IBS Journal October 2016
EDITOR’S NOTE THE WAR ON CASH
I RECENTLY READ AN INTERESTING ARTICLE IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, ENTITLED ‘THE SINISTER SIDE OF CASH’. PAPER MONEY FUELS CORRUPTION, TERRORISM, TAX EVASION AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, SO THE US SHOULD GET RID OF THE $100 BILL AND OTHER LARGE NOTES, IT ARGUED
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Senior Editor Scott Thompson
Scott.Thompson@
ibsintelligence.com
end to cash, unlike mobile payment evangelists who love to shout the imminent death of notes and coins from the rooftops. “If cash is so bad, why retain small bills of $10 and under? For one thing, cash still accounts for more than half of retail purchases under $10…Many low-income individuals still rely heavily on cash, although of course they aren’t the ones carrying wads of $100s. Retaining small notes alleviates a host of problems that might arise if cash were eliminated entirely.”
T
As the famous quip goes, “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” Critics say it facilitates crime but consumers see cash as a shield for their privacy. A Daily Mail article has been stirring up a lot of debate here in the UK: ‘Why I’ve cut up my contactless bank
card...and you should too…they are driving up prices and killing off cash’. I won’t go through its contents in detail. But in a nutshell, the writer was sent a contactless debit card and he immediately cut it up with a pair of scissors because banks and credit card issuers are evil.
A tad OTT, yes, and the journo’s argument contains numerous holes (without a debit card, how will you withdraw your beloved cash?) But I agree with him on one point. People still like and trust physical money and distrust those who seek to do away with it. It’s unfair to write them off as luddites for this (as often happens within the tech
he author stopped short of calling for an
industry, we know what’s best for you etc etc).
Personally, a mix of old and new works for me. There are times when I find Apple Pay and my contactless card convenient. But often physical money is my preferred option; e.g. getting taxis and buying stuff from indie retailers who don’t have card processing facilities (there are still many of these outside of London). “When I hear about Visa and Mastercard doing their best to eliminate cash from our lives, I am deeply cynical about their motives. I fear they are trying to engineer a future world where we can never buy or sell anything without using their services,” writes the Daily Mail journo. “While I am happy to use my debit card when it suits me, I am going to resist being bullied into using it every time. But if we want to avoid being ripped off by banks and card issuers, it is vital that we fight for the right to pay in cash.”
Those pushing digital payments scoff at such viewpoints and counter with spurious ‘the future is mobile’ research. They are winning the debate at present simply because the banks and card schemes are chucking large amounts of money at PR and marketing campaigns. It’s time to fight back and put the other side of the argument: cashless society equals a world where you have to ask your bank for permission to pay. Yes, cash has a sinister side but it’s really just the sinister side of human nature, evident also in a Big Brother-style surveillance of your everyday spend.
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