Surprisingly, to me, my post on the trend to becoming a virtually cashless society generated a lot of interest and comments. Given my nearly unblemished record on being unable to predict how popular a given Irreal post will be, I probably shouldn’t have been surprised. In any event, the interest prompted me to look into the trend a little more.
Back in May, CBS did a report on the backlash to going cashless. It’s not just the politicians. Many customers also object to having an establishment refuse to accept cash even if they do have a credit card. Some of that’s a concern for privacy and some of it’s probably just the typical American crankiness about being told they can’t do something they’ve always done. The biggest complaint, of course, is that the practice discriminates against the poor.
One thing the CBS report makes clear is how big a win it is for the merchants. Even the merchants who have voluntarily returned to taking cash emphasize how much cheaper, safer, and efficient it is to run a cash free business.
As I said in the previous post, it doesn’t matter much to the credit-card-using consumer. Theoretically, someone in front of you paying in cash can slow things down when you’re trying to pay but I, at least, haven’t found that to be an issue in practice. Despite the impression I apparently gave in the original post, I’m not yearning for a cashless society, I just want to be able to pay for things using my iPhone. I’m perfectly happy if others want to use cash.
Keeping cash may even be a benefit. Some of the commenters to the original post point out some of the dangers that come with a cashless society. In the long run, I expect that cash will go away but I don’t think it will happen in the near term. There are still too many problems to solve.