The Louisiana state legislature sneaked a bill through this week that prohibits the use of cash to purchase any second-hand items. Its purpose is to limit the sale of stolen copper and other products of crime, but it also makes it a crime to pay cash at yard sales, flea markets, metal recyclers, or other dealers in second-hand goods. Effectively it kills those businesses that don't already keep paper records of received items the way pawn shops are required to do.
This is a perfect example of a sweeping law designed to show that politicians are hard on crime, but the unintended consequences are worse than the original crime it was intended to prevent.
In addition, is it even legal to ban the use of cash in any transaction? Right there on the money it says "legal tender". To me that means you can use it to legally purchase anything and no law can be written that denies payment in cash. Or am I wrong about that?
3 comments:
Man, this would hurt me if implemented in Georgia. I buy/sell almost weekly via Craig's List and CASH.
I know. I do a lot of cash transactions of second-hand stuff too and I'm no criminal.
If there is an electronic trail of every transaction involving money, the authorities can more easily confiscate taxes from you based on it. It's not about catching criminals, it's about taxing citizens and monitoring our activities.
The question comes down to this for me: how much freedom and privacy is too much to give up in exchange for limiting the cash trade in stolen goods and drugs? I say if cash is criminalized, it's gone too far.
Sounds like a poorly written bill that got yahooed through without much study. Probably be amended.
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