'Better Than Cash Alliance' Backed by Bill Gates to Usher in Cashless Society

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Brandon Turbeville
Activist Post

It appears that while Bill Gates was content to play the role of Microsoft innovator and billionaire philanthropist early on, he has decided that the second half of his life deserves a more open and slightly more honest twist.

Indeed, in recent years Bill Gates and his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have funded a variety of initiatives aimed at reducing population, promoting toxic vaccinations, and now hyping and funding the development of the cashless society.

In a recent article by Peter McCoy published in Bloomberg Businessweek, McCoy reveals that Bill Gates is opposed to physical cash currency because, like vaccine-free populations who are able to determine their own reproduction rates, it hurts poor people (according to Gates).

Indeed, McCoy writes that Gates “hates cash” “because of its effect on people at the opposite end of the wealth spectrum—the world’s poor and unbanked." Of course, in third world countries that are suffering from starvation, civil war, and abysmal living standards, the answer is clearly “banking.”

If only these nations had more banks and greater access to banks – the private banks of course – then we would finally see the living standards of these nations raised to truly acceptable levels. If only more people had access to digital transactions, then empty bellies would soon be filled.
Sarcasm aside, the push toward a cashless society under the guise of benefiting the poor and underserved is a very real movement. As McCoy points out in his article, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been instrumental in this regard as major backers of the Better Than Cash Alliance – an organization that was established last September whose stated objectives are to reach the following goals by 2017:

• Significant commitments by governments, the development community, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector to implement electronic payment solutions instead of cash.
• Delivery of demand-driven technical assistance to governments, non-governmental organizations, the development community, or members of the private sector that will dramatically increase the capacity of these stakeholders to deliver end-user-focused payment technologies.
• Improved economic security for millions of low-income and poor people, many of whom were previously unbanked, enabling them to use bank or electronic accounts to build savings and assets via innovative payment technologies.

The Better Than Cash Alliance founding members and financiers boasts of a list of organizations that have their own sordid histories from the distant past all the way back to present times. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is instrumental in population reduction initiatives via vaccination programs, abortion and sterilization, and other programs; Citi, the major international bank who was intricately involved in the 2008 derivatives crisis; the Ford Foundation, representatives of which actually stated to Reece Commission Chief Investigator Norman Dodd that the goal of the foundation was to comfortably merge the United States with the Soviet Union; Omidyar Network; and VISA Inc. which has long been interested in creating a cashless society.

Yet the Better Than Cash Alliance has more than just corporate and private sector sponsors as one of the key founding members and financiers is, in fact, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), a “government” agency that answers directly to the U.S. Secretary of State. It has been understood for some time that USAID is nothing more than CIA front operation for intelligence gathering and as a facilitation mechanism for the CIA funding of foreign governments and organizations.

In addition, the Better Than Cash Alliance founder and financier roster contains the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), the UN’s “capital investment agency” reserved for use with the “least developed” nations.

The Better Than Cash Alliance also boasts of participation by the World Food Programme, Mercy Corps, Concern Worldwide, and CARE. The governments listed as taking part in the alliance are the governments of Afghanistan, Department of Social Prosperity of the Government of Colombia, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Peru, and Republic of the Philippines.

Yet, even without the establishment of the Better Than Cash Alliance or the recent comments by Bill Gates, it is very clear that the world is moving in the direction of an entirely cashless society. I, myself, have written many articles on this issue.

Unfortunately, what is being introduced as a method of convenience and upward social mobility will soon give way to mandates and eradication of choice.

The creation of the Better Than Cash Alliance and the international push for digital transactions is one more step toward the ultimate goal of the Cashless Society and the requirement that even the most personal individual information such as iris scans, fingerprints, vein scans, facial photographs, and even DNA swabs be surrendered for the purpose of data security.

Obviously, in a society whose citizens are able to carry and make transactions with cash, there is still some semblance of anonymity available to them. There is still the opportunity to purchase staples such as food and water (via third parties if necessary) even if a system of exclusivity were to be introduced and certain people were prohibited from making purchases directly.

In a cashless system, however, an enormous amount of trust is placed in the hands of the government agencies, banks, and corporations that would then control the money for the “convenience” of the unwitting soul who has sacrificed his own personal responsibility and control for the luxury of his convenience. If even one of these institutions decide, for whatever reason, that the account of the user should be frozen, disconnected, or discontinued, the ability to purchase the basic necessities will disappear. That is, it will disappear if there is no longer the option of cash.

When all financial transactions eventually become digital, it is only a matter of time before banks, corporations, and governments begin to force citizens to bend to their will with the threat of cutting off accounts as punishment for resistance or refusal.

This is precisely why we need both resistance and refusal now, before it is too late.