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?

Comments

prefer cash

[Anonymous Coward]

Unlike this crappy columnist I am a millennial with a good paying job with no debt and money in my pocket.

I go out of my way to use cash and avoid credit cards.

The day we have a cashless society is the day the cloud atlas economy takes hold. (i.e you are required to spend a certain amount of money a week on consumption and probably negative interest rates and financial fees as punishment if you don't)

That or the world will migrate to Bitcoin I suppose...

cashless transactions == tax on stupidity

[OrangeTide]

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.

Re: cashless transactions == tax on stupidity

[niftydude]

The people insisting on it and claiming it will be inevitable are the people profiting from it. If enough sock puppets and talking heads move public opinion such that it seems like a foregone conclusion, then people will be more likely to sleep walk into the brave new world of zero privacy and nickel and diming of every purchase.

The end of private spending

[golgotha007]

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.

Police will have an easy job

[DNS-and-BIND]

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.