Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing totalitarianism even when bearing gifts; maybe don't trust it. I thought of making this video after reading an article in the Bangkok Post which I will get to in a moment but I want to go ahead and read a quick quote from wikipedia.org, Okay it comes from the "never trust the Greeks, even when bearing gifts". That is kind of where I took the title of this video; I am kind of paraphrasing that. "The phrase is spoken by Trojan priest Laocoon referring to the Trojan Horse used by the Greeks during the Trojan War. The literal meaning of the phrase is "I fear the Greeks even those bearing gifts or even when they bear gifts." So what they are saying, it is sort of one of these "beware a Trojan Horse", beware something that appears to be a benefit but really has ulterior motives is kind of what to look at there.

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the thrust of which goes in an entirely different direction. The title is: Pheu Thai power bid gains pace. And it goes, it is more of a political article which we are not going to get into here but I thought of this. This was really interesting to me. Quoting directly: "Pheu Thai's election pledges included a 10,000 Baht "digital money" giveaway in which every Thai aged 16 and older will get a new savings account and a digital wallet connected to his or her ID." Quoting further: "The 10,000 Baht giveaway is aimed at stimulating spending in local communities in the first 6 months, with the help of blockchain technology that will ensure the money is spent within a 4-kilometre radius of the recipients' registered address in an effort to spur the local economy."

Now on a lot of levels there is some creepy stuff going on here. So let's start off with what is digital money? That is cashless; you don't have the money in your pocket; the government basically can control that. What they can give, they can take away so if they can give you digital money they can take it back away. "Which every time age 16 and older will get a new savings account", a new one, not what you have been using, something new. "And a digital wallet", and connected to your ID. So now your money is connected to your ID card, okay? "10,000 Baht giveaway is aimed at stimulating spending in local communities in the first 6 months with the help of blockchain technology." Now blockchain technology, this is sort of a euphemism that is wondering around the internet out there sort of in the zeitgeist but what that really means, and you will often hear it called "distributed ledger technology" as well, it can track it and it is an unfettered tracking mechanism. There is no buffering it; it will track that digital money. That is what bitcoin is known for is blockchain; it can transparently track the transactions that are made with it, the new coins that are mined and as a result create more bitcoins, in the case of bitcoin; in the case of this just be traceable. It is traceable money, infinitely traceable money. No way to hide it, nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Then this is even more key: "that will ensure the money is spent within a 4-kilometre radius of the recipients’ registered address." Now think about the Orwellian ramifications of that possibility where the Government has the ability to tell you where you can spend your money and you can't spend it beyond a certain perimeter. Now if that doesn't sound like a manacle and a chain, I don't know what does. It might be digital and it might not feel like that but honestly if we get to a point where this is ubiquitous and this is the only system that is out there, explain to me how that is at any level any type of freedom? And remember to be Thai means "free"; Thai means free. I love Thailand, a lot; I love being Thai and I believe in the freedom that Thais have inherently. Thai people are some of the freest people on the planet.

This stuff is coming in everywhere though. I am not just saying that the Bank of Thailand or the Thai system is the only one looking at this. Every jurisdiction around the world seems hell bent on trying to get this in because think about it, it is a Bureaucrats' wet dream. It is literally, it is like exactly what, I am not even talking about anyone particularly, just Bureaucrats generally; people that enjoy controlling other people, this is something that could have unfettered means of doing that, an unbuffered means of controlling how people spend their money, where they spend it. These are concerns we should be having at a fundamental level as to what it means to be free people in this world generally and whether or not we are going to allow a bunch of bureaucrats and bankers to dictate how, under what circumstances, and where we earn and spend our money.