Cashless crepes
By Sean Aqui | Related entries in Discuss, Ideas, Money, News, TechnologyNPR had an interesting take on the evolving cashless society this morning, telling the story of a small cafe in Washington, D.C. that has stopped taking cash (you’ll have to click on their audio link to hear the story). The downside? Occasionally upset customers. The upside? No need to make change, no need to worry about having large amounts of cash on hand, no need to worry about serious employee theft, easy and accurate accounting of all sales and a lower fee from their electronic-payment processor.
Privacy advocates may note another downside if this becomes universal: every purchase you make will be tracked and recorded. That probably doesn’t bother most people, and for those it may give pause, the convenience may outweigh the intrusion.
Meanwhile, a much-predicted occurrence — cashless vending machines selling everything from snacks to cell phones — may soon be arriving, bringing us one step closer to the Japanese, for whom buying all sorts of things out of vending machines is old hat.
Long a staple of science fiction, our lifetimes may see the disappearance or even criminalization of cash (after all, when every transaction can be electronic, the only purpose of losable, bulky cash becomes transactions that you don’t want recorded). Will that be a triumph or a loss?
This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 11th, 2006 and is filed under Discuss, Ideas, Money, News, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
October 11th, 2006 at 5:24 pm
This trend will bring about massive debt loads for Americans, and already has by the way, unless we get some education talking about to be responsible with credit.
Still, it’s intriguing. I mainly just use my debit card and stay far away from credit cards. I find it a much easier way to keep track of what I spend and where. If I use cash, I have to save receipts, and that’s a pain.
October 11th, 2006 at 5:34 pm
Last I looked, the currency still says: “This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private.”
Maybe a lawyer out there can correct me, but this is the way I learned it long ago: If you go to this cafe, eat, and then “tender” (offer) cash to pay for it, you have paid. If they refuse to take cash, you just got a free meal. You tendered, which legally pays the debt — whether they accept it or not.
October 11th, 2006 at 5:42 pm
According to wikipedia, someone can say what type of payment they want before the debt is incured. Once you eat the food they would have to take money as payment, but the can refuse to give you food in the first place (hence there is no debt) if you insist on paying in cash.
October 11th, 2006 at 7:25 pm
I don’t know my currency law, but I do know that it’s possible to specify, for example, that payment only be rendered by check in some transactions.
–|PW|–
October 11th, 2006 at 7:26 pm
No more bills? I guess they got tired of “crepe” paper.
–|PW|–
October 11th, 2006 at 7:48 pm
wj: It seems to me that wouldn’t necessarily prevent cash from being abolished as a legal form of payment in the future as Sean suggests. It would come down to the specifics of the legislation (for example it could specify that the “legal tender for all debts” notice on the printed currency is now null and void).
Another way they could phase out physical money would be to keep it legal but just shut down the U.S. Mints, and not replace currency and coins that are retired from circulation. Of course, this could have an interesting effect on the value of a physical dollar (at least unofficially, and relative to the value of an e-dollar) as the physical money supply dwindles.
October 12th, 2006 at 1:24 am
I would consider this a major loss and a travesty because the only things I pay ‘virtually’ are bills and online purchases. Everything else is paid in cash because nothing quite says “you’re done buying useless crap for the week” better than an empty wallet… Not to mention the fact that cash, as a physical possession, is not subject to the whims of corrupt bankers, hackers, or government confiscation. None are a big concern, but they cannot be 100% eliminated from a cashless capitalist driven society.