It's happening everywhere else!
Some months ago, I wrote about "A Paperless Society" [I'm about to tell you to go see my article list...I know, it's annoying when you have to do all the work!] but, in that article, I wrote about our society, our world going paperless, at least, we were supposed to have by now but haven't - at least not completely! I've seen other articles written on the subject online and in other Journals. It's still a debatable topic of interest.
Recently I had a discussion with some friends about money, our use of it and it became a hot debate on who walked around with cash, and who didn't. Some only walk around with a Debit card, or a Credit card, but never cash. At the time, one of them forgot his Debit card and thus couldn't do anything because he was cashless!
I saw this very topic under discussion in the Futurist, May/June 2007 issue, "Our Cashless Future" written by Allen H. Kupetz.
Mr. Kupetz reported that (having spoken to a currency expert Robert Schafrik), because of the ease of printing fake bills, this is a big drawback to us still having paper currency in our world. He also said that because of the growth of wireless telecommunications, these new technologies is why we will be a cashless society pronto!
Of course, our society going cashless have already begun. As I told you above, some people don't bother to carry cash anymore. I've done that too, sometimes, but I still find the use of paper cash important to me. Because I'm the one who will forget where I've placed my Debit card so I have to have both!
According to the article though, the United States is way behind when it comes to going cashless unlike countries such as those in Asia and in Europe, who are way ahead of us! In Japan and Singapore and Korea, they have mobile phones equipped smartcards so that they can pay at the many vending machines and such. Many companies in Asia offer a wide range of cashless services and the devices to go with them as well!
Unlike here in the US. Supposedly, we are more wary of this. Our leaders are more readily to say, if there's nothing wrong with our system as it is, leave it alone, i.e., an if it ain't broke don't fix it mentality! That's because the people who create our policies are older and not as receptive to change or technology! Although the blame cannot be placed on their shoulders alone, some of us, the consumers, don't want that change as well because we also don't trust technology.
So our demand for going "cashless" is nonexistence, thus we will continue to have paper currency. Some citizens even say that if we become a cashless society entirely, that means we are making the way for "the beast", i.e., Satan to take over our world! [www.cryingvoice.com]
There would be advantages and disadvantages to going cashless. What, did you think there wouldn't be? The disadvantages would be possibly invasion of our privacy of course. Using these digital money devices would keep track of what we buy, where we spend our money and also, just how much money some of us do have! I'm sure some people wouldn't want others to know just how much of a fetish they have for some things...or just how indulgent they are with anything!
The advantage would be that there would be less cases of robbery because the robber wouldn't be getting any cash, and even if your card/device got stolen, the transfer of your digital dollars would not be as easy and it would be protected so you would not be responsible, as is the case now! Another advantage is for our society and the national debt, those people who owe taxes, if unpaid, it will be easily collected. And this is exactly where the right to privacy of your money would come in, we definately won't be going totally cashless too soon!
We already have seen the trend towards a cashless society with the use of Debit and Credit cards of course; and now with the ExxonMobil Speedpass. I've also heard about a wrist watch, Casio Offica, from Casio that will double as a cashless wallet!
When and if we do go cashless, keeping our devices secure will be of much importance. Our personal information would have to be protected even more than it is right now. That would definately be one of the drawbacks to some people going cashless as well!
According to Mr. Kupetz, going cashless in our society depends on three things, security, privacy, and ease of use. I totally agree with him on that!