Never has there been a more obvious breach of privacy. And never have I been more certain that society is so asleep at the wheel that they will allow it to happen.
I work as a cashier and hate when people use credit or debit. I actually enjoy when someone pays in cash. Mainly because it gives me a chance to search the coins.
I think it will greatly increase the value of our collections. Maybe not instantly but after a good couple years without cash in the system.
Also, I think it would be instant....the first year everyone is going to,try and hoard anything they can get their hands on....and cause a bubble....even when it bursts their will be so many more coin collectors in a cashless society the fall won't be so bad.
I believe a cashless society is a very dangerous thing. Cash provides some degree of anonimity. Electonic transactions leave a paper trail. The state is already looking over your shoulder at every turn, being able to track every single transaction you make will lead us to complete government control over everything you do. Instead of wiping out your wealth by confiscating a physical asset, the government or any criminal could do it with a few keystrokes. Don't think it could happen? Study history my friend.
What about people with poor credit in a scenario like this? There are people out there that have such bad credit, they can't even get a cell phone and there are people advocating making the cell phone the primary method of payment in the US.
And I thought fiat currency was scary. In this future, the only base to anything is tracking digital credits of sorts. Absolutely terrifying. And I agree 100% with Zlotych; there is little doubt that society will even notice this bump in the road.
I wish we could go back in time to meet our great-grandparents, walking to the country store clutching their small purses of Real Money (silver coins), and enter into a discussion about the "privacy and anonymity" that they enjoyed during their shopping. We might be able to explain ourselves well enough to earn a good laugh from them. More likely, though, we'd never get past the "what are you trying to hide?" stage. Anonymity and untrackability are not unmixed blessings. When I've lost a credit card, or had my credit information stolen, I've never had to make good on bogus charges. On most shopping trips, I'd lose more if I were mugged for my basket of groceries than if I were mugged for my wallet. Remember, cash isn't only anonymous and untrackable for the people who earn, spend or accept it, it's anonymous and untrackable for the people who steal, lose or extort it. Really, though, I think all this attention to cash vs. credit is just a distraction from the greater changes that are coming. Do you really care whether They know how much you spent at the store, when They have security-cam footage of your every step as you gather the items and put them in your cart? Traffic- and law-enforcement footage of your path to and from the store, the bar, the house of that "good friend" that you occasionally visit when your spouse thinks you're working late? We can't anonymize our entire lives, but we can -- and will -- soon document our entire lives. The image of "privacy" we have today will be one casualty of that "progress". And our great-grandchildren will variously shake their heads at our childish paranoia, or long wistfully for the old days of innocence, or just struggle to understand what all the fuss was about.
The closest example is Philately ( Stamp collecting). Huge hobby area until metering and then online postage have taken over in the last 30 years. Stamp collections are almost impossible to sell for value these days. How many pieces of mail do you get in a week that has a "collectible stamp" ? Without common usage of coinage or paper money, those hobbies will decline, there will be less collectors and less demand for collector's coins, IMO.
That is a correct analysis. The same happened in Comics. Current popularity drives demand, and there is a generational aspect as well.
Unfortunately , it will soon be the departure of comics, and almost all paper publications...they will soon all be online only, and it does makes sense financially. Sad, but it will happen.
which is fine but the kids can't find them at the newstand when buying their Spauldin and egg creams, and collect them in there cardboard boxes.
I think it was Ray Bradbury who said "I don't try to predict the future with my writing, I try to prevent it."