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Serious Cashless society

moon

  • Togepi Egg
    • 37,465
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    • they/them
    • Seen Oct 15, 2024
    Do you think that the "cashless society" is the way to go? Without bills and pennies changing hands, things sure become more efficient - when everything is digital - but what if the digital systems crash? Is this inevitable, even?

    I thought of this because the other day my bank went down, and I've been living cashless for years. So I was effectively stripped of all my money for a day and it no doubt induced some thinking in all of the bank's customers. I don't even have some bills at home for security; it's all in the digital bank as numbers, my salary goes straight in from my employer and "actual money" never touch me these days.
     
    While I suspect we're well on our way to a purely digital money system, we're also a long way away from getting there too. Which is probably a good thing because technology can break or be tampered with. I don't generally keep a lot of cash on me, right now there's no physical money in my wallet actually whoops, but it's nice to know a fail safe is available.
     
    At least with cash you can't spend more than you have. I think that's going to be one argument that speaks against a cashless society. You may be able to keep your spending in reasonable boundaries, but chances are that some people will not. That seems to be one of the main fears that certain groups of people (read: banks) might have.

    I personally prefer using them both in specific instances. Mostly cash for everyday stuff and digital for luxury objects, clothes, everything that's more expensive. It gives me the amount of control that I want. I'd definitely see it as a loss on my end if cash was abolished in favor for bits any bytes.

    But ultimately: whether you can't access your money due to failures in the system or whether the paper you keep in your pocket suddenly loses all its value, bad things can always happen. (Has anyone ever thought about how paper money technically is completely worthless and only has "worth" because some people agreed on that?)
     
    Cash is useful in some regards, where technology may fail and be vulnerable. In other aspects, technology and digital currency is strong where cash isn't, you can't exactly mug someone for their venmo balance.
     
    I think having all transactions be made digitally is too fragile of a system. Obviously the perfect example is what you went through with your bank. I don't suspect it'll ever happen, but I won't be too bothered if it does.

    Personally, I like paying for little things with cash. Coffee or lunch, for example. When I start running low on cash, there's a physical representation of the money I've spent, and I know I should consider stopping before I get my next pay cheque. I'll usually take $60 or $80 out at the start of the week. If I don't spend it all, it feels good. If I do, I stop before getting paid again. It's a neat and subtle system that is not quite as achievable when you pay for everything digitally, unless you keep a notepad of all the things you pay for with card. And maybe some people do that, but I don't, so I prefer the cash method.
     
    Alex said:
    I think having all transactions be made digitally is too fragile of a system. Obviously the perfect example is what you went through with your bank. I don't suspect it'll ever happen, but I won't be too bothered if it does.

    Personally, I like paying for little things with cash. Coffee or lunch, for example. When I start running low on cash, there's a physical representation of the money I've spent, and I know I should consider stopping before I get my next pay cheque. I'll usually take $60 or $80 out at the start of the week. If I don't spend it all, it feels good. If I do, I stop before getting paid again. It's a neat and subtle system that is not quite as achievable when you pay for everything digitally, unless you keep a notepad of all the things you pay for with card. And maybe some people do that, but I don't, so I prefer the cash method.
    Click to expand...
    Conversely, I find it stressful how little I can keep track of cash :p with digital money on my card, I see in easy numbers in a phone app exactly where I bought something, when, and for how much. The bank app also tracks what kind of purchases I've made so I can have a good overview over my budget and not sneak-buy anything without it displaying :3 Cash? Cash is invisible. Once it's out from my account, it feels like it's gone and uncontrollable.
     
    I always carry some money with me just in case something were to happen. I mean the other day at work we had our credit card system go down on a rather busy day and people had to go to the ATM in the food court to get money. And boy were they not happy with the $4 fee the ATM took from them to do so. I honestly hate to even try and do any sort of banking on my phone because you never know who might try and hack into your phone and if you have an app on your phone that makes it THAT much easier to steal your money.
     
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