Cashless society?
Our city was a test city for Interac ETF/POS transactions in the 1990s so I remember using debit machines at a very young age. Of course, cashless payments have become king since the pandemic and my children always want their allowances in e-transfer rather than cash.
Over the past few years are city has been hit with weather events that have caused multi-day outages. This has prompted us to buy a generator, solar chargers for devices, and to plan better for what seems to be a yearly inevitability. When the Derecho hit last year, we were in Toronto and when we were driving back home my family texted me to remind me to a> fill up the car on the way back because many gas stations were closed & the others either had long lines or were out of fuel; b> get out some cash because at many places, debit was down as well. To this day we try to keep some cash in the house in order to weather a multi-day outage.
Astute readers will know that I got on the internet about 2-3 years after the debit pilot started here. So I am firmly emmeshed in the great technological future and have been since I was a teenager. But recently I came across Brett Scott’s Altered States of Money Consciousness blog and it’s giving me pause. While I do enjoy having the benefits of technology for many of my financial transactions, I also think we should be wary of eliminating cash completely. I highly recommend the piece 10 reasons to fight a cashless society.
Hope your Wednesday is lovely and that your pillow sacks are plump from last night’s trick-or-treating! I always let my kids stay home the day after Halloween. So they are sleeping off their sugar crashes.