Florida Governor Ron DeSantis believes an American central bank digital currency (CBDC) would dramatically empower the government at the expense of personal freedom.
In a speech at Fort Myers Technical College, DeSantis warns that a US CBDC would give the government far more control over how people use their money.
According to the Republican Governor, a CBDC would allow the federal government to view people’s transactions and block purchases in real time.
“I think anyone with their eyes open could see the dangers that this type of an arrangement would mean for Americans who want to exercise their financial independence, who would like to be able to conduct business without having the government know every single transaction that they’re making in real time.”
DeSantis says CBDCs go against the values upheld by a free society, and would catalyze a shift of power from the many to the few.
“Sometimes government will do things where they provide kind of a benevolent rationale for what they’re doing, but it’s really nothing more than a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Well, I think with central bank digital currency, this is a wolf coming as a wolf. This is something that will be a massive transfer of power from individual consumers to a central authority.
And that’s just fundamentally antithetical to a free society.”
Last week, Governor DeSantis signed a law designed to ban the use of CBDCs in Florida.
The bill changes the state’s definition of money to state that “The term does not include a central bank digital currency.”
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