lawyers? Am I wrong about this?
Oh, and this was done in the name of crime prevention by a Democrat. Whatever the intent, I am not sure how this is legal, and has the side effect of making everyone more beholden to banks and the credit card industry. Idiocy.
artem1s
Legal? How the hell are they going to enforce it?
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
For all of you who go after Obama for dealing with Nelson and Landrieu, take a look at the kind of Democrats they have in LA.
celtidragonchick
This is pure weapons grade insanity.
Oh, and almost certain to be struck down in federal court.
cathyx
It was done for crime prevention, or it was done to help the Walmarts sell their crap.
kth
Great, they just outlawed garage sales in Louisiana.
It’s an old joke by now, but: Your move, Mississippi.
cathyx
They’ve enacted a law in Washington that metal yards have to send the person who is selling the metal a check for the amount that they receive for the metal and not give money to them right there on the spot. The reason is that if you stole the metal, the yard then has an address and name of the person who tried to sell it, and if it were stolen, then they can trace it.
NonyNony
WTF?
And the last line of the story notes that pawn shops – the MOST likely place for a criminal to fence stolen goods – can still deal in cash because they “keep records”.
Goodwill – where no sane criminal is going to ditch property he has stolen – isn’t allowed to deal in cash but pawn shops are?
There’s more than crime prevention going on here. Maybe the Louisiana legislature is full of morons. Maybe this law was drafted by the banking industry and the pawn shop lobby was able to get an exemption. Maybe all of the above. But wow, this is stupid.
Mark S.
I starting to get suspicious that this law has anything to do with crime prevention.
The Moar You Know
The intent of the law was to prevent scrap metal thefts, by ensuring that people who dragged in the copper pipe that they just janked out of your house couldn’t sell it, get cash, and get high.
As usual, they can’t do anything in Louisiana right.
Halteclere
Sounds like some legislator had his AC condenser stolen.
Dustin
IANAL but as far as I always understood it the whole “won’t accept cash” was restricted to goods and not services because with goods they can decline to sell to you if you don’t pay how they want in advance, but that they MUST accept cash for services already rendered because of the whole pesky “legal tender” issue. I don’t see how this law can possibly be legal because by banning cash sales the LA government is, in effect, saying that cash isn’t legal tender for goods and services if they’re second hand. That’s not their decision to make, it’s a federal issue.
Or am I completely off base here? Because I’d imagine if monitary policy was a state issue we be finding a whole bunch of numbnuts in the south starting up state gold-only banks. We don’t, so what gives?
Poopyman
Well, hard to say what the intent was from looking at Rickey Hardy’s finances and positions. And while he seems to have attended Southwest Paralegal College, there’s no indication that he ever graduated. Big surprise, that.
So … I’m guessing that no one in the La. lege really looked into what unintended consequences might arise from such a bill. I hate to sound, I dunno, “elitist”, but I’m not surprised this would come up in Louisiana. Not the first dumb-as-a-rock political move to emerge from that state. (See Jindal, Bobby, among many others.)
My guess is that it’ll fall after the first legal challenge. If it even gets to that.
Roger Moore
@cathyx:
I’m pretty sure the crime prevention angle is honest. Second hand stores, especially places like pawn shops, often make their big money fencing stolen goods. Here in California, at least, tightening up regulation of pawn shops has been tremendously effective in cutting down on residential burglary. That’s more on the buying side than the selling side, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the same people who were happy to act as fences weren’t engaged in tax evasion, too, where doing everything in cash is very helpful. Forbidding cash sales is a draconian solution, but it’s a response to a real problem.
Cris (without an H)
From Rep. Rickey Hardy’s info page:
If there’s anybody in the Legislature with experience in unreported cash transactions, it’s this guy. Who is he beholden to here?
jayjaybear
@Roger Moore: Except that pawn shops are exempt from this law.
Poopyman
@Cris (without an H):
Looking at his financial disclosure page you wouldn’t think he was beholden to anybody. Then again, maybe it’s a debt that’s not payable in legal tender.
maya
Obviously, this is a direct result of Katrina waterboarding Louisiana.
