Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!agate!shelby!msi.umn.edu!cs.umn.edu!atc!s5000!gray
From: gray@s5000.RSVL.UNISYS.COM (Bill Gray x2128)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: Point of Sale
Message-ID: <72@s5000.RSVL.UNISYS.COM>
Date: 29 Jan 91 16:11:06 GMT
References: <9161@uwm.edu> <1991Jan28.131402.29179@com50.c2s.mn.org> <6178@rsiatl.Dixie.Com>
Reply-To: gray@s5000.UUCP (Bill Gray x2128)
Organization: Unisys - Roseville, MN
Lines: 59

In article <6178@rsiatl.Dixie.Com> jgd@Dixie.Com (John G. DeArmond) writes:
>
>*	Use cash whenever you can.  If you really need to float for a month,
>	consider a cash advance on your credit card.  There are card companies
>	that don't charge interest on cash advances until invoice date.

Amen to that, especially the advice to use cash!  One of the most
important steps people concerned with their personal freedom can take
is to get out of debt and stay out of debt.

>
>*	Avoid the use of checks whenever possible, because  many large
>	banks now catalog check transactions.

Banks and other check-handling institutions microfilm or digitize
images of every check used in the country.  This is required (and has been
for many years) by the absurdly titled Bank Privacy Act.  It is one of the
tools your humble public servants at IRS use to see whether you spend more
than you report in certain kinds of audit.

Some banks may also be matching your name/account number from your check
to the name/account number of the business that deposited it.  So if
you have written checks to Madam Sophie's Massage Parlor or Bill's
Gun Shop, it can 1.) be determined by the Feds and 2.) may be disclosable
to others (e.g., advertisers).  Point 2 is technically feasible; I do not
know the provisions of the Bank Privacy Act, but they _may_ prohibit
such disclosure.

>*	Let your congresslime know what you think.  We CAN get legislation
>	to protect us but it will take popular pressure to overcome the
>	financial resources of the large retailers, mass mailers and
>	insurance industry.

It is easy to think that this is futile.  That is defeatism.

Consider it this way:  Almost everyone I know says they would be willing
to fight and even die to gain the freedoms we (think we) have in the USA.
But perishingly few are willing to use freely available, peaceful means
to preserve those few freedoms that remain to us.

In point of fact, the most effective single thing you can do to influence
a legislator is to go visit it.  That is comparatively easy at the state
level, virtually impossible at the Federal level.

The next most effective method is a short, polite but direct _handwritten_
letter.  Typed, word-processed, or mass reproduced letters, postcards,
and phone calls are have progressively less effect.

But *any contact* has more impact than silence.

This is our republic.  The stewardship is ours.  I believe we will be
held accountable for how well we manage it.

Bill
-- 
: gray@rsvl.unisys.com                      :                                  :
:                                           :  My gun is safer than Ted        :
: Unisys has enough problems without being  :  Kennedy's car.                  :
: blamed for my personal opinions.          :                                  :