Thread: this is a little much

not sure how long this has been in the works, but the government is going a little far with this one.
UBS - News

so let me get this straight, fdic will only give me $100,000 back if a bank goes under and my money is in there, but NOW if i put my money in a swiss account, they get to track it because they spent my tax money to get that "right"? sonovab@#*h i don't know who's responsible for this crap but i'm voting independent from now on.

Yep, this is correct, the US government wants to be able to track your financial dealings and UBS has agreed to it.
I somehow don't see this changing no matter how much you don't like it, so if you're concerned about it, it looks like you should find a new banking institution that would provide you with the needed privacy.
I'm puzzled that you seem so surprised, like you've been living in a utopian world...

no utopia, just thought i'd be able something kept sacred. so much for privacy

Its time to stuff it in the mattress. The Swiss have been slowly going this way for years, Lichenstein banks used to have the better reputation for privacy anyway, though I dont know if this still holds true.
The biggest thing here is the fact that you have become an asset of the Govt.(property). If control denotes ownership.

Well, in some sense I don't blame the US government for this one - I' would expect them to try and the foreign entity to resist the attempts, that's what governments have been doing since the beginning of time.

More important is what they do domestically as presumably they serve their citizens. To me the main concern is what is happening to my society, not so much what happens to the whatever escape solutions I may have had from the things that shouldn't be happening. I mean if I don't get privacy in my community that's my real concern, not that I can't get it in other communities either.

In my view the choice we make to live among other human beings means that we give up some of our individual liberties. Most people don't want to live in a world where everybody has to ensure their physical safety, so the task of providing basic safety is designated to the government, and in order to this task efficiently they have to be able to gain access to various private data. Normally these things are regulated so that the government doesn't abuse it's power and only use it for the purpose it was granted in the first place.

It is similar with the finances. A bank has to submit to various regulations by the government in order to get the fdic protection. I don't have to entrust my money to the bank if I don't wish to. Presumably I can have billions in cash and protect them myself, or hire others to do so on my behalf. For example most of the time I have a balance in my paypal account. Paypal is not a bank and this money is not guaranteed at all if paypal goes under. It was my choice to trust paypal and in exchange I get the benefit of them transfering money to other people. It is risky, but it's worth to me to the alternatives, one of which would be that to purchase a razor I'll have to meet with the person I purchased it from to conduct the transaction.

It's not all that bad, at least I don't think I'd prefer the alternative, when the government has no access whatsoever to people's financial information.

You would be surprised just how many transactions are recorded/reported already under anti money laundering rules.