The future is now!
In this digital world the future is technology. A cashless society where you will have no control of your privacy and money. As time moves faster, so will technology with self driving cars, virtual assistants and phone devices that can do anything for you with just a few clicks away. Money has always been a subject that most people avoid talking about, and now people don’t have to talk about it or even collect their money in person because we have fast transferring access to what we owe or what we need to collect. Many parts of other countries have now change to a cashless society and we see more places adapting to this idea. But who will hurt and who will benefit from all this changes? We know that money has always been regulated by the government and its not going to get better from here.
INTRODUCTION
The War on cash is base on the idea of a cashless society. We first get introduced to paper money but as time has evolved, the computer took over the development of our society, and we are now living in the most digital world there is. With hundreds of computers, applications and smart devices, many financial institutes are developing more channels to provide you with more plastic (credit cards), access to fast checkouts, and available funds.
When was the last time you carry cash with you? If you live in a busy city, like LA, San Francisco, and New York, you are always on the go. A cashless society will benefit those like many of us with access to smart devices, and a fast-living life. If you are on the go for work and want things to move faster, jump on this train before it has too many passengers on board so you can benefit of this movement.
PROFIT.
The future is here, and technology began to concur our life. Money has been around for many centuries and paper cash for many decades. Do you remember when you were a kid how your grandmother always took coins out of her little coin bag to buy you a candy? Those times are all gone. Most people, especially the young generation are no longer carrying loose change with them. You can easily spot cash on the floors pretty much all the time when you walk now, granted you will not find paper money you will discover dimes and lots of pennies.
The new generation want fast and easy access to everything. We are living in a digital world, where plastic money such as credit card and digital apps are taking over and replacing face to face money interaction.
So, the question is who will benefit from this significant change? Who will hurt from this change?
According to the Motley Fool site, some of the facilities that will benefit from having less cash available and more plastic is Visa.
"Visa's 2018 third quarter 20% payment volume growth and control 50% of the market place" (Cochrane, 2019).
We see a new application or a new device be presented to us on a regular basics. Between institutions, such as Visa, Master cards, PayPal and many others who are taking full growth and making high profit by having more people switch to digital paid. Citizens want to be able to buy things right away, have access to their money right away. According to Motley fool, everyone can benefit from these companies. If you like to invest or are an investor, you can generate profit by buying some shares from some of those institutions, such as Visa, Master cards, etc. (Cochrane, 2019)
Many people argue that a cashless society will only benefit the rich. The benefits will only help those who have access to more money, and live a comfortable lifestyle. According to the Atlantic.com, there was a study done by the FDIC that Black and Hispanic families have no bank accounts, and the highest consumers are Latinos who have growth the GDP in the last year by 2.13 trillion, and it keeps growing, (Latinodonorcollaborative.org, 2019).
Within the Latin culture we still see people get paid cash due to immigration status or from low education knowledge that don’t understand how to operate technology. It will be hard not to be able to use cash. For example, if you are going to a store and they don't accept your cash payment, what else can you do if you only get paid cash?. According to a few states like New York, The New York City Council past a bill that prohibits retail establishment from not accepting cash. We might end up seen other states implement this bills like in New York. Even though no one knows who will benefit from these changes we are for sure certain of those who will hurt.
After all, we might find a solution if there are trusted facilities such as Squared Inc, and PayPal Holdings Inc. These facilities don’t required for you to have bank accounts for payments? Los Angeles Times has an article about how Amazon Go, is the new way of charging for those who are more wealthy than others. Amazon is leading the cashless society, and according to Los Angeles Time, they will try to open approximate 3,000 more stores in the next few years, (Bloomberg, 2019).
CONCLUSION.
Is a cashless society here to stay? Another decade will be gone next year, and as time moves fast, technology will rise faster. New technology devices will be developed. More working citizens with access to bank accounts will adjust to direct deposits and online transactions. We will have less interaction with other humans because our life will depend on checking our devices all the time. Financial institutions will implement new high rates to compete with other facilities. You could potentially be more or less financially independent and perhaps feel a little safer by not carrying cash with you.
The question is who will benefit or hurt from all these changes, and the answer to this rising questions is that the government will have more control to citizen money and financial institutions. The poor and uneducated people will be more affected.
With big organizations becoming more profitable, a new rise in our GDP will take effect. In conclusion, we will see the government have more control to regulate every movement. We will encounter more risk to privacy and easy hacking problems. A cashless society is here even if we don't want to see it, the world of cryptocurrency and cybercrime might be the next face of our economy. This is the war on cash.