CBDCs in the Chinese digital yuan vein (and that _IS_ the dream of policy makers, make no mistake) are similarly nefarious to policies regarding 'the transition to EVs' - incentives first, then measures to compel (taxes, onerous / impossible to comply with regulations, outright bans) and finally baked-in redefinition of vital concepts like ownership, privacy, right to repair etc...
Central banks and big government desperately want malware-style CBDCs - you have your money until it is voided for x.y.z reasons, full financial records transmitted to every government agency under the sun, only transactions to approved merchants, only money on govt authorized software platforms etc.. etc..
This is a radical redefinition of a great many concepts vital to modern liberal democracies - ownership, privacy, freedom to name a few - that needs to be slowed to a crawl so that the nuances of what this means for these core tenants of democracy are fully considered and that we don't end up massively concentrating power into the hands of the wrong people.
India has eliminated something like a 2-4% drag on its economy by making digital money transfers and transactions almost completely free, while all US transactions pay a tax on the credit and debit cards they use.
Someone with the equivalent of Venmo on their phone, can transfer money instantly, securely, and freely, to someone else with the equivalent of Zelle on their phone, even if the receiver doesn't have Venmo. Or to someone's bank account, or your vegetable vendor, or to make payments through a variety of applications.
The removal of a physical dollar is a real concern. You know what would help to prevent that from happening? Protesting against any efforts to eliminate a physical dollar. Protesting alternatives that are genuinely beneficial because they may slippery slope their way into eliminating cash only serves to make it easier to eliminate cash.
All that happens is that a whole bunch of people will complain about the creation of a digital dollar, because of their slippery slope fallacy about it leading to the elimination of physical cash, but what people will see is that the digital dollar was implemented, and none of the concerns came true, and serve to discredit these people.
So when the government actually tries to eliminate physical cash, all the people basing their protests on a slippery slope fallacy have lost credibility and the number of credible voices protesting the actual problem of the elimination of the physical dollar is much reduced.
CBDCs offer benefits, and the downsides we already deal with. The digital money we transact with now is just as “antifreedumb” as you make CBDCs to be.
All of this goes away with CBDCs. The government can track everything. The government can take away everything instantly. The government can decide I'm not allowed to spend my money on certain things they don't agree with.
Trying to save up for the down payment on a house or a new car? Nope, that tax return we gave you expires in 3 months to force you to stimulate the economy. Bought a gun that was completely legal at the time, but the government has since decided you shouldn't have it? We have a record of you buying it, so we'll send the ATF to raid your house for it. Said something critical of the current president on social media? We've frozen all your money until we reeducate you.
It's not a matter of if this will be abused, it's a matter of when and how badly.
Trying to pull that shit here would guarantee riots and runs on banks.
