ANALYSIS and OPINION:
[Author’s Note: The article below was written before, the author learned that Federal Reserve has acknowledged a coin shortage, presumably in part because of the Covid pandemic. Regardless of whether that is true or false the points made below remain valid. We have not withdrawn this post because it is quite possible that some large credit and/or debit card issuers as well as other firms who process payments have a vested interest in trying to force retailers and other vendors to go “cashless”.]
Here’s some food for thought.
Are companies that refuse or are unable to accept cash helping the oligarchs lead us to dictatorship? Should we boycott companies that refuse cash? Should we throw out politicians who accept donations from companies who would push us towards a cashless society?
Five times in the last week I’ve run into convenience stores who have been either short of change or in one instance would not allow cash transactions unless you had exact change.
Is a cashless society good? It may be faster to do everything by plastic and electronically. But there’a a huge risk in going down the cashless path. Erosion of liberty. Without the ability to resort to cash, the government snoopers will be better able to always track us. Watch out if we ever get a dictator ! And, if you don’t think dictatorship is a risk…well ….ahem, you haven’t been around for the last 8 plus years. In short, this is a deceptively low profile but HUGE issue because our personal liberties and democratic way of life is at risk.
A huge additional risk of a cashless society is that it further subjects everyone to the risk of total loss if our financial system is subject to a major and pervasive internet/computer hack.
Who is benefiting from this policy? The betting here is that its a few monied oligarchs. Once again in the desire to be faster and more convenience we sell our soul to the devil. This is a major defect in modern society, particularly America.
The thought here is that anytime a business does not have adequate change on hand that it should be required by law to temporarily close until it is able to transact business in cash! And say. Aren’t greenbacks supposed to be “legal tender” for all debts public and private. Aren’t companies who refuse to accept cash violating some kind of law? If they aren’t, they should be. It should be against the law for anyone to induce any business to refuse to accept cash or coin.