Linda Featheringill
So Louisiana just outlawed the pernicious practice of poor people purchasing secondhand furniture because they can’t afford the new stuff. Not to mention secondhand clothes.
Perhaps Louisiana doesn’t have any poor people.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
All I have to say is that I’m glad I don’t live in Louisiana.
Strandedvandal
Isn’t cash itself almost always a second hand item?
beltane
@Linda Featheringill: Maybe they are trying to outlaw poverty by making it a crime to transact business as poor people do. It must be hard on those poor banksters not being able to get their paws on the proceeds of the sale of used car seats, high chairs and such.
Strandedvandal
No more yard sales or garage sales? No more Craigslist? No more people buying stuff without paying sales tax?
Libby
Well, on the “bright” side, under Cain’s 9-9-9 plan, the poor folk won’t have to pay sales tax on these second hand transactions. But they will have to either pay the bank for a checking account, or pay extra for money orders, or something. I wonder if we can call that an “invisible tax.”
Lit3Bolt
We’ve moved one step closer to having bar codes on our foreheads.
Larryb
Not if you are a bank.
Culture of Truth
no man might buy or sell, saue he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
OMG!!!!!!!!!!!
geg6
Fixt for accuracy.
The same kind of Louisiana Democrat that some people on my side seem to think would vote for the public option if Obama would have just pounded the podium a little more.
Rafer Janders
I’m not sure how this is legal, given that federal law states that US currency is considered legal tender for all transactions. Private business don’t have to accept cash, but I’m not sure how a state can ban private business from accepting it. Lawyers? Am I wrong about this?
No, you’re right. It’s unconstitutional, won’t survive the first court challenge, since it violates federal law (which trumps state law in this area), enacted pursuant to the Commerce Clause, that federal reserve notes are legal tender “for all debts public and private”.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Linda Featheringill:
Actually it would also hurt people like me, I never buy something new unless I absolutely have to, not because I am poor but because I’m a damn cheapskate. Why pay $10.00 for a toaster at Walmart or wherever when I can pick one up at a Thrift Store for $3.00 or less? When my husband had his heart attack and then started seriously losing weight (intentionally) I actually didn’t mind that I had to replace his wardrobe several times. It’s the thrill of the hunt for me.
If they ever introduce something like this in NC I will have some sharp words to say. :)
RossInDetroit
Pawn shops here are heavily policed, and people go to jail when they break the law. In one case, every pawn owner in Lansing at the same time in a group bust. They have to be scrupulous about records because the consequences are harsh. And it works.
gbear
How are they going to enforce this? Are they going budget for police to patrol neighborhoods looking for garage sales? Will they have undercover cops trolling Craigslist and Ebay? A cash transaction between two parties is one of the easiest things in the world to keep secret, unless they’re planning on having everyone submit a monthly inventory of everything they own. This just doesn’t make any sense.
pharniel
@Rafer Janders:
And as explained by a few lawyers you can stipulate the terms of payment (Cash only, no cash unless exact change etc.) *before* the transaction – after that you can be paid in any ‘resonable currency’ (or it might have been customary currency) which is one of those ‘reasonable person’ things.
back in the day it was just cash, not it’s prolly cash + credit.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
For everyone guessing, this law is obviously about making every transaction taxable. Then they can complain about bringing in too much tax revenue, and lower property taxes on homes worth more than $1million.
Wait until they require a receipt for paying your kids an allowance.
Kirk Spencer
The bill, as passed. turns out it’s not quite as bad as the news article reports.
REGULAR dealers in secondhand goods, scrap metal, and junk are required to make records of cash deals of more than $25. Record includes ID of seller/buyer, description of goods (to include identifying marks if they exist), and cash exchanged.
Regular dealers are those who do this more than once a month. Yes, a multi-day garage sale counts.
In other words cash hasn’t been made illegal. Cash without records is what’s illegal.
Joel
@cathyx: That actually makes sense.
gbear
In St. Paul MN, pawn shops are required to provide police with the serial number of every item they take in. I was able to recover a camera two months after it was stolen because of this.
When the camera was first stolen, I called some pawn shops in my neighborhood to ask them to keep an eye out for it, but one of the managers finally told me to knock it off – if he knew about my stolen camera, he wouldn’t touch it. I was more likely to get it back if I just let the system work.
