21 October 2016
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"This week the former Barclays chief executive Antony Jenkins predicted the end of banks as we know them within two decades. What’s the point of these antiquated vaults, he suggested, when all that’s really needed to underpin the movement of wealth around the globe is a vast electronic ledger tracking who’s worth what, and some nifty apps for shunting it between us?
...No more saving coppers in jars, dropping spare coins in charity boxes; no cash means no change, the end of that faint illusion of getting something back on the transaction. And the mind boggles at how men will mark their domestic territory, once they can’t leave small slagheaps of coins on every recently cleared surface in the house. But the bigger question here is who exactly a cashless society is designed to serve.
...It’s not just that people tend to spend more freely when the money feels abstract, just numbers on a screen. Turn a phone into a virtual wallet, the one thing nobody leaves home without, and you’re shackled to it for ever. What was once an expensive toy becomes a necessity, a contract you can’t cancel if times get tough – but also, perhaps, a tracking device."
See the article: A cashless future? Sounds like a dream but don’t be fooled (The Guardian, link)
For a more detailed look at the issue of the "cashless society", see: The War on Cash (The Long+Short, link): "Banks, governments, credit card companies and fintech evangelists all want us to believe a cashless future is inevitable and good. But this isn't a frictionless utopia says Brett Scott, and it's time to fight back"
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