(But first, a correction about yesterdays post. My point was based on images of garbage. You had to click on the green highlighted word “mad”, which most people missed. I will make my links clearer in the future.)
I can’t remember what website I found this on, but it is good information. And maybe the consequences are something you hadn’t thought of.
“An anonymous reader quotes this opinion piece by former derivatives broker Brett Scott: Banks are closing ATMs and branches in an attempt to ‘nudge’ users towards digital services — and it’s all for their own benefit… I recently got a letter from my bank telling me that they are shutting down local branches because “customers are turning to digital”, and they are thus “responding to changing customer preferences”. I am one of the customers they are referring to, but I never asked them to shut down the branches… I am much more likely to “choose” a digital option if the banks deliberately make it harder for me to choose a non-digital option. In behavioral economics this is referred to as “nudging”. If a powerful institution wants to make people choose a certain thing, the best strategy is to make it difficult to choose the alternative…
“Digital systems may be “convenient”, but they often come with central points of failure. Cash, on the other hand, does not crash. It does not rely on external data centres and is not subject to remote control or remote monitoring. The cash system allows for an unmonitored “off the grid” space. This is also the reason why financial institutions and financial technology companies want to get rid of it. Cash transactions are outside the net that such institutions cast to harvest fees and data.”
“A cashless society brings dangers. People without bank accounts will find themselves further marginalized, disenfranchised from the cash infrastructure that previously supported them. There are also poorly understood psychological implications about cash encouraging self-control while paying by card or a mobile phone can encourage spending. And a cashless society has major surveillance implications.
While a cashless society might make it cheaper to run a bank, “A cashless society is not in your interest…” argues the author.”
“We must recognize every cash machine that is shut down as another step in financial institutions’ campaign to nudge you into their digital enclosures.”
Cash is freedom. Cashless is another step in the direction of too much control over your life.