The War on Cash

[WickyWoman]

This is worth your time to watch. https://x.com/JamesMelville/status/1801137494957625838

[ecb]

There have been a number of petitions calling for the use of cash to be safeguarded, for example on the UK Government and Parliament petitions website, "Make a UK law requiring all establishments to accept cash": https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/636557 And on a news website: "Don't Kill Cash": https://www.gbnews.com/cash It remains to be seen what impact these will have. Perhaps this matter will feature in some small way in the current UK general election campaign.

[WickyWoman]

There have been a number of petitions calling for the use of cash to be safeguarded, for example on the UK Government and Parliament petitions website, "Make a UK law requiring all establishments to accept cash": https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/636557 And on a news website: "Don't Kill Cash": https://www.gbnews.com/cash It remains to be seen what impact these will have. Perhaps this matter will feature in some small way in the current UK general election campaign.

I agree. We should know how people feel about these things before they get into office. For me, it's a deal-breaker. I don't know if you've seen what they are doing in the United States, but in many of the stores they have installed heavy, thick-glass doors in many of the grocery stores (mostly the quick-shops) and right now you can open them just by waving your hand in front of them. But upon further inspection (by many people, you can find the videos all over) the doors are actually set up to only open by a palm reader (Amazon is pushing these) or a face scan - both of which are linked to your bank account. They simply haven't "activated" these features yet, they are too busy quietly installing them. So you can walk in without any cash, grab what you want, and walk out. Don't get me wrong, I love technology. It's so amazing to see everything than can be done to make our lives easier. The problem is that, while it will be easier to navigate the world, the dark side is that your access to everything can be shut down. I know a few people think it's OK what Canada did to its truckers by shutting off their access to their money (impacting the whole household, not even wives, children, elderly or disabled family members could buy food) -- but I urge everyone to understand that this is a glimpse of the future, not a one-off incident.

[ecb]

In a recent article on the BBC website titled "How the cashless society is hurting the poorest" it tells how access to cash hasbeen reduced through bank closures with a woman living in Edinburgh having to paying a £1.99 fee at her nearest cash machine or taking a bus to a supermarket to withdraw money. Also with more peopleusing cards rather than cash, a shopkeeper has to pay £700 on average for the card transactions. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crggzr10g12o