Poopyman
@Kirk Spencer: Oh sure! Go ahead and spoil it all by reading the damned bill.
Spoilsport.
Niques
But the bill is TWELVE PAGES long! Cain wouldn’t have allowed it.
joes527
@pharniel: semi off topic.
We have quite a few toll roads around here that do not stipulate the forms of payment accepted until you have driven the road and get to the toll plaza. Only then do you learn that it is cash only – exact change required.
I always thought it was stupid marketing. I generally avoid the toll roads, not because I am cheap, but because at the time I need to make the decision, I am usually unclear about how much it is going to cost, in what form, and whether I have it on me.
Given that they don’t say anything about form of payment until you have already driven the road, how do they get away with restrictions after the fact?
Ben Cisco
I believe it’s an attempt to bring back the barter system, you know, swap shop for the masses.
__
Either that, or a whole mess of free-range chickens have been discovered and some wisenheimer is trying to corner the market.
ThresherK
@The Moar You Know: Yeah, who’d have guessed that Texas (“the national laboratory for bad government”–Saint Molly) had competition for this year’s trophy?
MTiffany
@kth:
The joke’s only old if it doesn’t keep getting more ridiculous with each new telling.
jayackroyd
The NRA will shut this down Tout de suite
Brachiator
Because crooks will obviously obey laws about not using cash.
This is stupid on so many levels.
@Kirk Spencer:
Still a stupid law. The dollar threshold is too low, and is a dumbass move given the current state of the economy.
David Hunt
@gbear:
You appear to be working under the assumption that the law will be enforced evenly. Idiot laws like this and curfews are wonderful excuses to harass minorities you don’t like without obviously “discriminating” against them.
That said, I wonder if this was a stupid execution of an attempt to get a handle on unreported cash sales that no one was paying sales taxes on.
burnspbesq
This is also about sales and use tax compliance. Which is a legitimate problem, pretty much everywhere.
There are a number of other things they could have tried, but there’s no assurance that any of them would have worked very well. So yes, this is breathtakingly stupid, but it’s well-meaning stupidity.
srv
Maybe they can take bitcoins.
If there’s one state of the union with more of a barter economy than Louisiana, I’m not aware of it. IRS guy once told me “nobody from LA files tax returns.”
Not sure if it was because of incomes or they just couldn’t be bothered. But the US gov’t wasn’t too worried about it.
Libby
Even the conservative PJ media posted against this one, and tells me the bill was co-sponsored by 6 Dems and 9 GOPers. Passed with only one dissenting vote.
And Jay Ackroyd is right, PJ is against it because they see it as a back door to banning/confiscating guns.
Mudge
What an inconvenience, having to cut my stolen copper into $25 chunks.
Montysano
So, police departments will have to send officers to troll yard sales?
“OK, let’s roll. And hey! Be careful out there.”
emrventures
Cash is legal tender for “debts.” At the point of sale or transaction, there is no debt yet, as the transaction has not yet been completed. Any business is free to not accept cash at the register.
In the case of paying cash for a debt, cash must be accepted as payment even if the two parties have contracted otherwise. So, if I contract to give you two horses now in exchange for two cows next spring, and come next spring I don’t have the cows, I can pay you fair value in cash and you must accept. That being said, I am still non-performing on that contract and may be liable for contractual damages that result from not providing the cows — if you have to spend $1000 to drive to town and buy the two cows you were expecting, that can be assessed in court as damages for non-performance.
That being said, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some sort of pre-emption or other federal argument that the law is illegal.
RareSanity
@Kirk Spencer:
I’m not a lawyer, but that’s not what the bill seems to say.
According to the bill, “Anyone, other than a nonprofit entity, who buys, sells, trades in, or otherwise acquires or disposes of junk or used or secondhand property more frequently than once per month from any other person, other than a nonprofit entity, shall be deemed as being engaged in the business of a secondhand dealer.”
That tells me, that if in the span of a month, I buy two things of craigslist, I am going to be subject to the law.
Which seems really asinine after I make the second purchase.
