If you could erase one trend from history, what would it be?
Farewell, paper money. Farewell dollar bills. Farewell pennies and nickels. You were good friends, but your time is over. The credit card now rules supreme.
I regret the trend of cash payments dying off. Credit and debit cards are handy in a pinch, no doubt, and paying for things online is a tremendous convenience. I’m not playing the hypocrite here, I use my credit card regularly. But I miss the time when cashiers expected you to pay with cash.
Cash is safe. Swindlers can’t steal your personal info from a dollar bill. They can’t swipe your identity from a dime. Cash takes time to use, what with counting out the bills and fiddling with the coins, but it’s more secure.
“But, Jake,” you might say, “what about counterfeit money?” Well, what about credit card fraud? Counterfeit money is a risk, but at least it doesn’t hand over your social security number, address and bank account to a perilous stranger.
I also like the tangibility of paper money. I like things that I can hold in my hand and know are real. Credit is too easy to squander. Numbers on a screen, nothing more. No sobering reminder that spending credit is spending money. Paying a hundred dollars in cash carries much more weight than paying a hundred by card. You see the money fleeing before your very eyes.
There are places that don’t accept cash at all, now. I’m sure someday paper money won’t exist in any shape or form. Transactions will all be digital. Numbers scrolling by on a computer screen. A shame. I like bills and coins, but I imagine that when I’m old and gray, the only place I’ll see them is in a museum.
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Many thanks for visiting my blog. I post updates on my writing career, I muse over storytelling and fiction, and I reflect on the curious and wonderful things in life.
Jake W. Powell 