Pathway To The Mark? Cashless Society Slowly Gaining Around The World
Several countries around the world
have moved quickly towards cashless societies in the last five years,
most notably China and Denmark.
As electronic
payment apps, debit cards and credit cards replace paper currency,
governments, bank and corporations delight in the level of control this
allows them over the population.
The United States has held out longer
than other countries, but now has started to show signs that cash, and
the freedom it brings, is on the decline. Businesses, from Starbucks to
Sweetgreen, are now experimenting with no-cash policies at some
locations and debit/credit/app only policies are creeping into other
sectors as well.
The Church of England has now adopted electronic payment systems such as Apple Pay, Android Pay and the major credit cards.
Not
yet abandoning cash, the introduction of the new payment systems is a
response to a social movement that is increasingly rejecting cash.
Though
the numbers are not easy to track, the number of young adults who pay
their bills, send money to friends, fill up their cars and buy groceries
all without touching cash is growing to the point where some financial
experts believe that today's teens may, in another decade, be the first
cashless generation in the United States.
On
March 29th, Visa announced the fifty winners of its cashless challenge
contest, which challenges small businesses that now accept only credit
card payments to compete for $10,000 prizes. Visa may be awarding $500K a
year of its money to small businesses for the simple act of foregoing
cash payments, but the investment can have a powerful knock-on effect.
First,
the winners are required to explain how going cashless has positively
impacted their businesses, which is, in itself, valuable marketing and
research data the credit card companies can use to persuade others to
abandon physical currency.
Second, the more businesses that go credit-only, the
greater the level of acceptance we are likely to see across a broader
spectrum of society, resulting in increased credit card use overall and
more businesses ditching cash. For credit card companies and banks,
collecting fees on every transaction is a powerful incentive to
undermine the use of cash.
Businesses cite cost
savings from time wasted counting cash, fees paid for armor car
services and safety from theft. When cash is created as an object of
value that must be counted, stored and transported with care, it is
clear how digital payment systems and credit cards can come out ahead.
For
individuals, there are no more trips to the ATM and no cash for thieves
to grab in a robbery. A recent study sponsored by credit card company
Capital One found that 25% of Americans don't carry cash at all any
longer and that rises to 33% for adults between 18 and 35.
Just 21% of Americans use cash as their most common form of payment and the average amount carried is a mere $25.
China
and Denmark stand out as the two countries moving most quickly away
from cash, with India and several other countries not far behind.
Denmark favors credit and debit cards while China has skipped cards in
favor of app-based digital payment networks such as WeChat.
According
to the South China Morning Post, China registered $12.8 trillion of
digital transactions in the first 10 months of 2017 alone, a truly
staggering figure. The Chinese Communist Party has fully embraced
payment apps not just for their efficiency but also the level of control
they offer.
Without
paper money, every transaction can be tracked, logged and forever
linked to every citizen. Under the new social scoring system, purchases
that the Communist Party favors will improve one's score, but use your
money for video games or vices and your access to jobs, education and
loans will dry up.
Legally restricting or
banning gun ownership is a tall order in the United States but cutting
off the ability to purchase them may not be.
Following
the Bush administration's attacks on the credit card processors of
pornography sites more than a decade ago, New York's Comptroller, Thomas
DiNapoli, appealed in a letter to major banks and credit card companies
to block all transactions associated with firearms.
Today,
if credit cards and banks refused transactions involving firearms or
ammunition an individual could simply pay in cash, but once physical
currency has been eliminated such purchases will require the permission
of both corporations and government.
A system
of loyalty or mark to a government ruler that controls your ability to
buy or sell is exactly what is described in the book of Revelation and
is often referred to as "the mark of the beast". Those who like to
dismiss the book of Revelation as mere allegory may want to take another
look.
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