After I get all of second seller’s ID information, and a signed statement saying what they sold me isn’t stolen…I then have to go back to the previous person I bought something from, and get the same information from them.
This is one of the dumbest laws, I have heard proposed, in a long time. Why do politicians feel that it is necessary, to punish everyone, for the acts of a small minority of people that are criminals?
EDIT: All of this may be wrong because I don’t know if an individual is, by default, considered a non-profit entity.
Felinious Wench
@ThresherK:
Love this. Will be referring to her this way from now on.
Ella in New Mexico
@Rafer Janders:
But the key here is, like the draconian abortion laws and voter id laws that have been implemented in states recently, it takes a whole lot longer to move through a state court system to challenge than if it was a Federal law. Plus, in a poor state like Louisiana, those persons who may actually have been “harmed” and thus have standing will be less likely to even know where to begin to take legal action.
@gbear:
Yes, and yes. In the same way forcing their cops to meet quotas for tickets written for minor traffic and other infractions, this is the way cities today–strapped for cash in the form of gross receipts taxes– are using their police officers as revenue collectors. And no one should stand for it.
Felinious Wench
It’s about tracking money flow. Don’t know about you guys, but my friends and I do a TON of things by cash only and don’t report it. My hairdresser gets paid in cash. The guys who help me with the yard get paid in cash. We never track any of it. It’s just what we do.
I expect, especially in the current economy, that under the radar “black market” is thriving.
RossinDetroit
@Felinious Wench:
Yup. An elderly Bohemian watchmaker once told me “Look, when you pay me with a check it goes on the books. When you pay cash I buy groceries. Understand?”
I do. I pay cash when I do business with individuals and small merchants. What they do is up to them.
ed drone
@Dustin:
Enter 9-9-9, where all new goods get taxed*. If you can’t sell used goods, sell ’em as “new,” collect and pay the tax, and no one says you aren’t law-abiding. On second thought, it’s a dumb law, and almost certain to be struck down by the first judge it gets brought before.
[*It seems to me in passing, by the way, that if the 9% sales tax on new goods gets passed, no one will buy “new.” Every car will be a “demo,” every TV a “shop demo model,” every off-the-shelf item’s bubble-wrap will be opened, then taped shut — thus showing it’s “used” — and no one will abide by the law.]
Ed
catclub
@Libby: “And Jay Ackroyd is right, PJ is against it because they see it as a back door to banning/confiscating guns.”
Everything is a backdoor to _that_. Starting with electing a blackity black president.
Gotta hand it to the gun manufacturers, if you can turn buying your product into both a patriotic and a revolutionary act, you are going to mint money.
(The gun manufacturers == the NRA)
ruemara
y’all should bitch so hard. For 2 years, I’ve watched a group in my ultraliberal california town attempt to get a law passed banning wood fires. Not just the improved standards for fireplaces, or a general attempt to get people to upgrade woodburning stoves to newer cleaner standards, just an outright ban. It can get cold here and wood is a decent alternative to using gas or electric heat But they want it to be illegal. I make no issue with their reason or the fact that our EIR studies on the pollutants blame cars as the worst of the problem, it’s that they want a law crafted that the shrinking police force would have to deal. What are we going to do, have CSI: Soft Woods? Install a patrolman to go door to door, checking woodpiles? Bad law, it’s not just for the South.
birthmarker
Let’s create a paper trail so Cain’s 999 can be applied to all transactions. Yay!
I asked this last night here-does the 999 plan’s sales tax portion apply to services? And to the sale of homes? To the sale of cars?
Rafer Janders
@emrventures:
Yes, the point isn’t whether cash is legal tender or not, the point is whether the state of Louisiana can legally pass a bill forbidding the use of federal reserve notes in private commercial transactions between individuals who would prefer to use federal reserve notes. And it can’t. The federal government has primacy here.
ed drone
@RareSanity:
This individual is certainly non-profit! And I have the bank statements and dunning letters to prove it!
Ed
SpotWeld
I wonder if the NRA is going nuts over this.
Ability of private citizens to sell (and buy) arms privatly with minimal if any goverment intervention has been a big deal for them.
