julianpenrod
Joined: 07 Mar 2002
Posts: 303
Location: west caldwell, new jersey, united states |
"anti-counterfeiting measures" seem just a big swi
 Sun Oct 17, 2004 5:11 am
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Julian Penrod
4 Fairfield Avenue
West Caldwell, New Jersey 07006
(973) 220-1601
julianpenrod@comcast.net
October 15, 2004
Letters to the Editor
Dear sirs:
As important as it is to oppose the foul and low, it is just as valuable to be able to recognize it, when you see it.
The perception of everyone in positions of influence, from government to big business, all but going out of their way to rape "the little guy" seems universally accepted, by now. Its actual nature, in the public conscious, though, seems to be in a state of change. It is no longer so unusual a concept that it surprises the average citizen when the fact comes out that a politician, legislator, judge, lawyer, or business leader is guilty of corruption. However, it does not seem yet to have reached the stage that everyone will automatically ask how each new development is engineered to swindle them.
But that sentiment becoming legitimized by sheer repetition seems very close. Because, it seems, any careful look at details of government and corporate operations will inevitably reveal signs of connivery and corrupt machinations, intended to scam the public! There seems absolutely nothing that government or business has undertaken that does not have thieving from the public, or taxpayer coffers, as its primary interest!
The so-called assault on counterfeiting is an eminent example. The past few years has seen a flurry of activity in redesigning most paper money, something that was not seen for upwards of half a century! The portraits of historic figures were simplified, redrawn and increased in size. "Anti-counterfeiting measures" were incorporated into the body of most bills. These include ink that changes color, when you move the bill around; polyester threads with identifying writing on them; and microfibers, also carrying identifying messages. More recently, the green of most bills was replaced by frankly garish, meaningless, insipid swatches of pastel colors. Since 1990, 100's, 50's, 20's, 10's and 5's were redesigned no fewer than three or four times! That's a new change, every three or four years! In fact, the rate of redesigning has increased, with the $20 bill being altered just last year, and a newer version of the $50 bill being distributed just about three weeks ago, on September 28!
How many news sources even told you it was being introduced?
A reason why many didn't seem to alert the people was to keep them from realizing how enormously expensive just this part of the process was! Every couple of years, or so, someone is commissioned to produce a new pattern for the bills - and don't think they aren't well paid for that! - new ink mixtures are developed, new secret message systems are devised, new plates are cut for printing, and everything is put into operation! Every few years, then - and, apparently, with the public being carefully kept in the dark! - hundreds of thousands to even millions of dollars are spent on each new design, for each bill!
The "reason" for this "vigilance" is, supposedly, that the Treasury Department has to keep up with counterfeiters outfitted with sophisticated color printers. Purportedly, someone armed with a modern color printer could produce a realistic copy of paper money. The extra added elements, supposedly, are to make it difficult to reproduce an exact replica bill.
This is completely leaving out such aspects as that someone should be able to tell a "bill" printed on regular printer paper, instead of the rag stock the Treasury Department uses!
But, even in trying to make it difficult to effectively reproduce legitimate bills, the Treasury falls woefully short!
Among other things, many bank and store employees are not notified of new bills, so they can recognize them, when they get them! Legitimate 20's have been branded as counterfeit, by bank tellers, because they weren't alerted of the new bills' appearance! And the public, who seem never to be informed of new bills, seem often to have turned them in as "counterfeit", not knowing they were valid!
But the advanced security features, too, seem to prove far from effective!
Tellers rarely, if ever, examine the polyester strip, with a message identifying the denomination of the bill. The most common checked feature is the color change ink, but that can be most easily faked! The technique which would be hardest to reproduce would be the microfiber thread, bearing the denomination of the bill. But you need special equipment to locate and examine this! There is no way the cursory inspection required to locate a counterfeit in regular interactions could examine the one feature that is all but guaranteed not to be fraudulent! The microfiber thread, then, seems nothing more than an expensive failure!
