“Do they all have the chips yet?”

This is a question I have been asked all across Ukraine, inside and outside of Church, by those who have heard what's going on in America. What they are referring to is microchips under the skin, and they fear it the same way protestants who profess 'the rapture' do. At this point I usually make sure my passport with the RFID chip on it is out of sight before replying 'not yet'. But it's coming.

One thing that has been made clear by 'the Crisis', which as far as I can tell hasn't ended anywhere including America, is that the rich will keep getting richer. The trick is they play with currency, so their fundamental worth is protected while people horde dollars, or euros, and assume it's valuable. This is complicated by pesky folks who watch these markets and use non fiat means of storing their wealth. In my opinion this is how they will finally sell people on placing chips under their skin whether theres rumors of cancer or not. That said I don't think this can happen all at once; it's far too expensive in poorer countries unless a Doctor Who like legion of cyber men were unleashed chipping people.

Is the chip already here?

Whether it's sub-dermal or not there are a lot of things coming closer and closer to chips. Privat Bank here in Ukraine has a serve called LiqPay and allows transferring between various forms of credit and debit cards in various currencies. Even pretty poor Ukrainians can get a hold of pre-paid debit cards. Debit cards are accepted almost everywhere in America, and increasingly so even in very poor countries. The step between a card that holds multiple currencies or can instantly dispense a local currency is not far away. So how does that relate to the chip?

Frequently I am promised here America will either become irrelevant and desolate (which I think is a given) or submerged under water, and that on a single day (or a related day) money will become worthless, people will be tossing dollars, and hryvna together in the trash. Is that implausible? I'm skeptical America is looking to pull an Atlantis, but as heavily invested as the world economy is if everyone is holding US Treasuries and the dollar drops due to some catastrophe it'd certainly render many economies worthless. What a great time then to say 'currencies don't work'. If that sounds absurd keep in mind 50 years ago they said the same about gold. This is how I think they'll sell the idea of the chip.

First they will insist that to prevent against other countries ruining the world economy, there will be an international currency you can access using your card. It will simply dispense in your local flavor but be backed by the 'world economy'. Not to wax on about interpretations of the mark of the beast but given that when America went off the gold standard it was illegal to sell and not accept the new currency. Chances are to buy and sell in anything like the 'first world' you'd then need your card.

The chip just comes as a convenience. It'll be easy to market having something that's always with you, provides your id, access to all your iTunes files stored in the cloud, and you're money safely in one place. (They've already convinced everyone it's better if corrupt banks hold onto your cash then you!) This, and whatever flam crisis they invent to tank the dollar and make the North American Union a reality I don't think of as far fetched at all; just a matter of time.

So then what next?

I'll be honest; I don't think the elite care much whether the folks are happy, just that the elite have their toys. Why not, once everyone has chips that are solid state and wouldn't be wiped out by an EMP go for it with one? Then any self made millionaires, or principled savers are wiped out and whoever still has technology that can read the chip, and the military to enforce them can rest safely in the castle while the rest are the new surfs. Sad to say but even as a programmer I have to kind of wonder whether one babushka suggested is true; whether technologists might be better off learning to do something more useful with their hands than type...