You can already buy drugs online using Paypal. Just have to use the Dark Web. Entrepreneurship, ain't it wonderful.

I am another who would not have used cash for several years. We have "pay wave" on our credit and debit cards here (Oz) with no PIN number for purchases under $100 so it's quicker and easier than cash. And epidemiologically safer in this day and age too!

A while back, I rounded up all the jars and bags of loose change in various places around the house that had been waiting for years to be either used or taken to the bank. Took them all to the bank — turned out to be over $300.

Edited By Hopper on 07/04/2020 08:05:24

Out here during this corona virus lockdown, places are not taking cash. Supermarkets are refusing to accept cash for the groceries. Cards or go hungry.

But then they neglect to disinfect the keypad between each customer punching in their PIN number when paying by card.

The only recourse is to cough loudly after paying and say even louder " I wish I never ate that bat soup when I was in Wuhan".

Control of public movement, control of cash, option to demand everyone has an alerting tracker and police out monitoring people plus army mobilisation. Apart from the nuisiance virus governments must be loving it…the best of socialism….roll on new oligarchs.
[cynism off]

pgk

As part of my part time job delivering medication I have to bank the Chemists previous weeks takings and seeing how much there is every week I can say that there is an increase in the use of cash and I also collect change from the bank and that has increased as well.

There was a young man in the bank spouting miss information about the use of cash and the staff were very quick to dispel to other customers that what was being said was not correct.

Martin P

pgk – I suspect that there are many more websites where such characterisation assessments would be appropriate , and welcomed. Apart from one or two notable exceptions, we seem to manage well without politics!

rgds

Bill

I work in the vintage car world and we deal a lot in cash especially with French and German customers!

I'm reminded of the late George Best “I spent a lot of money on booze, birds, and fast cars. The rest I just squandered.”

Seriously though, despite being convenient for small personal transactions, cash has many disadvantages.

Try buying a new car in cash – asking will be an embarrassment for all concerned. Even worse, offer to buy a house in cash. Special arrangements will have to be made to move the money securely, and expect awkward questions about laundering, proceeds of crime, and tax evasion! Many purchases are impossible in cash – for example, online sales are all electronic.

Cash is completely unsuitable for buying anything really big like railways, motorways, airlines, shipping, armed forces, power stations, and the health service etc. Trade in goods, services and commodities is enormous – in 2019 Australia exported about $50Bn worth of coal and $75Bn Iron Ore. They weren't paid in cash!

Cash suits criminals because it's hard to trace. As they are the main users, the assumption now is a bag full of €500 notes is unlikely to be legitimate.

Managing cash in volume is a major risk due to crime, fire, flood and fraud. Payroll and bank robberies with violence were once commonplace. Even disposing of worn-out paper money is dangerous – Jack Mills never recovered from his injuries. Looking after cash costs a lot of money – safes, guards, armoured vans, bank vaults, alarm systems, cameras, spot checks etc.

So cash has been replaced gradually since about 1700 with 'instruments'. Once mainly high-finance, they're now common in ordinary life. Most of them today are electronic. Like cash, they are just promises to pay. Electronic money is a form of paper money – neither are actually valuable like Gold.

Electronic systems are safer than cash because they can be backed-up, traced, and are accountable. Cash kept under the bed is gone forever if its owner falls for a con-man. If the bank fall for a con-man, your money is safe. Electronic money transfers are much faster and far cheaper too.

Unfortunately, nothing is perfect. Banks are run by fallible humans. Greed often leads people to make foolish decisions and tempts them into crime. A common mistake is assuming a financial bubble like sub-prime mortgages must grow forever just because it paid a big bonus last year. Pop! A disadvantage of modern money methods is the system is much bigger and faster than before. When it crashes, it's likely to be on a large scale.

Dave

I know, but who'd have thunk you could print debt out of thin air?

Printing money was invented about the time of Isaac Newton (read Newton and the Counterfeiters) as a way of financing the British army. I rather suspect that as this was pre 1707 it would be the English army, but I'm open to correction.

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Shock : Horror … Perhaps it’s a myth

Don’t shoot the messenger though, Duncan

MichaelG.