Predicting a Future Free of Dollar Bills 753
An anonymous reader writes with this story about how a cashless society might work and how far-off in the future it is. "...We're not there yet, but a cashless society is not as fanciful as it seems. Recent research suggests that many believe we will stop using notes and coins altogether in the not-too-distant future. New payments technologies are rapidly transforming our lives. Today in the U.S., 66 percent of all point-of-sale transactions are done with plastic, while in the U.K. it's just under half. But while a truly cashless society is some time away yet, there is raft of groundbreaking technologies that will make cash a mere supporting act in the near future."
66 percent of all point-of-sale transactions (Score:5, Informative)
Drugs (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Drugs (Score:5, Informative)
There are a full range of benefits of paying with cash. Limiting the number of credit card transactions to make it easier to track proper and improper ones. Discounts that are available when purchasing with cash. The trades prefer to be paid cash and discount accordingly somewhat fair as their payment can not be tax deducted unless you can hide you home behind a business. It works when the power is out. It keeps perverse privacy invasive government agencies and corporations from tracking every single thing you do.
Going back to cash (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Cash Needs To Go Away (Score:5, Informative)
"Cashless" is also a giant vacuum sucking service fees back to the banks and so on. Retailers pay a certain amount per transaction to a payment processor, even if you the customer don't pay directly. Think that doesn't come out of your pocket in the end through higher prices?
Just imagine how much money you would have if you got a penny for every transaction conducted in every North American Wal-mart for just one day -- you could retire several times over and still afford fuel for your yachts!
Are we really in that much of a hurry to keep giving more money to the banks?
Re:Useless coins (Score:3, Informative)
Don't get me started on pennies. The reason we still have them is mostly sentimental. If it were my choice I'd drop the penny AND the nickle, AND the quarter, introduce a 20 cent piece, and be done.
Dollar coin never took off because they kept making bills. Other countries that have dollar coins stopped making the bills, so the coin took over as the bills left circulation. The actual economics of the bill vs. coin in the US are quite interesting due to how well made our bills are and how long they last in circulation, but then you add in the fact the people tend to drop change in a jar at home and the question of which is better for the government gets really interesting (there's a GAO report on the subject somewhere).
Two dollar bill just doesn't really serve much of a purpose - $5 is small enough for normal use, the $2 doesn't really add much functionality to the system.
Re:Going back to cash (Score:5, Informative)
Exactly true. Market research shows people spend more if they are using a CC. Part of the psychology is of course that cash you are carrying around is generally a more limited asset than your CC balance limit.
Banks Love It - They tax you (Score:4, Informative)
Banks love you using plastic. They tax every transaction. Paying with plastic costs you at least 2.5% and as much as 5% extra because the merchants must build that into the price to pay the banks for the credit card transactions. This is a hidden inflation. A hidden tax.
Banks also like it because they can collect data on your behavior and that is a salable product which makes them more money.
I had a Visa vendor account... (Score:5, Informative)
So I perfectly understand why some stores have a minimum charge or won't take credit at all, it's a big hassle and cost.
Re:Cash Needs To Go Away (Score:5, Informative)
In theory electronic cash, such as bitcoins, could still allow anonymous transactions.
Re:Canada has the future :) (Score:3, Informative)
I'm Canadian and I agree with you on all of these points. When I visit the US I find it annoying that a) your paper money is such crappy quality, and b) it all looks the same making it harder to tell the difference in my wallet. I always end up with a million $1 bills because out of habit I end up breaking 5's, 10's and 20's to pay for things. In Canada, up until 1996 we still had $2 bills before the toonie (the $1 bill was changed to a loonie some time in the 80's).
The penny round just started a few years ago and nobody missed a beat! It only applied to cash transactions (not debit or credit, as those are billed in exact amounts). If I'm not mistaken, the cost to produce the penny is more than it's face value.
I have never understood why the US treasury doesn't just stop producing $1 bills and force a coin into circulation. That's what Canada did - nobody had any choice and it was preceded with much education about the new coins making sure people understood the coins were legal tender. $1 bills are quite rare now, as are some $2 bills, both of which are still legal tender. I remember when the toonie was introduced, NOBODY would give you funny looks and everybody accepted it. I suppose it's one of those funny differenced between our cultures like opinions on guns and public healthcare.
