When computers, EFTPOS machines and internet banking don’t work, cash still does.
It doesn’T surprise me that young people don’t carry money but when I was working at Rotary Bookarama I was surprised how many elderly people used EFTPOS for as little as $2.
I don’t usually make card payments for small amounts and always have a $20 note in my wallet for emergencies.
I do own an e-reader but only use it when travelling, much preferring real books. They don’t have to be charged and once read can be passed on to others or donated to Bookarama.
Another benefit of real books, is that when there¡s an IT outage, they still work.
I do own an e-reader but only use it when travelling, much preferring real books. They don’t have to be charged and once read can be passed on to others or donated to Bookarama.
Another benefit of real books, is that when there¡s an IT outage, they still work.
Ele Ludemann is a North Otago farmer and journalist, who blogs HERE - where this article was sourced.
3 comments:
Days like today make those of us nostalgic about analogue the smart ones. It’s rather extraordinarily stupid for anyone living in the Pacific Ring of Fire to not have cash on hand, let alone businesses choosing to be cashless & paper-less & not have a contingency. But then, we are the nation that has been pushing electric everything without upgrading the infrastructure to support it, so it’s hardly surprising that most people are nil.
Ele, many businesses these days do NOT accept cash. They have no cash registers and if they do, often the young people running the checkout counters can't even make change because they don't know how to add and subtract.
In the USA, cash is "legal tender" and must be accepted as payment for a debt. I'm not sure about the situation here. The "cashless society" is a recipe for chaos.
When the G20 in their infinite wisdom decided that Open Bank Resolution was a neat idea (in a Brisbane meeting we think it was), we discovered that as bank depositors our money lodged in the bank was not secure as ordinary customers are not defined as secured creditors. NZ Reserve bank bought into this and while the alternative of one's bank being liqidated ins not pretty either we decided on a contingency measure of our own. This was also prompted by the Greek fiscal collapse and the similar fiasco in Cyprus where people were allowed something like access to about 60 Pounds a day max. We now hold a fair lump of cash and deliberately forego interest on that in the hope that as a hedge against bank collapse (albeit it rare until it happens!!!), a pylon gets a nut-ectomy, or a global IT outage hits then we stand a chance of eating.
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