A Cashless Future?

Folding money. Crisp bills. A fat wallet. Bright, shiny coins jingling in your pocket.

Those were the hallmarks of a cash-based economy.

But are these also the hallmarks of a system that’s rapidly going out of style?

Let me ask you a question: How many of you purposefully carry cash these days?

If so -- Why?

Cash used to be the king of transactions. Flash some cash, get some change back, and go on your merry way.

But in recent times I've noticed that I almost never have any cash in my wallet. It’s become just a repository for my credit cards and photos of my kids and grandkids.

And that’s precisely why I don’t often carry cash. No, not the photos -- the credit and debit cards.

Our society now operates almost exclusively on plastic. Paper or plastic? Increasingly, it’s plastic, just like the guy said in “The Graduate.”

Remember checks? Who writes checks anymore?

Paying bills is almost always now done through computerized banking methods. Only throwbacks send checks or -- gasp -- cash through the mail these days.

And in a COVID-threatened world, touching cash seems risky, not knowing who’s handled that money before it ended up in your pocket.

But I do miss real money.

I always liked the feel and look of greenbacks in my wallet. And I enjoyed getting a handful of change back from my purchase.

Being an amateur coin collector (are there any professional coin collectors?), I’d empty my pocket at the end of the day and see if I’d gotten any coins that just might be valuable.

If not, I’d toss them into a jar and earmark it for my granddaughter’s college fund, to be brought to my bank when the jar is full and emptied into one of those cool coin-counting machines.

“There you go, Mr. Porter. Fifty-eight dollars and ten cents.”

Wow. I could swear there was more than that in there…

Be that as it may, filling that jar now seems to be an almost impossible mission.

Recently, Walmart stopped accepting cash for its self-checkout machines. They said they couldn’t keep up with demand for cash change as there is a national shortage.

So I don't get that. Why is there a shortage? There was always plenty to go around before COVID. Can’t the government just produce more cash?

I suspect it’s because the government (or whoever makes these decisions) realizes our society is entering a cashless phase and there will soon be no need for a lot of loose money to be floating around.

And then there's cryptocurrency, which I confess I don't get at all. But for some reason, it's a concept that won't die.

So is cash safer than plastic? With plastic, you almost always get a receipt or some record of your purchase. With cash, not so much.

But credit/debit cards can be hacked and cause no end of personal disruption.

I’ve always loved the feel of cash in my hand.

But -- sadly -- I think that feeling is about to end.

So long, George.

Goodbye, Abe.

Nice to know you, Andy.

It was fun while it lasted...