How Feasible is a Cash-Less Society?

vocaljess asks a question that has been on many a mind over the past decade, if not longer: "I just today realized that it has been over a week since I physically handled cash money. Due to the use of checks, debit cards, online shopping, automatic bill pay, direct deposit, etc, my family operates on a cash-less basis in the vast majority of our business transactions. With more and more establishments accepting credit/debit cards, how many others are heading the same way?" Are the advantages of a cash-less society really all that advantageous? One of the largest proposed advantages of a cash-less society is one of limited-theft, well even though money in a cash-less society wouldn't be tangible, it's no less theft-proof...it just takes a theif of a different calibur to pull it off. Do you feel we are heading toward a cash-less society? Do you think if such a thing were to happen we'd be any better off than we are today?

"Think about this: if the cumulative value of everything in the world were expressed in measures of gold, which theoretically backs the majority of world currencies, does enough gold physically exist to back the paper money value, or has the paper money itself become valuable?

And what about this: how is it that the people who depend upon cash are usually in the middle of the financial spectrum, neither the poorest nor the richest? In most extreme poverty situations, transactions are based on barter. For most middle class people and above, transactions involve checks, credit, and electronic fund transfers. For the working poor, most transactions are done in cash. How does all of this add up to the trend toward a cash-less society, where money is nothing more than numbers in a computer transferred from one account to another, to another? How far off is that future?"

Comments

This will mean the end of Steak-n-Shake

[suso]

Those bastards at Steak-n-Shake will never switch to accepting non-cash methods of payment.

I am living in a cash-less society!

[pOs*x]

It's called "post-secondary education". They take all your money for tuition, and you live cash-less for many years. It's not as great as you make it out to be!

Re:I am living in a cash-less society!

[Shadarr]

Oh, the F stands for Further. That wasn't my firts guess.

Re:..right with a paper-less office

[Anonymous Coward]

It IS faster, because the high-school age drone behind the counter doesn't have to type in 5, followed by 2 zeros - something that less of the people in my area are able to do successfully. On the other hand, I did start to get change for $500 one time, so there are some benefits there too...

Speel chekker NEone?

[ZaMoose]

caliber
n.

1.Abbr. cal.
a.The diameter of the inside of a round cylinder, such as a tube.
b.The diameter of the bore of a firearm, usually shown in hundredths or thousandths of an inch and expressed in writing or print in terms of a decimal
fraction:.45 caliber.
c.The diameter of a large projectile, such as an artillery shell, measured in millimeters or in inches.
2.Degree of worth; quality: a school of high caliber; an executive of low caliber.

Sheesh.

"a theif" of a different "calibur".

[Wakko Warner]

Is that like a hores of a different colur?

- A.P.

What's the point?

[Marticus]

So basically you suggest a cash-substitute so we can have a cashless society?