Spencer Neal
Here is a link an article written by a lawyer who cites another lawyer who actually cites an opinion written by a judge about a similar law:
http://blog.simplejustice.us/2011/10/20/your-cash-is-no-good-here.aspx
What I find so interesting about blogs and their comments is the willingness of people to comment about things they know nothing about.
kindness
So what is Senator Vitter going to pay his hookers in now? (unless he can prove they are virgins I guess)
Kirk Spencer
@RareSanity: You’re slightly confused but I don’t blame you. Look at the early part of the bill. It defines anyone who deals in these more than once a month (yes, your craigslist may apply) is a “regular dealer”.
If you’re a regular dealer by the definition of the law, you’re required to make a record of cash transactions involving more than $25.
Brachiator
@kindness:
Boxes of Pampers.
Scott P.
Having gone through a toll road without sufficient cash, I can attest that what they did in my case is take my info and address and sent a bill later. That bill can be paid by check, etc.
Poopyman
@Spencer Neal:
Yeah! Unlike those guys in my barber shop, for example.
fasteddie9318
This is going to be a huge blow to the second-hand food industry, and just when we’re expecting that it will be a booming sector in Herb Cain’s America. Not good.
Martin
Meanwhile, here in CA, other pressing matters are being debated:
Yes, we are a diverse place indeed.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Poopyman: Or water coolers, or talking with family members, or talking at church, or at soccer games, or pretty much any time people open their mouths.
cpinva
@Spencer Neal: perhaps you should have read the entire article, instead of focusing solely on the judge’s opinion. here is the paragraph following that opinion:
this was a district court judge’s opinion, not a USSC opinion. my guess is that this ruling will be overturned on appeal, since the judge didn’t even bother to provide any kind of actual constitutional support for it.
kindness
@Brachiator:
This one needed the cymbal crash sound effect. Next gen of computer blog sites, interactive an several planes.
kindness
@Martin: I see those folks who are protesting at Market & Castro all the time & me personally, I don’t care. But to a certain extent I agree with something I read in a Dan Savage column a while back. It went like this…nudists are relatively harmless. But those who are exhibitionists aren’t. What is the diff? Well, it comes down to consenting adults. You wanna get your kicks being an exhibitionist? Fine, get those you are doing it to to agree with you. Otherwise you are using folks in your own sexual manner who might not want to be used in such a manner. Consenting adults. Now how to know if someone is getting their kicks or someone just thinks nothing of going ‘sky clad’? I can’t say.
Persia
@Kirk Spencer: So if you indulge in, say, our family tradition of a Labor Day weekend garage sale, you’re supposed to record every transaction over $25?
And why do I foresee a lot of multiple transactions being broken out in $25 increments?
El Cid
AAAAK! AMERO! ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT! SINGLE CURRENCY! MARK OF THE BEAST! HILARY CLINTON! NEW WORLD ORDER!
Rafer Janders
What I find so interesting about blogs and their comments is the willingness of people to comment about things they know nothing about.
This is a not a tendency of “blogs and their comments” — this is a tendency of human beings. Have you ever talked to any?
mikeyes
The law defines a second hand dealer as anyone who buys or sells more than one second hand object and/or “Junk” (which is defined as “what is commonly considered junk”) in a month. It also requires that a dealer have a license, that the dealer keep detailed records (including the weight of the item)and that these records can be seen by any law enforcement record at any time. The no cash business is only a fraction of what is wrong with this law.
If any of these are not correct there are automatic criminal sanctions including jail time and fines. Read the law.
Basically this means that every literate person in LA could be a criminal (assuming you buy more than one used book at a time sometime from anywhere including the internet.)
Paul in KY
@kindness: I’d say a male exhibitionist would probably be sporting a woody.
That’s how I tell them apart.
mikeyes
This is the actual bill as passed which is different than the one mentioned above in #34. The $25 business is no longer there, but the rest of the problems are including the no cash provision.
Raka
Liberals see this bill and immediately “know” it’s a way for the giant BankCorps to get a share of every transaction poor people make. Conservatives immediately “know” it’s a sneaky way to track guns. Libertarians “know” it’s a scheme to collect taxes on everything and/or send roving gangs of jack-booted enforcers to every garage sale.
