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USA Today Tech Columnist: Millennials Will Live To See a Cashless World (usatoday.com)
"I haven't had a nickel, dime, quarter or penny in my pocket for two years," writes USA Today tech columnist Jefferson Graham, adding "Why bother? We're now living in what's quickly becoming a cashless society, where credit cards or electronic payments on your phone rule."
His column is addressed to the mayor of Philadelphia, who this week signed a bill that bans cashless stores. Mr. Mayor. It's happening all over the world, and not just from Amazon. We are going cashless. Maybe not in your lifetime, but certainly for millennials. Banks and credit card companies want this to curb the costs of handling green. Selected merchants are into it now... USA Today's Charisse Jones discovered that cash purchases were down to 30 percent of all retail transactions as of last year compared to 40 percent in 2012. Millennials, she noted here this week, are saying no to cash, with 21 percent of those 23- to 34 years old saying that most of their transactions were in cash in 2016....
Mobile pay is still a sliver of overall retail sales, but it's definitely on the rise. Target, a long holdout, just added Apple Pay to one of its options, following in the footsteps of Best Buy, CVS, Costco and other retail giants who now accept payment via iPhone. The big, lone holdout right now is Walmart, the No. 1 retailer. It does have its own mobile pay app, that links bank payments to QR codes. And Mr. Mayor, good news for you. Walmart still accepts cash, too.
But for how long?
His column is addressed to the mayor of Philadelphia, who this week signed a bill that bans cashless stores. Mr. Mayor. It's happening all over the world, and not just from Amazon. We are going cashless. Maybe not in your lifetime, but certainly for millennials. Banks and credit card companies want this to curb the costs of handling green. Selected merchants are into it now... USA Today's Charisse Jones discovered that cash purchases were down to 30 percent of all retail transactions as of last year compared to 40 percent in 2012. Millennials, she noted here this week, are saying no to cash, with 21 percent of those 23- to 34 years old saying that most of their transactions were in cash in 2016....
Mobile pay is still a sliver of overall retail sales, but it's definitely on the rise. Target, a long holdout, just added Apple Pay to one of its options, following in the footsteps of Best Buy, CVS, Costco and other retail giants who now accept payment via iPhone. The big, lone holdout right now is Walmart, the No. 1 retailer. It does have its own mobile pay app, that links bank payments to QR codes. And Mr. Mayor, good news for you. Walmart still accepts cash, too.
But for how long?
There is always a middle man taking a cut of an electronic transaction. I don't understand why people insist that the way of the future is to fork over a few percent of your income to credit card companies.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
It's also important to note that governments want this, too. They used to just have visibility on big number transactions but once all cash is gone, they'll be able to monitor every transaction, no matter how small. The concept of anonymous transactions and spending privacy will be soon be over.
Reminds me of the following Ted talk - when you make the transaction frictionless, they've found you spend more
When money isn’t real: the $10,000 experiment | Adam Carroll | TEDxLondonBusinessSchool
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VB39Jo8mAQ
The cashless society is only of interest to that portion of the population with absolutely nothing to hide. And I donâ(TM)t trust those people even a little bit.
No way to buy some mushrooms or hash... no hiding your hotel tryst from your spouse... no way to hide your alcohol abuse from your insurance company... if there isnâ(TM)t something you want to hide from prying eyes youâ(TM)re living life wrong.
Here's how you predict things correctly:
1. Start with things as they are
2. Predict they will change only a little.
That's how you get correct predictions. Nobody wants to publish them though.
The big changes that would be interesting enough to publish in an article are too few. You won't guess them.
Let's see you buy an 8-ball of crystal meth with a credit card or Apple Pay. You think Robert Kraft is slapping down his Discover Card when he goes to the Chinese rub'n'tug to get his egg roll dipped in sweet and sour?
Do you think that when the human trafficking owner of that Chinese rub'n'tug sells access to Donald Trump that they're taking credit card payments?
Fuck no. There somebody, somewhere, with a wad of currency. As it will ever be.
And no, I'm not making any of the above up:
https://nymag.com/intelligence...
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/...
You are welcome on my lawn.
Your CC comes with a new political code of conduct.
Any gov assistance program gets a new long no buy list.
No gambling, no drugs, no alcohol, no smoking.
A bank account will be needed.
Detection of illegal migrants and other criminals trying to use a fake ID.
Social media use gets linked back to a cashless account and all spending is tracked.
Cash gave a person the spending power to enjoy freedoms away from big gov and the politics of a bank, CC. A cashless world returns all spending to a bank, CC.
Buy the wrong book? The wrong comment on an ISP account linked to your a cashless account?
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
A cashless society gives TOTAL control to government. If this happens it will be eventually be abused.The other day it became known that the Trump administration has been tracking journalists. Should Trump seize even more power, how hard it is to imagine he might freeze the assets of those journalists from "fake news" outlets as he likes to call them. Just one very easily imagined scenario where this could be abused. Next election Right Wing Christians take control? Maybe they will prevent funds from being transferred to pay for abortion. I could go on and on but the abuse is easy to imagine yourself. And that's not even considering the tracking power of a cashless society.
As soon as "cashless" becomes a reality, police won't have to lift a finger to arrest anyone accused of a crime. They'll just turn off his phone. The suspect will turn himself in to avoid starvation.
That's the good part of police states. Petty crime virtually disappears. The bad part is that the definition of "crime" expands so far as to encompass anyone who does something the rulers don't like. We're already seeing people being denied financial services like Paypal, Patreon, and even bank accounts simply because they speak their opinions in public. It's a new, terrifying level of control and since corporations control it instead of government, it's doing a nice job of boiling the frog.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
I also have a good paying job, no debt, but I haven't used cash in probably a year. Haven't used credit cards either. Instead I mostly use contactless payments. It's quick and easy and I don't need to carry a bulky wallet.
On behalf of big brother, thank you for your continuing donation of financial information that we sell to pay for our hookers and blow. That yummy financial info is worth so much more than your fb likes that seem to get you millennial types so worked up...
"Those that start by burning books, will end by burning men."
Sure, but the store knows the individual items that you purchased, along with your credit card.
You do know there's an entire industry devoted to this data? Purchased & formatted neatly by data brokers and then sold for a handsome profit.
>> And how will that cause me harm ?
At the moment I suspect it won't. But I don't know what will happen in 10 years.
Will you be refused health insurance because you bought too many Twinkies, and not enough greens?
Drank too much Coke? Were making purchases at 11pm instead of being in bed?
Personally, it's for the potential abuses that I CAN'T think of that I prefer cash.
Same boat as you, but we need to go one step further. For those of us who know the proper way to use credit cards, many only GIVE you "cash" back.
Amazon Visa - 2% restaurants always (3% on Amazon)
Chase and Discover - Rotating 5% back on some categories
That is free money.
Personal note... cash is just too much of a hassle for me. I don't like always having to make sure I have enough in my wallet and dealing with change, so we usually just do credit card. I haven't run into any issues with companies knowing what I spend my money on. In some cases I get relevant coupons that actually help.