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South Korea To Kill the Coin in Path Towards 'Cashless Society' (cnbc.com)
The central bank in South Korea, one of the world's most technologically advanced and integrated nations, is taking a major step in getting rid of coins in the nation in what is an attempt to become a cashless society. The first step is to get rid of the metal, a feat authorities hope to achieve by 2020. From a report on FT: The Bank of Korea on Thursday announced it will step up its efforts to reduce the circulation of coins, the highest denomination of which is worth less than $0.50. As part of the plan it wants consumers to deposit loose change on to Korea's ubiquitous "T Money" cards -- electronic travel passes that can be used to pay for metro fares, taxi rides and even purchases in 30,000 convenience stores. The proposals are just the latest step for a nation at the forefront of harnessing technology to make citizens' lives more convenient. Online shopping is the norm, as are mobile payments for the country's tech-savvy millennials. South Korea is already one of the least cash-dependent nations in the world. It has among the highest rates of credit card ownership -- about 1.9 per citizen -- and only about 20 percent of Korean payments are made using paper money, according to the BoK. But while convenience is at the crux of the central bank's plan, there are other considerations. The BoK spends more than $40m a year minting coins. There are also costs involved for financial institutions that collect, manage and circulate them.
Make money worthless, make every transaction traceable.
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Nobody wants a cashless society except the people who stand to skim a percent off every financial transaction and the government, who wants to be able to trace every credit and debit ever made.
The short short version of this rant:
- Banks want to get rid of cash so you CANNOT withdraw from the banking system. Currently, if you really don't want to deal with banks, you can pull your money out in the form of cash, and transact WITHOUT them. They don't like this. They want COMPLETE CONTROL of your money. This way they can charge whatever fees or negative interest rates they want.
- Governments want the cashless society so they can MONITOR EVERY TRANSACTION. This gives them more control, and greater tax revenue at the expensive of privacy and freedom. Also, piss off the wrong bureaucrat or policeman, and poof, they push a button and all your money is frozen. You can't buy food, pay your rent, or pay a lawyer to get the money unfrozen.
Oppose the cashless society.
When cash is no longer "in your hand" then it's no longer in your control. A cashless society is a VERY slippery slope and needs to be treated as such.
Small moves are necessary to ensure that there are adequate solutions to the fears and doubts that people will inevitably have about such a move.
A cashless society means you are at the financial mercy of whomever is in control of the little 1s and 0s in the financial sector.... and it won't be you!
still shortsighted, but I guess a billion times better than what India is going through right now.
Make no mistake people. All this crap around cashless society has absolutely zero to do with the costs of production, and all to do about population control, bank power, and the end of privacy. Once cash stops existing, that's it... you have zero independent financial control. All your earnings will be at banks hands. All the more reason for banks to exploit clients, toy with their money, and hold a get out of jail free card if they f*ck things up.
I guess one could say that we're already too deep into the whole sh*t swamp to go back, specially in cases like South Korea, but this is kinda the equivalent in economy terms of solving poverty by killing all the poor people.
Cash, in all countries, is the type of revenue that all the poorest, excluded from society, in the most fragile parts, minority conditions and whatnot depends on. Killing cash won't solve their problems, it'll only aggravate things.
But I don't need to talk much about it. We'll soon see the resulting catastrophe that will happen in India if they don't revert the decision. It'll be a huge shitshow. I don't even know if there will be anything recognizable left of the country a year from now if they continue going that way, mark my words.
Cashless society? I couldn't find that anywhere in TFS. Coins. I did notice something about getting rid of coins whose value is less than $0.50. What am I missing? Are you going to make me RTFA?
Is there anything more subtly annoying than to find five pennies in your pocket? I dislike having even one of those useless pieces of shit, but when I have five it pops to mind that I could have a nickel instead- less weight. Two fat ugly nickels could be replaced by a thin dime that wouldn't weigh me down when I fall off the boat. Yadda... But none of those coins are worth bothering with. There are still a few machines that accept quarters. Half dollar coins? Nobody in a civilized society wants them either. There are still dollar coins in circulation- is that a surprise? Waitresses like them as tips sometimes.
Many economists claim to have proven that pennies cost society more than they are worth. In the USA the primary value of a penny is in marketing where pricing a product at $999.99 makes ignorant people believe they are paying less than $1,000.
Canada leads the world in beginning a sensible approach to coins. Quote from somewhere authoritative: "Starting in early 2013, the Royal Canadian Mint, with the help of financial institutions and charities, began collecting billions of pennies in preparation to recycle them."
Are we now going to accuse Canada of pushing an evil 'cashless society'? Get a grip, folks!
...omphaloskepsis often...