The end of cash?

[teuchter]

No it wouldn't, if the infrastructure crashes on this sort of scale your cash is worthless as everything else follows. Assuming you had more than £50 in cash anyway since you can't get any more, what good is that to a shop that can't access their account to credit or withdraw cash? That can't pay their staff, that can't pay their suppliers? Never mind impacts further up the supply chain.

People's use of cash would depend on how much faith they had that its value would be retained, wouldn't it? So it would probably depend on the exact situation.

If there were some kind of infrastructure disaster but I hoped that the system would be restored in a few days/weeks, and I owned a shop full of stuff, I'd probably accept cash in exchange for what I had there, at least for perishable stuff - what would my alternatives be?

 

[InArduisFouette]

People's use of cash would depend on how much faith they had that its value would be retained, wouldn't it? So it would probably depend on the exact situation.

If there were some kind of infrastructure disaster but I hoped that the system would be restored in a few days/weeks, and I owned a shop full of stuff, I'd probably accept cash in exchange for what I had there, at least for perishable stuff - what would my alternatives be?

exactly that for the perishables , but i suspect if you shop wasa corner shop, you;d also be sending crates of the tinned / shelf stable stuff out to your own storage unless you literally 'lived over the shop '

 

[emanymton]

People's use of cash would depend on how much faith they had that its value would be retained, wouldn't it? So it would probably depend on the exact situation.

If there were some kind of infrastructure disaster but I hoped that the system would be restored in a few days/weeks, and I owned a shop full of stuff, I'd probably accept cash in exchange for what I had there, at least for perishable stuff - what would my alternatives be?

A couple of days maybe, but how are you getting a float each day? Or are you just negotiating a price for each item? How sustainable is that? And once most people have run out of the cash they have on hand how worth is it to stay open? This is of course assuming you don't just get looted.

At the end of the day the best thing for dealing with major infrastructure disruption is a stockpile of tinned food rather than cash. Although admittedly cash is easier to store.

 

[hash tag]

 

[weltweit]

I like cash

Cards have their place, but nothing beats having £50.00 in notes in your wallet!

 

[marty21]

Spent cash today , at the Barbers , for a sausage sarnie & a tea at a nearby cafe, and at the Dry Cleaners. Felt good tbf.

 

[marty21]

I like cash

Cards have their place, but nothing beats having £50.00 in notes in your wallet!

Surely having more than £50 in your wallet beats that?

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Spent cash today , at the Barbers , for a sausage sarnie

i did as well, but in my case for a haircut

 

[smokedout]

No it wouldn't, if the infrastructure crashes on this sort of scale your cash is worthless as everything else follows. Assuming you had more than £50 in cash anyway since you can't get any more, what good is that to a shop that can't access their account to credit or withdraw cash? That can't pay their staff, that can't pay their suppliers? Never mind impacts further up the supply chain.

There's a lot of cash out there, short term it would probably increase in value and all those with their life savings stuffed in a suitcase would be millionaires, for a while at least depending how things panned out. What else is the shop keeper supposed to do, establish an elaborate system of bartering in the middle of a disaster?

 

[UnderOpenSky]

This. It's also the easiest and most trustworthy form of instant remuneration. Send someone down the shop with a tenner. Go halves on a takeaway. Tip your hairdresser. Etc

Of course, all of these things can be done via a bank transfer or revolut or whatever the local version of venmo is but physically giving someone cash feels nice. It's tangible. It's not just some digital number. Also you get to feel like Del Boy or Arthur Daley when you crack out a wad of notes. Not that I do that often, but its one of the reasons I prefer to only carry fivers. And why I get pissed off I have to physically go to the bank to get £10s and £20s changed into fivers. Fivers are great. They should also have £1 notes and get rid of coins. IMHO.

I think the splitting a bill is a great advert for bank transfer. 3 of us want to split £37. Who has the change? It could with being slicker, but isn't hard on the app. And of course once they are added it's easier still.