Could Israel be the First "Cashless" Society?

Readers of the Bible know that a day is coming when everyone will need some sort of mark on their body to buy and/or sell anything.  Even as recent as 30 years ago, Bible readers assumed this must be some sort of 'spiritualized' passage because they couldn't imagine how one system could EVER track most of the folks on earth.

Of course now that technology has exploded, today we all know that a $300 lap-top purchased at Best Buy would have enough computing power to keep a log on all 7 billion folks on earth!!  Simply amazing!!

We also know that for the 190+ countries on earth to all have their own cash is VERY expensive.  It needs to be printed, counted, banked and ultimately cashed in and shipped back to its country of origin.  It carries disease and germs and MOST IMPORTANTLY cash is the medium used by drug dealers, sex workers, slave traders and every other illegal business.  If cash vanished and all transactions had to be done with plastic cards or fingerprint scans.....those underground businesses would virtually dry up overnight!  They would have to start engaging in a barter system which would be much harder to maintain.

So how and where will this cashless society start?

Well, here's one headline and article of interest....

Will Israel be the World's First 'No Cash' Society?

The government on Tuesday authorized establishment of a committee that will examine ways to eliminate cash from the Israeli economy – the better to prevent citizens from cheating on their taxes. The committee will be chaired by Harel Locker, director of the Prime Minister's Office.

Cash is easily passed from individual to individual, and transactions using cash can take place without the tax man's supervision. Not so electronic transactions; with modern computers, banks can keep tabs on how much people deposit into their accounts and how much they withdraw, while credit card companies have an up to the second record of how much people spend.

Members of the panel will include top staff from the Israel Police, the Tax Authority, the chairman of the Government Authority on Money Laundering and Terror, the Bank of Israel's income and payments director, State Attorney's office officials, and more.

According to many of these officials, cash is bad – because it allows individuals to get out of their tax payment responsibilities. Today, an enterprising tax collector cannot easily compare income and outflow. While he may suspect that a person living beyond his reported means is cheating on his taxes, there is no way to know for sure, without solid evidence. In a cashless economy, all records will be electronic, and checking who makes what and how much they owe in taxes – and collecting it before it gets to their account – will be a much simpler matter, the theory goes.

Officials in the Prime Minister's Office declared that “around the world, it is recognized that cash is a key element of the illegal economy and money laundering. It allows a wide gap between reported and actual incomes, with the corresponding effect on tax revenues.” By eliminating cash, the PMO said, “it will be possible to expand the tax base, and prevent money laundering.” The committee will study the issue from all its perspectives and make recommendations, the PMO said.

Here;  http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/172028#.UkrhEqwo7IX

Yes!  Cash is bad!!  Just think of the folks who get tips in cash and never claim it as income!  Just think of the guy who fixes your brakes in his garage and you give him $200 cash....and he never claims it!!  Just think of the $billions that our bankrupt government could collect in LOST INCOME TAXES if every transaction that you ever did was logged into an electronic system!

So how could you pay your neighbor for doing your brakes?  Well, you would need to log into a system and transfer $$ from your account into his...maybe using your smart phone?  And of course once that is on the system it would be just the snap of a computer to figure out your income and the taxes you owe.

Of course it makes perfect sense.  I totally get it and would probably even encourage it to streamline a lot of systems.

But it seems to be one more SIGN OF THE TIMES as to where we are in God's prophetic calendar....and maybe Israel will be at the center of this sign too??

Guess we will need to watch and see.....