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Let’s break out the crystal ball and peer into the possible future, say perhaps, eight years out.

You go shopping at your favorite grocery store. As you enter the store, the many mandated government recognition scanners acknowledge and ID you instantly, by way of your mandated embedded microchip, you, everything about you, where you live, and how much digital currency you have in your central government account, your savings and investment accounts will be combined there, because all private banks will be dissolved and gone by then because the government will control everything financial by then, and no one will be able to dispute government procedure. In effect, there will be no financial secrets.

OK, you grab a shopping cart and fill it with your usual items. When finished shopping, you merely head for the store’s exit — entrance and as you exit the store, the government scanners instantly record every item you purchased and that total in digital currency is instantly subtracted from your balance. If someone happens to steal an item, they don’t get away with it, the government records it as a purchase because it has the person’s digital information. Theft crime will be curtailed.

You go to work at your job and you don’t get physically paid, your employer, by law mandate, deposits your digital salary into your digital government personal account. Tax time comes, and there’s no more tax preparers because the government figures and does your taxes to their laws and deducts their taxes from your digital account, quick and free.

By then, every retail store, product or service business, car lots, restaurants, airlines, you name it, will be under close control and scrutiny by the central government. That way, no one has money that the government does no know about, money that the government cannot tax.

That is, there is no loose pocket change, or cash in the family safe. Leading up to this, at a specific date determined by the government, all physical money that was not turned in to the government for conversion to the person’s digital currency account, will be declared useless.

Should you exceed the speed limit with your car, the many roadside government scanners “catch” you, because your car is registered to you and they know that you are behind the wheel, and instantly deduct the fine amount from your personal government account. This reduces the need for road cops, while cutting down on speeders.

Now, do you want Big Brother in charge?

Ronald H. Card is a retired freelance international photojournalist from Abilene who provided Virginia tourists with beautiful scenic souvenir post cards. He can be reached by email at ronaldhcard@yahoo.com.