1 00:00:00,012 --> 00:00:06,287 I call for the elimination of all cash. Two of the biggest problems that we have 2 00:00:06,287 --> 00:00:12,602 in our society today are the result of the presence of black markets and various 3 00:00:12,602 --> 00:00:18,737 services and commodities like the black market in labor, the black market in 4 00:00:18,737 --> 00:00:25,344 drugs, and the black market in guns, the black market and prostitution, and 5 00:00:25,344 --> 00:00:31,044 the presence of violent crime, usually, surrounding theft. 6 00:00:31,044 --> 00:00:37,243 How do you eliminate both of those problems without spending many more 7 00:00:37,243 --> 00:00:39,999 dollars that we don't have on enforcement? 8 00:00:39,999 --> 00:00:44,655 Well, you eliminate both of those problems by undercutting the medium in 9 00:00:44,655 --> 00:00:48,413 which they exist. The medium in which they exist is cash. 10 00:00:48,413 --> 00:00:53,645 You can only have a black market and some commodity or service, if you can pay for 11 00:00:53,645 --> 00:01:00,115 that commodity or service in cash. No drug dealer is going to take a credit 12 00:01:00,115 --> 00:01:04,349 card. No illegal gun runner is going to take a 13 00:01:04,349 --> 00:01:09,275 credit card. If you can't give them cash, they go out 14 00:01:09,275 --> 00:01:14,176 of business or anyhow they go out of that business. 15 00:01:14,176 --> 00:01:20,752 Second, if you don't have cash in your pocket or in your cash register, then no 16 00:01:20,752 --> 00:01:24,793 one can rob you. Sure, they can take your credit card and 17 00:01:24,793 --> 00:01:29,302 commit identify theft, but, first of all, they have to be pretty 18 00:01:29,302 --> 00:01:33,733 smart to do that, not just any old street hoodlum could do that. 19 00:01:33,733 --> 00:01:38,893 And secondly, if they do that, their crime isn't going to be of a violent 20 00:01:38,893 --> 00:01:42,249 nature. No one's going to come into a store with 21 00:01:42,249 --> 00:01:46,811 a gun and steal your identity. People come into a store with a gun, 22 00:01:46,811 --> 00:01:52,722 because they want to steal your cash, not because they want to steal your identity. 23 00:01:52,722 --> 00:01:58,652 So we can solve two of the biggest problems confronting our society today, 24 00:01:58,652 --> 00:02:05,716 namely problems surrounding black markets and problems surrounding violent crime by 25 00:02:05,716 --> 00:02:12,408 eliminating cash and having all exchanges proceed electronically, rather than by 26 00:02:12,408 --> 00:02:16,749 means of some tangible medium of exchange. 27 00:02:16,749 --> 00:02:20,687 Well, that's a terrible idea. Sure, let's just get rid of all the cash, 28 00:02:20,687 --> 00:02:24,782 so that all our purchases are electronically recorded and we have no 29 00:02:24,782 --> 00:02:30,031 privacy or civil rights anymore. What you've just witnessed was an attempt 30 00:02:30,031 --> 00:02:33,872 at refutation that is guilty of the fallacy of the straw man. 31 00:02:33,872 --> 00:02:37,516 Let me explain. I was giving an argument just a moment 32 00:02:37,516 --> 00:02:43,033 ago that a bunch of our problems could be solved very inexpensively if we got rid 33 00:02:43,033 --> 00:02:46,348 of cash. Now, getting rid of cash wouldn't solve 34 00:02:46,348 --> 00:02:50,549 all of our problems. There would still be other problems and 35 00:02:50,549 --> 00:02:55,152 maybe we could solve those other problems in various other ways. 36 00:02:55,152 --> 00:03:00,468 But then, my critic protested, that my conclusion that we should get rid of 37 00:03:00,468 --> 00:03:06,401 cash, was a false conclusion, because it amounted to the elimination of all of our 38 00:03:06,401 --> 00:03:11,343 privacy and civil rights. Now, I wasn't calling for the elimination 39 00:03:11,343 --> 00:03:17,264 of our privacy and our civil rights. I was just calling for the elimination of 40 00:03:17,264 --> 00:03:23,548 cash, and if that means that transactions are electronically recorded, well then, 41 00:03:23,548 --> 00:03:29,807 maybe those electronic recordings can themselves be made private and protected 42 00:03:29,807 --> 00:03:36,062 by various rights just as information like our Social Security number is today. 43 00:03:36,062 --> 00:03:42,522 Now, without getting into the details of whether my argument against cash was a 44 00:03:42,522 --> 00:03:48,587 good argument or a bad argument, the point I want to make right now is that, 45 00:03:48,587 --> 00:03:55,329 my critic's protest against that argument was unfair, and it was unfair, because it 46 00:03:55,329 --> 00:04:01,182 represented me as making a claim that was not the claim I was making. 47 00:04:01,182 --> 00:04:06,137 The claim I was making was that we should get rid of cash, not that we should get 48 00:04:06,137 --> 00:04:09,072 rid of all of our privacy and our civil rights. 49 00:04:09,072 --> 00:04:13,907 But my critic was accusing me of making the claim that we should get rid of our 50 00:04:13,907 --> 00:04:18,432 privacy and our civil rights. That's an unfair criticism, because that 51 00:04:18,432 --> 00:04:23,363 wasn't the claim I was making. Okay? That's reputation by straw man. 52 00:04:23,363 --> 00:04:28,641 My critic was trying to refute me trying to show that my argument was 53 00:04:28,641 --> 00:04:32,361 unsuccessful. In doing so, he misrepresented my 54 00:04:32,361 --> 00:04:36,131 argument. He described my argument in a way that 55 00:04:36,131 --> 00:04:37,627 made it sound silly.