"The real problem, which economists are starting to recognize, is that paper cash is an impediment to effective monetary policy, and therefore economic growth. The key argument is this: In our world of ultra-low inflation, it may be necessary for central banks to cut rates to below zero. However if that happens, consumers can always take physical cash out of the banking system to avoid paying negative rates. In a world of purely digital money, the central bank could set interest rates wherever was appropriate. . . So not only is cash cumbersome like gold (time consuming, physically costly) it's an increasingly problematic component of the monetary system. Like gold, it's a form of hard money that's growth-constraining and deflationary. So yes, cash is pretty to look at, and everyone would love to one day have a gigantic pile of it. But it's time to ditch this barbarous relic and have a monetary system fit for the 21st century." http://finance.yahoo.com/news/paper-currency-gold-004346371.html In the future, having personal savings will be considered selfish, immoral and may become illegal. Instead only state approved wealth investments will be permitted, your life savings will be everyone's life savings, collectively held to benefit us all equally.
Moral: keep cash alive by paying for all of your food, fuel, general shopping using cash. Avoid the plastic as much as possible. When convenient, pull cash out of your bank account and walk to the bank next door to pay bills etc instead of using electronic transfers. If people like Coles and Woolies ever turn off the option for cash you know we're screwed.
wtf is going on ? There's like a new article every week now about cash being obsolete and not needed any more
Preparation for the cashless society? Then move to the Digital New World currency? Nah, I'm dreaming. It's all just a conspiracy theories made up by those cooky "Silver Stackers".
They are setting the scene! Stories about how it costs 6 cents to make a 5 cent piece, get the public riled up about the government waste and get them to demand that the 5 cent gets scrapped. The threat of penalty fees for paying bills late can be removed by setting up direct debits. Stories about how older people are hiding money under the mattress so they can defraud the pension out of the government. Stories about how high denomination banknotes can facilitate criminals to move money around. Stories about how much tax evasion there is by tradies and the 'unemployed' working for cash-in-hand. Stories about how malcontents are paying fines in low denomination coins and wasting poor office workers' time. How much time you can save waiting in check-out queue with a simple wave of your credit card. How much it costs the taxpayer to make, store and distribute coins. Stories about people being mugged or robbed for tiny sums of cash. All these stories are seperate but they are all anti-cash and all pro electronic transfers. The people will be begging for the end of cash and its replacement with digital currency. I can't see people hoarding current money to keep a black economy going but I can see older pre dec coins being used again.
We have to get rid of this paradigm saying that inflation is good. It's amazing how ultra-low inflation = bad and high inflation = bad, but somehow these monetary geniuses know just the right amount of inflation to keep everything going. Why if it wasn't for them the whole world would descend into crisis. Oh wait... I look forward to the day when ongoing deflation is deemed as good. Until that day I'll continue to use alternatives to their digital currency as much as possible.
Central banks (or reserve banks) are the true barbarous relics. They should be consigned to the dustbin of history where they belong.
Governments want a currency they can fully track, one that can be used to match transactions to individual citizens. Not only for taxation, but to detect transactions in goods and services that they deem illegal. Going further, a fully auditable history of transaction data can be used retrospectively should you find yourself on the wrong side of the government. Privacy and anonymity are increasingly being eroded and the gradual elimination of the use of cash is part of this.
