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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;ewomack, post: 3451777, member: 15588&quot;]All of the varied responses to &quot;going cashless&quot; or not have been very interesting. Just to be clear, I&#039;m not trying to argue that this change is necessarily either good or bad, just that it&#039;s something that seems to be happening to more and more people around me. The experience also probably depends on whether one lives in an urban or a rural environment and one&#039;s region of the country, etc. I live in a decent sized and highly wired city so that definitely shapes my experience.</p><p><br /></p><p>For me, the largest difference between, say, twenty years ago and now is that twenty years ago <i>I had to have cash</i>. I <i>needed</i> it. I couldn&#039;t get by without it. I used to make at least weekly trips to ATMs and I <i>always</i> had some amount of cash in my wallet and usually some coins jingling in my pockets. When my on hand cash supply began to deplete I would start to worry and rush to another ATM to refill.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now I would get cash only if I <i>wanted</i> it, not because I actually <i>needed</i> it. I don&#039;t need it at all anymore and going to an ATM feels a little like going out of my way for something that I don&#039;t actually need. This change has happened gradually over the past 10 - 20 years and I realize now that it happened almost without me noticing. When the State Quarters first circulated in 1999 I <i>always</i> had at least one in my pocket. Vending machines didn&#039;t take plastic back then so one <i>needed</i> cash. Now I can count on one hand how many of the ATB Quarters I&#039;ve actually had in my pocket or held in my hands. I haven&#039;t even seen most of them up close. To see them, I would have to get cash and use it, but I don&#039;t <i>need</i> cash so I don&#039;t.</p><p><br /></p><p>Cash will likely stay around for a while, some sectors of the economy still rely on it, but for many people it is no longer necessary. More people can now easily live without it. Whether that&#039;s good or bad, I&#039;m not completely sure. There are trade offs and pros and cons to both cash and plastic, some of which have appeared in this thread. Regardless, I find it hard to ignore just how much the economy now pushes me towards purchasing with plastic.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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