And when any of them are shown evidence that their reactions are ridiculously exaggerated, they either spin around it like a Tai Chi master and continue on their original vector, or just double-down.
Because of course, NOTHING is too ridiculous or nefarious to ascribe to The Other Side. And if the suspicions are shown to be inaccurate, well, I’m sure They are up to something just as bad but slightly different, and I’ll say the same no matter how many calm and reasonable explanations are offered.
My head hurts.
Kelli
What I don’t understand is: If the provision was drafted (in part; the block quote says “co-authored”) by a Democrat, why did Republican Bobby Jindal sign this bill into law?
mikeyes
@Raka:
I suspect that you are correct in that this is not a nefarious plot hatched by the communistic/nazi/one world order/bankers, etc. But it is a poorly written law with multiple unintended consequences. This shows that incompetence can be much worse than heinous plotting.
Raka
@mikeyes:
Oh, indubitably. I understand the motivation behind the loose wording: anything too specific, and the actual targets (who are the people profiting in currently legal ways by deliberately creating a market for product they know full well is stolen) just wriggle through the loopholes. There’s no intent to target anyone else, and precious little likelihood of using the law against the genPop.
Yes, a ridiculous number of entirely innocent enterprises are *technically* included under the law, the same way that school bake sales and office fantasy sports leagues are often in violation of any number of laws. And yes, this law (assuming it survives judicial review) will almost certainly be used against targets outside the currently stated targets (just like post-911 “terrorism” laws). But just like the terrorism laws, it’s going to used on people they were going after anyway, with more/harsher/easier-to-get charges. It won’t be used to create a new sui generis class of targets.
And y’know? All that is perfectly sufficient for hatin’ on the bill. That’s before mentioning the fact that the broad wording makes it (in my entirely-IANAL-view) likely to die a swift death in court, which makes it a pointless waste of everyone’s time and money. Plenty of cause to point and laugh!
But no. Everyone has to clutch the pearls and declare that this is an assault on poverty and freedom and SWAT teams will be going after garage sales and this just *proves* that everyone I dislike is a freedom-hating monster… gah.
I’m not a “both sides do it” centrist. This kind of self-reinforcing non-falsifiable irrationality is what I hate most about the current Republican party, and I see it as pretty much definitive of their tactics and worldview. Doesn’t mean I like it any better when I see it on “our” side.
tl;dr– Reality is already sufficiently outrageous, and much more persuasive to the people who can actually be persuaded.
Kiril
LA state rep is a part-time job that pays $15,000/year and meets for two or three months annually.
AA+ Bonds
The solution is that you take the cash anyway because money doesn’t work like that and then you take the state to court and win and that solves that for everyone who doesn’t live in or own property in or have a kid in school in Louisiana because they all get to pay for it
AA+ Bonds
Seriously LOLing at any “lawyer” who thinks this won’t get absolutely wrecked by the courts in this country
AA+ Bonds
@Raka:
1) We need to match the right in anger and strident assertion of our beliefs, because during this moment in history, we are rational and right while they are irrational and wrong,
2) It doesn’t matter anyway because this will get blown to pieces in every court it rolls into after it’s enacted
AA+ Bonds
@cathyx:
LOL, expect that law to get challenged as soon as this one gets axed by a court. MORE LAWSUITS FOR EVERYONE *cheering from the cheap seats by the lawyers who can still afford them*
Palli
Another weapon of the WAR FOR POVERTY. Salvation Army, Goodwill Thrift stores, let alone the Mom & Pop flea markets and garage sales!
Disgusted Beyond Belief
The sixth circuit court of appeals has already upheld such a law from Tennessee. I think it is laughable, but there it is.
a geek named Bob
Barter, fractional sales, or sell person to person.
Kind of hard to track those…
Or start using an alternate currency.
Personally, I say crash their system: electronically file every penny you receive as a separate transaction.
To hell with the idiots in LA.
Taylor
Thanks for bringing my attention to this story. I’ve used it in a blog post for Progressive Majority’s Run for America campaign. We’re recruiting 1000s of progressives to run for office. Check it out: Run for America
john
>: its to keep people in the clutches of banks! plain and simple, everyone will need an account to buy used items. the scumbag bakners own that state.