The Plunge into a Cashless Society?

[Plenum]

who still uses cash to pay for things?  

There are a few places that still have a minimum transaction of $10 to use a credit card, but other than that, I pretty much use my card everywhere.

There is also the option of paying with your Mobile Phone these days.  With Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Google Pay.  But that idea still seems weird to me  (never tried it I guess).

Some countries are definitely going cashless faster than others.  One guy I met in Louisville had committed to the cashless lifestyle.

For those who think of gold and silver as true and real currency, I guess this is the furthest away from that you can get.  No longer even exchanging physical fiat currency - it's just the digits now being exchanged via computer records.

Personally, I love it.  I hated the inconvenience of coins and notes growing up.  Paying everything with a card is just so convenient.

[Jade]

I'm the opposite. I receive most of my income in cash, and try to exclusively spend cash. Merchants are charged a % fee on card transactions, which I try to help avoid. The bank encourages me to use credit transactions on my debit card (they cost more), but retailers would prefer debit transactions (I can never recall my pin if they bank sets it for me). I don't have a real credit card, so my debit use is dependent on going to the bank and depositing cash, which is a pain - my bank doesn't have a drive-through window. So, my experience is very different, though most would in general consider me a technophobe.

[Minyatur]

I proclaim the glory of PayPass! Best human invention since pizza.

[Matt1]

i mostly use my card.

[ScottK]

I get a kick out of how they are trying to eliminate cash right now.  It's truly insane from the perspective of growing an economy - it would probably cut GDP in every effected country by at least 2-3%.

First off, the underground economy would have to find some way else to do transactions.  Small business costs would go up because of the aforementioned credit card fees, so it would definitely cut margins for small businesses, or else they would have to raise prices.  I know several small businesses that just accept cash.

Further, all transactions could be tracked, which would make tax enforcement really.  Big brother would really be watching then..  So all would pretty much be forced to "Obey".

I'm not a very good "Obey"-er..

Is it me, or is virtually every so-called "Conspiracy Theory" practically out in the open right now?

[AnthroHeart]

Card or bill pay checks from the bank.

[Plenum]

yeah, I hadn't thought of that angle ScottK.

So I guess drug dealers would be switching to Visa or Mastercard

or maybe the really classy ones would take American Express

[Jade]

Not even the legal drug (marijuana) shops take cards, because it's too risky with it still being illegal federally and all.

Unless you're talking about the pharmacies, they'll take your Visa.

[Parsons]

Pro tip: If you get food at a restaurant, pay with a card but give the tip as cash. On the receipt, don't write in "cash" in the tip box; just write zero. That way, as far as the government can prove, they didn't receive a tip. The taxes they have to pay on a tip are outrageous on top of a lot of "tipped employees" making less than minimum wage.

[The_Tired_Philosopher]

Cash usually by me.  Though I leave money in the account to use my card for things like gas pumps.

I'm a major introvert nearing loner.  I keep options open, for instance, self check out is easier with a card.

But I Need coins for the water machine.

Personally, it doesn't feel as good swiping a card to me (feels awkward), rather I like that 'I got something' feel being expanded as I count the cash.

I would personally love a coin only currency.  I love the feel and sound of real silver coins clinking together

[Jade]

Pro tip: If you get food at a restaurant, pay with a card but give the tip as cash. On the receipt, don't write in "cash" in the tip box; just write zero. That way, as far as the government can prove, they didn't receive a tip. The taxes they have to pay on a tip are outrageous on top of a lot of "tipped employees" making less than minimum wage.

So thoughtful, I love when people do this. Even though at my current job, the bookkeeping is more pen-and-paper, almost all other places I've worked go by what the computer can read as your credit card tips. The problem comes with the fact that with most jobs I've worked, I then manually tip out about 15-20% of my tips to bussers, hosts, food runners, bartenders, etc. So, if everyone pays/tips me in credit cards during a shift, I'm claiming a significant portion more than I'm actually making. Often it evens itself out (with some nights getting significantly more cash than credit), but as people use cards more that's less likely.

[Parsons]

Cash usually by me.  Though I leave money in the account to use my card for things like gas pumps.

I'm a major introvert nearing loner.  I keep options open, for instance, self check out is easier with a card.

But I Need coins for the water machine.

Personally, it doesn't feel as good swiping a card to me (feels awkward), rather I like that 'I got something' feel being expanded as I count the cash.

I would personally love a coin only currency.  I love the feel and sound of real silver coins clinking together  

This is slightly off topic, but here's a suggestion: if you go to WinCo, they have a water machine inside the grocery store that you fill up and pay during checkout (so no coins). Plus they have a self checkout (which you can even key in the code for the water refill).

[rva_jeremy]

I highly recommend anybody interested in this topic check out David Graeber's Debt: The First 5,000 Years. It's a great anthropologically driven look at the history of debt in all its economic, spiritual, and moral dimensions. One thing he blew my mind with: so-called "virtual currency" was the original currency. Coinage came about because rulers wanted to monetize their subject's productive capacity.

Another concept that seems tangential to the Law of One: he says that the original forms of exchange were not "barter", and that in the anthropological record you see very little barter, mostly between tribes that had no ongoing history of interaction. Most exchanges were more of the form of: you have cows, I have chickens. I need a cow, so you give me a cow. Then, later on, when you need chickens, I'll give you chickens. Over hundreds and thousands of years, you forget who owes whom what, and everybody just kind of starts to see that their relationship with the members of their community comprises a debt and credit to ancient to account for. That, Graeber argues, is the origin of any kind of positive sense of collective identity or community: we owe and expect so much from one another, but it's all fuzzy and indeterminate, so [b]it's just easier to think in terms of all being part of one interest[/u] rather than closely accounting for debts and credits.

The kind of clearing transactions we have in modern society, where people pay in full, is actually anti-social, in a way. Graeber talks about how in more "primitive" societies, if you try to pay in full for something the people would be insulted. The reason makes perfect sense according to the logic I explained above: if you want to pay in full, that means we can go our separate ways with no further need for interaction. So paying in full is kind of like saying, "what, you want nothing more to do with me?"

Totally transformed how I looked at economics and sociology, highly recommended. Graeber's ideas in Debt also contributed to the debt focus of Occupy Wall Street, and he was the guy who came up with the 99% slogan.