A Cashless Society

[AYHJA]

Been tossing this around lately, maybe some of you have a few good points to make...

Back in around 2000 or so, I used to keep cash on me...2 things...1, it made it easy to steal and 2, it was fast to spend...You break a $100 dollar bill, and before you know it you got $15 and some change...

So, I started to live and die by the debit card...The most money I have on me at any given time is probably $10-$20 to get a haircut...Most places that don't have debit card machines accept checks...And most places where I spend cash, it would probably easy to move to a cashless system...

What do you guys feel the pros and cons of such a system would be..?

One of the biggest concerns that I can think of is gov't monitoring...Assuming that the gov't would definitely be involved on this, for some people (namely the Hustlers, lol) this wouldn't be an ideal situation...What ideas about this do you have..?

[Sir Jig-A-Lot]

see,i'm the opposite of you there Ube. i like to leave no money trails whatsoever. since i was about 15 i made the decision not to do the credit card thang unless necessary. i always use cash to pay for my shit. i own one keycard/debit card for my various salaries/pays to go into if whomever my employer at the was didn't pay in hard currency. the same card only gets used in a credit/debit capacity when i do the backpacker thing overseas (or that very rare net purchase),& then usually it's just to withdraw cash. said card is also under my legally changed name & not under my govt slave name. it's nice not have my activities monitored. also nice to rock dual citizenship.

[Deepak]

I used to carry cash around me and as A i found that I spent it way too easily. And now I only have a credit card and also have my normal eftpos account. The credit card has options for both eftpos and credit card so I gave my eftpos one to my girlfriend who keeps it with her incase she ever needs money and doesnt have it.

I also have a savings account with a different bank and have an eftpos card for that as well. But that is of limits unless really neccessary for me to get something.

So yeah like A i have no money trail what so ever any more. On the rare occasion I might get cash out for something but not always.

And soceity as a whole is moving towards that. I mean have a look around most people try to pay by plastic rather then paper. They find it safer and much more convinent

[happywonton]

I prefer having cash because it's easier to manage and limit my spending habits. Anyone can whip out a debit/credit card and start to buy shit and that's something I'd like to avoid. Hard cash can buy things that cards can't (i.e. drugs if you're into that.) Overall I just like to have a set range of what I can spend and it helps money management over what I can spend at the time.

[deepsepia]

at a practical level, you can't pay cash for much, and privacy is affected. Try to go into a bank a make a deposit of a lot of cash. Try to, say, buy a car with cash -- using cash in significant quantities raises more government interest/awareness than transacting with a card.

There's a thriving business of offshore domiciled anonymous credit/debit cards. I've never used them, but I know folks who swear by them -- that's the only real anonymity you're likely to have.

[raum]

I honestly don't give a damn if anyone monitors me. This reality is an illusion anyway.

[Aemeth]

I sort of rest in the middle. I almost always have cash, but it is never more than $20 because of the $100-$20=$17 phenomenon mentioned by Ty. However I do keep that $20 because sometimes it is better not to leave a trail and also for places that do not accept debit/credit since I don't really write checks...