Sunday, March 27, 2016

Why we should fear a cashless world...

The health food chain Tossed has just opened the UK’s first cashless cafe. It’s another step towards the death of cash.

This is nothing new. Money is tech. The casting of coins made shells, whales’ teeth and other such primitive forms of money redundant. The printing press did the same for precious metals: we started using paper notes instead. Electronic banking put paid to the cheque. Contactless payment is now doing the same to cash, which is becoming less and less convenient. In the marketplace convenience usually wins.

That’s fine as long as people are making this choice freely. What concerns me is the unofficial war on cash that is going on, from the suspicion with which you are treated if you ever use large sums of cash to the campaign in Europe to decommission the €500 note. I’m not sure the consequences have been properly considered.

We already live in a world that is, as far as the distribution of wealth is concerned, about as unequal as it gets. It may even be as unequal as it’s ever been. My worry is that a cashless society may exacerbate inequality even further. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Latest version of Monopoly is called “Ultimate Banking” and is completely cashless...
  2. Norway’s largest bank calls for total end to cash...
  3. But who is the governments’ strongest ally in their War on Cash?
  4. Sweden 'fast becoming world’s first cashless society’
  5. Cash is dying in the developing world...
  6. Secret meeting in London to “end cash”
  7. Abolishing cash – new age of economic totalitarianism...
  8. Why are the powers that be pushing for a cashless society?

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