Now that the G20 Summit is over, some are beginning to question one of the major changes wrought by the event – the apparent end of the centuries-old practice of bank secrecy.
According to German historian Michael Sturmer, the people celebrating today could be checking their state-picked wallets tomorrow.
For the German newspaper Die Welt, Sturmer writes in part:
“This farewell is cause for more than just a cynical shrug. It may already mean that data security is nothing but an empty word or innocent remark, although people may have nothing to hide. It’s worth recalling that the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century scrapped bank secrecy because they regarded it as a bastion of bourgeois resistance. Unfortunately, the modern tax state has a tendency of spreading without restraint to control all or nearly all of life’s events, and – to quote Bismarck’s early warning – to put the “peasants under general suspicion [misera contribuens plebs].”
By Michael Stürmer, Historian
Translated By Jonathan Lobsien
April 2, 2009
Germany – Die Welt – Original Article (German)
The G-20 Summit has abolished bank secrecy. This is a blow against bourgeois ideals. It’s worth recalling that the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century entirely scrapped bank secrecy, regarding this as a bastion of bourgeois resistance. Unfortunately, the modern tax state is spreading without restraint.
[Editor’s Note: The word ‘bourgeois’ refers to the class of people that own the means for producing wealth who were not aristocrats, and was more commonly used during the 19th and early 20th century. Generally speaking, this was the well-off class who had to work for their money, essentially the merchant class].
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