Re: Cash is king, baby!
@codejunky: I don't know who Ramsey is.
Yet, for DECADES, science fiction has contained examples of how such systems can be misused by the powerful. The one which comes to mind starts with the protagonist putting his does-everything card into a reader and discovering he's been "zeroed." No access to cash, no access to his home (the omni-card is his electronic key), oh, and hey, there's an arrest warrent out on him for something he didn't do ...
You think that couldn't/wouldn't happen? In the 1960s, the FBI, with the cooperation of the major credit-reporting companies in the U.S., entered false, derogatory credit data on "suspected radicals". This was a purely extra-judicial operation. It fucked up their lives for decades. Bad credit, can't buy a house or rent an apartment, or get electricity, gas, water, sewer, or phone service for it.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
