What a government considers underground economic activities are human beings doing things, and the shadow part is the wiggle room living beings require to be comfortable. We don't want to be the ant shriveling under the magnifying glass wielded by an overarching body supposedly created to make civil society possible.
ooo that'll be hard on the underground economy!
it's simple - if people use more cards, the card companies/banks can collect their 3% on more transactions!
it's more than that... musicians, massage therapists, handy man folks, just about anyone who does self-employed one-off jobs like these and gets paid cash under the table -- this is a big part of the economy in these times -- will be screwed. Folks will have to make their own money or chits to trade services for which barter doesn't work. recently i looked at the website of a local computer repair guy, and he explicitly stated no livestock in exchange for services.
That's what I was talking about, Lu. That *is* an economy in human terms. I vaguely remember a barter system started as a kind of social venture a decade or so ago in Olympia that was shuttered as being 'illegal.' I should try to find info on it as my knowledge is incomplete at best and possibly FOS.
Some instances I will work for trade.