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Jada said... With regards to making the use of cash seem out of date, there's a commercial here that one of the banks is running, promoting the use of their VISA debit card. It shows this huge line of customers filing through the register at a coffee shop, everything running smoothly and efficiently, until one poor schmuck steps up to the register and tries to pay with cash. Suddenly, everything comes to a grinding halt! Coffee crashes to the ground! People run into each other! Oh the horror, someone used CASH! Everyone in the line glares at him in disgust as he pays for his purchase with cash, and of course the minute he's gone, everything runs smoothly again as no one else would be so silly as to use cash.
Yep, they're making it not only inconvenient, but almost shameful to pay with cash now.
That's insane! But now that you mention it that's how they made me feel when I used cash in most places.
I wonder, what else would people use if the network goes down or if there's no power for long periods of time? When our economy collapsed, it was months before credit and debit cards were used again. Even today, 10 years later, most small stores dont accept it and gas stations, most of them have signs that say "cash only".
As you well said, the subliminal message is that you should be ashamed of using cash. The big companies dont want you using cash, which makes people more aware of how much they spend. Not to mention, that way they know what you bought, where, at what time. much easier to track people and do a citizen's profile, both for marketing and use by any government agency that needs it.
FerFAL
14 comments:
As you note, there's a long history of political systems hating the freedom and anonymity of cash. This is why the $100 bill is the largest U.S. denomination; because "they" want to track all larger transactions in part to prosecute the war on (people who use unapproved) drugs.
In 2001 when gold ended a 21 year collapse even gold mining companies were so sure its price was going down that they were selling their future few years' production on the futures markets. When an asset class is that hated you know it is due a huge rally.
Today even drug dealers do everything they can to get rid of cash, and most women I know in the USA carry either zero cash or a nominal few bucks. Cash is detested (as the commercial notes).
Can we guess what is likely to happen?????
BTW, cash (equivalents) have outperformed the U.S. stock market for over 12 years now, and a dollar buys almost twice as much house today compared to 2005.
I am about the only person I know that regularly uses cash in stores. People in line hate it because it is, in fact, slower at the check-out and cashiers hate it because many of them have not mastered anything as complicated as subtraction.
In my experience the use of cash is frowned upon, though I hate the thought of anybody knowing exactly how much I spend on what items and with what frequency. I have nothing to hide but I just can't stand the idea of somebody compiling the list of things that is possible with regular use of debit/credit cards.
I know this isn't about your discussion but for those on the fence about self defense - I live in a small town, about 1/2 mile from a small city in the US.
Take a look at the small city newspaper and just start reading the police blotter. Do about 2 weeks - we are 3 miles fromk the center of this small city.
There is a constant run of drugs, gang busts, guns, some home invations (usually targeted at someone dealing drugs), etc.
These folks in the police blotter are living in a country with everything.
If something goes wrong and they no longer have everything, they will be coming to my house for food, water, medicine, drugs, etc.
There aren't enough police to deal with all of them at once.
That alone is enough to get ready, not for TEOTWAWKI or even a BIG SHTF but a small SHTF.
Time to get ready and be ready.
Love the book and the blog. Way too much good information!
A lot of stores like cash... less government spying, no VISA/MC transaction fees. Good sense to use cash.
A lot of the time, it depends on where you are shopping. I have a tendency to shop at "Mom and Pop" type shops...food stores, hardware, clothing, etc. They LOVE cash customers. What a lot of people do not know is that those debit and credit cards cost the store owner. They have to pay small transaction fees to process purchases. The highest transaction fees are for American Express cards, by the way. Which explains why some stores do not honor them.
Here's the link to one of the commercials:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hXmyD9a4zg
Our government likes electronic everything because they can make money out of thin air. If that money were in circulation inflation would have been out of control a long time ago. It's just a way of hiding the truth for a lot longer then a cash nation.
In New York City the credit cards are being used a lot more just like everywhere else, but there are still a LOT of places that won't take them, Like small shops and restaurants. This is compensated though that there are ATM's everywhere. We could probably be in the Guinness Book for most ATM's. People seem to prefer to use cc's, but don't mind running to an ATM steps away instead. The holdouts are the little businesses because they have to pay fees for these transactions. So the war is with them.
In richer parts of Manhattan it seems they are losing, but middle class areas it's a tug of war, and in the poorer boroughs there is no way cc's will be the preferred method. You can see it. as far as shops are concerned.
However even the poor people are using the cc a lot for gas, taxis, malls ect. The food stamps are a like a debit card. The small businessman is the lone warrior. Still a lot of these in NYC. Interesting because maybe the rest of America has been mostly conquered by the credit card companies, but not here, YET.
"Cash Is King" This is a saying to remember.
When you need something badly and find it is in short supply, need to travel quickly when opportunities are limited, wish to remain anonymous, need the ability to pay quickly under almost any circumstances, remember cash is always king.
There's a tobacco shop in a nearby town that won't take cards. It was annoying for a flash but I ended up proud of him and I guess his customers accept it, so good for them too.
I saw a news show a few months back in response to a northern state (Idaho? Wyoming?) accepting PMs for tax payment, a story basically proposing using PMs for trade... they found consumers who were ridiculing the notion for the story, clearly opposing it.
We also shouldn't forget that our credit rating system penalizes you if you only use cash for everything. Many of our younger adults can only build their credit rating by the use of a credit card as somebody 18-25 is unlikely to have something like house payments and often buy cheapo cars with cash instead of financing.
Credit cards are both good and bad for those of us in the US (and I assume elsewhere).
A few years back when gasoline was over $4.00 a gallon, a friend stopped at a gas station on payday, topped off his tank, went inside to pay with a $100 bill. The clerk refused to accept it, and my friend started to walk out. She stopped him, called the manager, who had to approve the transaction over the telephone. She had threatened to call the police, and my friend said to go right ahead, because he had attempted in good faith to pay. On each and every United States currency note is the statement "THIS NOTE IS LEGAL TENDER FOR ALL DEBTS, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE". They had wanted plastic. Many of us stopped trading there, and they are now out of business.
Eric in MI
Some gas station chains here in USA have been rejecting debit cards unless you have at least $100 in your account. The machine automatically checks your balance, and if you have less than $100, the card is spit back at you by the machine. It's to a point where the brazen greed of the banks and big corporations threatens to sink the whole idea of debit cards. If enough people get their debit cards refused, they will do as I did and take out the cash from their account and use that.
But it gets better. Visa is now teamed up with Mc Donald's and has a radio ad in central California with the same "don't use cash" theme, only the "customer" is using his Visa card for a milk shake in the drive-through!
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