BY RUSSELL TURNER
FRUITS OF YOUR LABOR
One of the things that distinguish a free society from a communist society is the right of private property. Our founders made it very clear that the citizens of this country could manage their affairs with as little inference from the government as possible. Sadly, over the past several years we have seen an ever increasing tide of government regulations that is eroding our right of private property.
One example is the money that you work for. Many people think that what they do with their hard earned dollar is their business and no one else’s; it will surprise many to know that our own government has a huge interest in our savings and how we spend it. When you collect your paycheck and deposit in your local bank, often times you will let it build up for a while so that you can purchase something that you need or want. Maybe you want to buy a boat or some other big ticket item; you go to the bank and withdraw $5,000 dollars. You think it is your money and it is your business how you spend it, but did you know that Federal regulations in the Land of the Free REQUIRE banks to file ‘suspicious activity reports’ or SARs on their customers? And it’s not optional. Banks have minimum quotas of SARs they need to fill out and submit to the federal government. If they don’t file enough SARs, they can be fined. They can lose their banking charter. And yes, bank executives and directors can even be imprisoned for noncompliance. Bankers across our country submitted 1.6 MILLION SARs in 2013 alone. While this practice has been going on for a good while, our government wants to up the ante.
Now the Justice Department is saying that SARs aren’t enough. If the Justice Department gets its way whenever banks suspect something ‘suspicious’ is going on, they want banks to pick up the phone and call the cops. According to the Justice Department, going to the bank and withdrawing $5,000 should potentially prompt a banker to rat you out to the police.
A senior official from the Justice Department spoke to a group of bankers and stated, “We encourage institutions to consider whether to take more action: specifically, to alert law enforcement authorities about the problem, who may be able to seize the funds, initiate an investigation, or take other proactive steps.” I have noticed that the government class uses fear to justify their actions. We need to remind ourselves that there have always been those who would like to do harm to us and there are procedures that can be used to keep tabs on those individuals without making our government a police state. Informants and legally obtained search warrants have been effective in the past. Over the past several years I have seen how our freedoms and liberties have been under assault, this proposed escalation by the Justice Department is another way for the government to remove more of our freedoms. We have set back and allowed our so called servants to control our healthcare among other things, now they want to know when and how you are spending the fruits of your labor.
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