Yes it matters, because there will be a court involved in this process as opposed to if the government “owned” your bank account nothing would stop it from knowing exactly what was in there at all times.
I'm sorry, but courts have lost most of their credibility in recent years. There was an HN thread recently[1] about a person arrested and extradited from one state to another without what appears to be any oversight. Pretending the courts are magic isn't actually very helpful here. If any single person in power wanted this information, they could have it. If any single person not in power wanted this information, they would have to work really hard to get it.
No one is pretending anything. It's still an extra step that adds transparency even if it is not a huge barrier. But in reality, that is a lot larger barrier than just direct access 24/7.
> because there will be a court involved in this process as opposed to if the government “owned” your bank account nothing would stop it from knowing exactly what was in there at all times
There's some decentralization within the government also, if one branch wants something from another it (ideally) has to go the courts route too, it's not that every federal employee can just access any government records on a person, (at least in theory). If there's someone powerful enough taking interest in you to override that, I doubt a private bank is going to be a major obstacle.
I mean courts themselves are technically part of that system too. I am as cynical as the next person regarding government overreach, but I see little protection from a multi-national banking entity entangled with the government for decades in all sorts of ways.
If it was as 'easy' to start a bank as an ISP in the 90s, I could see it.
joelfried|2 years ago
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35389566
nightski|2 years ago
Matl|2 years ago
There's some decentralization within the government also, if one branch wants something from another it (ideally) has to go the courts route too, it's not that every federal employee can just access any government records on a person, (at least in theory). If there's someone powerful enough taking interest in you to override that, I doubt a private bank is going to be a major obstacle.
I mean courts themselves are technically part of that system too. I am as cynical as the next person regarding government overreach, but I see little protection from a multi-national banking entity entangled with the government for decades in all sorts of ways.
If it was as 'easy' to start a bank as an ISP in the 90s, I could see it.