There has been discussion, particularly in the capitalist class, about the efficacy of going cashless. After all, most transactions are now electronic anyhow. Millions of younger people have never written a check. It would be more efficient.
But in a pluralistic democracy, it is not always the business of the government to be efficient. Making sure all citizens have a fair chance at getting the things they need is the priority. The health and welfare of citizens.
But there is another reason a cashless society should never happen: privacy and control. A cashless society is a surveillance society with a few private entities in control of the entire money supply. That is not democratic on the face of it.
HERE'S WHAT A ‘’CASHLESS”SOCIETY ACTUALLY MEANS:
A cashless society means no cash. Zero. It doesn’t mean mostly cashless and you can still use a ‘bit of cash here and there’.
Cashless means fully digital, fully traceable, fully controlled. I think some of those who support a cashless society aren’t fully aware of what they are asking for.
In a fully cashless society the following would be true:
No odd jobs under the table for a bit of cash.
No getting paid cash at a flea market or when selling on Craigslist. Or bringing cash to buy a used car when trust is an issue.
No more $20 in a birthday card or slipped into a grandchild’s hand.
No more piggy banks for your child to collect pocket money and to learn about the value of earning.
No more cash for a rainy day fund or for that something special you have been putting $20 a week away for.
No more charity collections like trick or treat for UNISEF
If you are unable to open an account for whatever reason, you are out of luck. You are effectively shut out of the monetary system.
What a cashless society does guarantee:
Banks have full control of every single penny you own.
Every transaction you make is recorded.
All your movements and actions are traceable.
Access to your money can be blocked at the click of a button when/if banks need ‘clarification’ from you which will take about 2 weeks, a thousand questions answered and many passwords.
You will have no choice but to declare and be taxed on every dollar in your possession.
If your transactions are deemed in any way questionable, by those who create the questions, your money will be frozen, ‘for your own good’.
Cash also retains its value in a way that plastic does not. Here is how:
I have a $50 bill in my pocket. I use it to buy dinner at a restaurant.
The restaurant owner then uses the bill to pay for the laundry.
The laundry owner then uses the bill to pay the machine repairman. And so on.
After an unlimited number of payments, it will still remain a $50 value, which has fulfilled its purpose to everyone who used it for payment.
If instead I had paid with a card the bank fees for my payment transaction charged to the seller are 3%, so around $1.50
And so will be the fee of $1.50 for each further payment transaction using plastic.
After 30 transactions, the initial $50 will exist at only $5 and the remaining $45 has become the property of the bank, thanks to all of the digital transactions and fees.
Everyone loses but the bank.
Cash has been around almost as long as people have. It gives you control over how you trade with the world. It gives you independence.
A completely cashless society is not only authoritarian, it actively harms the poor and marginalized.
And it would not stay that way. The people who rely on cash would simply give the status of money to some object that would fill the need for a symbolic means of exchange.
Some of us are already headed in that direction, seeking autonomy from a system which no longer values us, protects us, or fills our needs. If it ever did…
I think that a cashless society is essentially impossible in 2023. If nothing else, crypto and barter of some kind will still take place, and even precious metals can stand in for cash if you want a shadow economy.
Because our ancestral healing has not wholly begun. Communal living must be learned and acceptance of our human animal ways fine-tune in tune with the natural world.