Crimes (Currency) Act 1981

A person shall not, without the consent, in writing, of an authorised person, intentionally deface, disfigure, mutilate or destroy any coin or paper money that is lawfully current in Australia.

Penalty: in the case of a person, not being a body corporate – $5,000 or imprisonment for two years, or both.

Personally, I’d opt for the five grand thanks judge…

I’m confused. If you destroy $1 or $1,000,000 is it the same penalty? What if you hacked into your bank and deleted your bank account, is that a crime?

Which makes one wonder what the crime is? After all, you earned the money so why can’t you destroy it?

I guess the answer is that you earned the right to consume and the money you get is just a token that represents the quantity of consumption, and the cash isn’t in fact yours.

The government can’t have people fucking with the growth in consumption by destroying money can they?

Consumption leads to production which leads to profit which leads to more consumption.

Oddly enough though, if you destroy your own money you don’t destroy wealth. All that happens is that everyone else’s money just goes up a little in value. Destroying money is the ultimate means to distribute your wealth.

But you can’t do it; you have to use it to consume more. Or you can transfer those rights. But you cannot kill them.

With these penalties the government isn’t really worried about any impact on the economy other than through the creation of a bad, bad example.

I got into this thought bubble by considering which is the best way to get rid your wealth, other than giving it to charity which comes with the well documented emotional issues that plague philanthropy.

But it appears that our society is hardwired with booby traps that work to prevent Truman from escaping from the arcological dome.