Where exactly are there businesses that only accept credit? I have lived in Northern New Jersey near New York City my entire life and I have never seen a credit only business even before New Jersey decided to take some action. I have seen cash only businesses and businesses where you need to buy at least a minimum of ten to fifteen dollars worth of stuff before they accepted credit but never a credit only store. Were cashless stores really a trend? Maybe I will see a lot more of this when I go to Sweden in May.
In my neighbourhood in Malmö everyone still accept (and prefer) cash. However, many of the bars, cafés and restaurants in the fancier part of town only accepts card or mobile payments. On the bus you have to pay with a card or phone if you haven’t prefilled your bus pass. Last time I was in Stockholm, only the cheapest bar accepted cash. All the grocery stores I’ve been to have accepted both, but in the bigger ones you are incentivised to use a card, if you want to use the self-checkout or the extra cash register they open up when it’s busy you have no choice but to pay with card. I’m not sure what it’s like in the countryside, but I imagine some of the stores as starting to ditch cash since the ATMs are getting more and more rare.
This article seems to want to point at cashless retail establishments.. which I agree with you are rare, and moreover, unimportant. What about cashless businesses like Uber and app-based bike share programs where you have to have some form digital currency to sign up? Also consider services like PayPal, etc. It is incredibly difficult to live cash-only, but not because of a few boutique shops that don’t take paper money.
If a person is living cash-only, they probably aren't using Uber or a bike share program to begin with. They are probably taking the bus. The thing about digital currency is that it can still be optional in one's life. You don't have to take an Uber or buy things through paypal. You can still go to a store to buy things or take a bus or a train. What digital currency system would you suggest is absolutely something you can't live without?
Again, if a person doesn’t have some sort of credit card, then they can’t use these services to begin with. I think it’s a bit unfair to assume they wouldn’t like to, however. The place where I live, like many places in the US, doesn’t have a fully functioning bus system, and definitely no train. Imagine needing to travel several miles to a job interview and you have no car. There’s no bus to take, no bike lanes. Oh, and it’s pissing rain. I’m not making this story up, this was the explanation I got when offering a ride to a guy walking on the side of the road. He said thanks, but that he was almost there. But we do have ride hailing services here, and they are very beneficial to people who can use them. I don’t think there’s any digital currency a person absolutely can’t live without. But not having some form of electronic currency in today’s society can be a serious disadvantage, and is one of the many compounding effects of poverty. My personal opinion in all this, for what little it is worth, is not that business should be required to accept cash. It is that it should be easier to have electronic currency in the first place. Which is a whole other discussion.If a person is living cash-only, they probably aren't using Uber or a bike share program to begin with.
You don't have to take an Uber or buy things through paypal. You can still go to a store to buy things or take a bus or a train.
What digital currency system would you suggest is absolutely something you can't live without?