“Think Twice Before You Swipe That Card, Because Everything Is Being Tracked” is the subheading for this ABC News article in the wake of the Eliot Spitzer downfall.
It’s an overview of the “fraud protection” measures banks use to protect themselves even though credit card fraud is 1/10th what it as in the 80’s according to the article! But what’s also involved is that banks can turn over “suspicious” (not illegal, just “suspicious”) information to law enforcement whenever they wish.
Of course we read this and go “no big problem, I’m not doing anything shady like Eliot”. And everybody in a sense is glad to see someone who was widely considered a self-serving megalomaniac “go down”.
The problem comes when the definition of “shady” changes.
It’s not that banks shouldn’t protect themselves against theft, it’s that banks, telephone companies, and every big business willingly cooperates illegally with the government at every turn.
There’s some logic in the sentiment “if people aren’t doing anything illegal they have nothing to fear”. That meant something when there was a common morality that informed our culture.
It only takes one capricious megalomanic judge to suddenly make over 160,000 home schoolers “criminals” instantly with the swipe of a pen to prop up a failed government enterprise. This law’s net effect (assuming the families don’t all move out of state) is to raise Federal Government “Average Daily Attendance” funds to schools by over $5,000 per year per student. Can we say “cash influx”?
What if the “suspicious” transaction reveals you are working at home so that you can homeschool your children?
It makes you wonder what Ron Paul would say about this…
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