There is, however, one more aspect of the use of the new bills that seems utter proof that the entire system is just one big swindle! And that is how the bills are handled.
Anyone who has deposited any large bill - from a $20 bill to a $100 bill - at a bank, or used it for a purchase at many stores, will have noticed that the teller or clerk will promptly mark the bill across with a thick ink mark. The "explanation" - if you ever get anything like one - is that that is intended, somehow, to "keep track" of the bills as they are circulated.
The question is what happens after the bills are marked. No one, it seems, can ever say that they got an ink marked bill in change or from a bank. Once marked, the bills, apparently, are sent away, and never return! They are apparently burned! Only the new, "redesigned" bills are treated this way, though. They are provided by a store or a bank, to an individual, they make one trip through the system, to another store, or another bank, there they are marked, and then they are sent away to be destroyed! Not every store automatically marks new bills, when they receive them. Because of that, you might get a few slightly worn recent $10 or $20 bills, but they are never very old. Within a few transactions, even the bills that have circulated slightly eventually make it to the bank, however, where they are, evidently, promptly sent away to be destroyed!
But this process of sending every new bill to be burned, within only a short time after its being circulated, would represent a net loss to the system. The only way it can be prevented is if new bills are printed constantly, to make up for those that are pre-destined to be burned, within only a few days of their first being printed!
Interestingly, the only bills not to be treated this way are the old, traditional, green colored, small portrait bills. When they are received, they are simply placed into the drawer.
The bills the Treasury Department tries to convince us are the easiest to be duplicated are precisely those that are not marked "to keep track of them"!
In the end, the system of "redesigning" bills seems nothing more nor less than an elaborate plan to swindle the taxpayers!
Enormous amounts are spent for moronic alterations to fine, venerable old designs, and incredible amounts are spent on developing specials inks, microthreads, polyester bands and foil markers to, supposedly, act as security features. And these same expenditures are made every few years, or so! And the plan for each "redesigned" bill is, apparently, for it to be distributed only once, then received a few days later, and, afterward, sent off to be burned! After which new expensive "redesigned" bills will be printed again, to take the place of these!
And all at taxpayer expense!
While the bills that they try to tell us are "easily counterfeited" are permitted to circulate again and again and again!
And this seems to join innumerably many other similar schemes by government to defraud and rob the taxpayer!
After all, how many successful counterfeiting rings have been broken in the past half century?
If government refuses to respect the rights of the public, the people have to do it, themselves.
Apparently, only the dollar bill has not been subjected to "redesigning". The “explanation” is that most counterfeiters would not resort to such a small denomination. And, because of this, dollar bills are not ink marked when banks or stores receive them. And they are not sent to be destroyed, within days of their being printed. If all transactions were carried on with dollar bills, it appears, the system of gratuitously burning money - with the taxpayer taking up the cost of the unnecessary destruction! - would grind to a halt! The public can, apparently, oppose an utterly unnecessary - and possibly even criminal! - government expenditure by simply doing all their transactions with just singles! When you get cash from a teller, get it in singles. Try to put time aside so you don’t have to rely on getting money from an ATM, since that will be in large denominations. Ask for money in change to be in singles. And, to avoid expenditures that would call for large scale denominations in change, opting for more economical options can both put a stop to this process of unnecessary burning, and can cut back on personal spending!
You can reduce it even further by trying to limit your expenditures to those you can do in coin!
But, perhaps the most important tactic you can engage in, to oppose the evident malignance behind this apparent swindle, is simply to take the lesson away that this proves that everything government or big business undertakes anymore is just a scam, devoted solely to raping the public, callously and cravenly taking from them as much as possible! Use this to convince yourself that, whatever a politician or CEO says, whenever they promote a new plan, it is intended only to rob the public! Every new “public works project”, or “government initiative”, or “public service”, or any new “product” is nothing more than an evident swindle!
Just because unprincipled and unscrupulous politicians and CEO’s are willing to lie to the public about everything they do is no obligation for the people to believe what they are told!
Julian Penrod |
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