Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the Digital Wallet again. A lot of people have asked me, they have said, “honestly this isn't really fully within the bailiwick”, well it is within the bailiwick of the channel I think but people have said “it is not really the thrust of what you usually make videos on. Why are you so concerned with this?” I'm concerned with it because it really is important; it's of key importance actually. 

If we get to the point, I could be talking about the US as well as Thailand or any place else I might live someday, although I don't have any desire to ever leave Thailand, the long story short is this notion of a Digital Wallet and Digital Money, once we are at that point, that's full surveillance, that's totalitarianism by my mind. I mean what is the line, I think it's from Nathan Rothschild? "Give me control over a country's currency and I care not who makes their laws." There's something to be said for that. A currency if you will is the lifeblood of an economy; a currency is the lifeblood of a polity for that matter. It's interesting to me that it almost uses sort of maritime terminology; currency like a current in a river, or a current in the sea, the current is what pulls along the water, it's what pulls things along in the tide if you will in sort of a maritime context and the reason I am concerned about this, is it has implications broad implications across all society. So that's the reason I am concerned about it. 

That said, I thought of making this specific video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: On the edge of a precipice? Quoting directly: "Most executives believe the economy is not close to the crisis level the government claims. The rift was exposed during the discussion on the Digital Wallet scheme with the Central Bank urging caution with the 560 billion Baht project." Quoting further: "A poll by the National Institute of Development Administration found 68.8% of the public would not be disappointed if the Government scrapped this project, but Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai insisted the scheme will continue to wend its way through the political process." Quoting further: "The private sector chimed in, with some of them suggesting the Government should think about other measures rather than clinging to the Digital Wallet scheme." 

I find this really fascinating. Every time people said “hey, this may not be the most optimal way to do this”, the response just seems to be: "well we are proceeding!" Okay, thanks. What is the point of having Parliament if people say Hey you are trying this and we don't necessarily like every little bit of it and also there are major fiscal concerns which it should be sort of Parliament's primary concern is fiscal policy. I brought it up before as well. We are talking about a major addition to the debt-to-GDP ratio here in Thailand in order to bring this thing online and ultimately I have yet to see how it would truly be a loan because that is the discussion that has been had to this point is the Government has to take out a loan to implement this thing. Well in a loan, you get value for value. Supposedly we are going to take on a loan and then where is the value we get back, where is the real currency? No, we get Digital Money. It is these tokens that they can control where you spend them, the radius in which you can spend them and what you can spend them on. That is not the definition of currency; that's not the definition of money in a traditional or legal sense, and then the definition of a loan, how do you have a loan, when there is no actual value transferred? It is just sort of these chits that are created out of thin air for lack of a better term. So again and I don't really understand why no one's opinion on this; I mean the business communities came out said "hey look we may want to revisit this", now the Central Bank has serious qualms about all of this and the response just seems to be "no we don't care!" I mean well that's terrible. I mean I don't understand why there can't at least be some dialogue especially among people that have a pretty good grasp of how finance works or how about we just not do this and just keep the monetary system that has worked, as far as I know, since pretty much time immemorial at this point. People exchange currency for goods and services without the Government poking in and say "well where can you spend that, or on what can you spend that!" Again wouldn't it just be a better idea to just stay with what we are going with, not put the country into significant debt and move on down the road?