Regardless of your opinion if we're going to have or would want a cashless society or not - the article glosses over a lot of negative aspects.
The article mentions crime as a main motivator to shifting away from cash. The amount of robberies/muggings have gone down, but card theft and fraud is sky-rocketing. I would be interested to hear more about how kidnapping/extortion have fared in comparison as well.
The article mentions that retail crime will be just a memory after we've shifted away from cash. There has been plenty of retail card theft and fraud stemming from hacked retailed networks and hacked/rigged payment terminals during the last three years (2013-2016).
The article mentions that shifting away from cash would give the governments of the world a leg up in controlling our usage of money. I have nothing to object to there, but would like to add that it also gives private companies a leg up in controlling our usage of money as well. Both from the perspective of knowing where we spend and what we spend on - but also as they can terminate the contract to any retailer or payment processor at basically any time. Sure, not everyone is Wikileaks - but when you've broken the principle, it could happen to anyone.
The article mentions crime as a main motivator to shifting away from cash. The amount of robberies/muggings have gone down, but card theft and fraud is sky-rocketing. I would be interested to hear more about how kidnapping/extortion have fared in comparison as well.
The article mentions that retail crime will be just a memory after we've shifted away from cash. There has been plenty of retail card theft and fraud stemming from hacked retailed networks and hacked/rigged payment terminals during the last three years (2013-2016).
The article mentions that shifting away from cash would give the governments of the world a leg up in controlling our usage of money. I have nothing to object to there, but would like to add that it also gives private companies a leg up in controlling our usage of money as well. Both from the perspective of knowing where we spend and what we spend on - but also as they can terminate the contract to any retailer or payment processor at basically any time. Sure, not everyone is Wikileaks - but when you've broken the principle, it could happen to anyone.