By Ricky Swindle

Muffler Shop Musings

Howdy, friends!

I trust ya’ll made it through the Fourth. I had a grand time with my Grand Heathens in our backyard.

I read a lot on the Facebook about folks griping about all the fireworks going off and while reading it all I was taking pride in myself for being one of the culprits.

I read where firework sales were up 500 percent this year and I believe I know the explanation for all that.

Folks have been trapped at home with nowhere to go and nothing to do since March. You cannot go on vacation anywhere because any place you desired to travel to is more Covid positive than your own town.

Folks needed to let off steam, so the fireworks did the trick for them. I heard the big booms going off days before and after the holiday. I enjoyed listening to them because I had the satisfaction of knowing that the folks in my neck of the woods were having the opportunity to entertain a bit of enjoyment in their lives even as short lived and expensive as it was.

More power to them I say.

I have also been seeing where stores and banks are getting short lately on coins. First Security Bank will roll them up free for you if you have them sorted out. That is a pretty good service for them to offer in my book.

Along with the coin shortage another conspiracy theory is going around about The USA and the rest of the world moving to a cashless society.

I read this article by the money man Dave Ramsey that I think you should glance over concerning that very subject. I am not going to plagiarize Ol’ Dave so I will just quote him word for word. A long read but well worth the time to look over.

“A cashless society means no cash. Zero. It doesn’t mean mostly cashless and you can still use a ‘wee bit of cash here and there’. Cashless means fully digital, fully traceable, fully controlled. I think those who support a cashless society aren’t fully aware of what they are asking for. A cashless society means:

* If you are struggling with your mortgage on a particular month, you can’t do an odd job to get you through.

* Your child can’t go and help the local farmer to earn a bit of summer cash.

* No more cash slipped into the hands of a child as a good luck charm or from their grandparent when going on holidays.

* No more money in birthday cards.

* No more piggy banks for your child to collect pocket money and to learn about the value of earning.

* No more cash for a rainy day fund or for that something special you have been putting $20 a week away for.

* No more little jobs on the side because your wages barely cover the bills or put food on the table.

* No more charity collections.

* No more selling bits & pieces from your home that you no longer want/need for a bit of cash in return.

* No more cash gifts from relatives or loved ones.

What a cashless society does guarantee:

* Banks have full control of every single penny you own.

* Every transaction you make is recorded.

* All your movements & actions are traceable.

* Access to your money can be blocked at the click of a button when/if banks need ‘clarification’ from you which will take about three weeks, a thousand questions answered and five thousand passwords.

* You will have no choice but to declare and be taxed on every dollar in your possession.

* The government WILL decide what you can and cannot purchase.

* If your transactions are deemed in any way questionable, by those who create the questions, your money will be frozen, ‘for your own good’.

Forget about cash being dirty. Stop being so easily led. Cash has been around for a very, very, very long time and it gives you control over how you trade with the world. It gives you independence.

I heard a story where a man supposedly contracted Covid because of a $20 bill he had handled. There is the same chance of Covid being on a card as being on cash. If you cannot see how utterly ridiculous this assumption is then there is little hope.

If you are a customer, pay with cash. If you are a shop owner, remove those ridiculous signs that ask people to pay by card. Cash is a legal tender, it is our right to pay with cash. Banks are making it increasingly difficult to lodge cash & that has nothing to do with a virus, nor has this ‘dirty money’ trend.

Please open your eyes. Please stop believing everything you are being told. Almost every single topic in today’s world is tainted with corruption and hidden agendas. Please stop telling me and others like me that we are what’s wrong with the world when you hail the most corrupt members of society as your heroes.’

Politics and greed is what is wrong with the world; not those who are trying to alert you to the reality in which you are blindly floating along whilst being immobilized by irrational fear. Fear created to keep you doing and believing in exactly what you are complacently doing.

Pay with cash and please say no to a cashless society while you still have the choice.”

Ol’ Dave spouted it off good didn’t he ?

Take care of yourself folks and take care of your kids and your own Grand Heathens, too.