Re:Useless coins (Score:5, Informative)
Wrong, they're made for circulation, they're just making sets with all the presidents, like they did with all the states and Washington DC on quarters.
No, sorry, but you are wrong here. The US mint is sitting on roughly a billion of these coins, minted in previous years, which may never see circulation because there is no demand. Thus, the mint is NOT minting any new coins for the purpose of circulation. Unlike quarters (which circulate and wear out and needed to be replaced, new designs or not), at current demand levels, the mint has enough dollar coins in storage to last for decades [npr.org].
Thankfully, the mint was able to stop this idiocy of minting new coins just to shove into vaults a few years ago, so now they are only producing new coins to sell as uncirculated coins for collectors (which they can actually make some money off of). Sure, the new coins CAN be put in circulation, but their primary purpose is to be sold for premium prices to collectors.
Re:Why? (Score:5, Informative)
I'm fighting the government right now. They decided...
Who? A court issuing a judgement, or the IRS seeking unpaid taxes? There is no Department of Government that simply decides anything. It's always the result of some bureaucracy, with a defined process for dispute resolution.
I owed them 37,000$. No explanations.
No explanations, or none that you understood? I've had the IRS come looking for money a few times, and each time it included an enumerated list of what parts of my paperwork they disagreed with. In typical government form, there was no colloquial interpretation, but to an accountant and tax preparer, though, all of the necessary information was there.
The only thing I was told was I'm supposed to have received everything by mail. Of course, I never received anything.
How did you get notice that you owed the money, then? Have you checked that the suitable department has your address correct?
I lost count how many time I called or went to talk to someone.
That's a mistake. Keep records of every time you talk to someone about the matter, and take notes on what they say.
Sometimes the guy I talk to says...
Which guy? Record names, ID numbers, or any other identifier. Those are important to track down exactly who has said what, and on what authority. I've had some matters resolved just by pointing different bureaucrats at each other, and letting them work out the disagreement internally.
Last year, the government froze all my accounts and stole my money.
"Froze" and "stole" are not the same things. Either way, get a good lawyer.
After talking to a lawyer, I was told this kind of cases could go on for a very long time and could cost me a lot of money.
...as can any lawsuit.
The advice was that I should forget about my money.
...I said to get a good lawyer.
The bottom line is that either your story doesn't add up, or you're rather incompetent with governmental matters. Find a suitable advocate for this matter (either a different lawyer for a judgement, or a tax specialist for an IRS dispute, etc.) and give them absolutely every piece of information you have. Record absolutely everything that transpires. Yes, it will cost you a significant amount of money now, because you've sat on this for three years, but I'd be surprised if it totaled more than $37,000.
The most important thing is to make sure that someone fighting on your side is an expert in the relevant process. If you work within the established process, the various governmental entities are actually very forgiving and understanding. You must realize that the actual humans involved don't really care about taking your money, finding guilt, or screwing you over in any other way. They're interested in following the process and closing disputes, so if you show that you're interested in doing things the right way, they'll often be happy to explain exactly what that is. You don't need to waste their time professing your innocence, or telling them how horribly wrong the Big Bad Government is for attacking you. Just find out what you need to do to resolve the dispute, have an expert on hand to verify the information and ask questions, then do whatever's appropriate.
Re:Drugs (Score:5, Informative)
Cash isn't anonymous. Every time you spend cash it eventually gets scanned and the numbers sent to the government. You take cash from the bank, scan. The gas station deposits that money, scan. You might have paid a hooker with it, and then she bought cash- but if they can trace all the other money from the gas station to tourists then it's more likely it was you buying gas.
Uh, you take the hundred dollar bill from the bank teller, then you buy something with it and get change with smaller bills and so on. Notice how your original withdrawal gets lost in the noise?
Re:Cashless can't happen, here is why ... (Score:5, Informative)
Its already happening. See Operation Chokepoint [wikipedia.org]. If the government doesn't like your line of work, you won't have a bank account.
Re:Cash Needs To Go Away (Score:2, Informative)
https://bitcoin.org/en/you-nee... [bitcoin.org]
Lots of things work in theory but not practice.
To be "anonymous" with Bitcoin, you basically have to use a different address for every single transaction, and never cash out.
To be anonymous with Dollars, you... pay for stuff with Dollars, and you don't have to use a different wallet every time you buy something.
Cash wins.