Harvard Historian Nancy Koehn On The Cashless Society
By BOSTON PUBLIC RADIO STAFF
4:49 PM TUE MAY 20, 2014
A recent article in The New York Times looks at how retailers have figured out how customers can pay for their goods without using cash, a credit card, or a debit card. In Starbucks' case, the company has designed an app that lets customers use their phone by loading money onto a Starbucks rewards card. Customers don't have to worry about a data breach. Starbucks doesn't have to worry about paying exorbitant processing fees.
This is just one example of how we're evolving into a cashless society.
In his book The End of Money, journalist David Wolman gets by for an entire year without using cash. At the end of his experiment he certainly seems to think that cash--not necessarily money--could be the root of all evil.
"Lately it seems like the only people who carry cash are aspiring terrorists, corrupt government officials, drug traffickers, bank robbers, tax evaders, counterfeiters and rich college kids buying little bags of marijuana.
Although predictions about the end of cash are as old as credit cards, a number of developments are ganging up on physical money like never before: mistrust of national currencies, novel payment tools, anxiety about government debt, the triumph of mobile phones, innovative alternative currencies, environmental concerns and growing evidence that cash is most harmful to the billions of people who have so little of it.
The poorer you are, the higher the costs and risks of cash become. Anyone you know can beg you for a few bucks or steal the hard-earned money that you're trying to save to pay your children's school fees. A fire or natural disaster can obliterate your meager savings. And you may have to spend days riding buses and walking to the countryside to deliver cash to, or retrieve it from, a relative. Even if a wire service is accessible, that means paying steep service fees."
more here:
http://wgbhnews.org/post/harvard-historian-nancy-koehn-cashless-society
=======================================================================
Does a cashless society mean less crime
AAP – Mon, May 19, 2014 2:01 PM AEST
We're buying more stuff with keystrokes and plastic instead of cash these days. Now comes evidence that our cash-light ways may be foiling crime.
Researchers at the University of Missouri-St Louis (UM-St Louis) have looked at what happened when Missouri switched from handing out welfare cheques to depositing welfare on debit cards. Burglary, larceny and assault went down, they found. Robbery may have fallen, too, although there weren't enough robberies in the sample to draw a firm conclusion.
To understand why, put yourself in the shoes of a crook.
You can swipe the purse of a well-dressed woman downtown. You'll get a couple of credit or debit cards and a little cash. The typical American carries just $US15, according to a Tufts University survey.
The cash is nice, but the credit card is problematic. Credit cards don't sell for much on the street, said criminologist Richard Wright of UM-St Louis. Try to use a stolen card in a convenience store, and your picture will be on a video camera. Cards stop working when the victim reports the theft.
On the other hand, you could go to a poor neighbourhood and lurk around at a cheque cashing shop when a hotel maid shows up with her pay cheque. Snatch that purse and you'll get no plastic, but more real money.
Cash is what the thief wants most. His drug dealer doesn't take a credit card. So putting welfare on debit cards makes the recipient a less attractive target.
Crime in the US has been trending down for a quarter of a century. There are many possible reasons: more police on the streets, smarter policing, putting more criminals in prison, the end of the crack epidemic 20 years ago, demographic shifts.
Economist Steven Levitt of "Freakonomics" fame stirs controversy by suggesting that legalising abortion helped lower crime - fewer unwanted children grew up to be criminals.
more here:
https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/does-cashless-society-mean-less-040107166.html
=======================================================================
America Moving Toward a Cashless Society
Monday, May 19, 2014
America is moving slowly but surely toward a cashless society as businesses are coming up with easier ways for people to pay electronically.
The New York Times reports that banks and retailers are trying to develop new payment systems using cell phones, and they're working on ways to protect customers' personal information.
"If we move to a truly cashless society, it won't be much of an adjustment for most Americans," Greg McBride, Bankrate's Chief Financial Analyst, said.
video here:
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/finance/2014/May/America-Moving-Toward-a-Cashless-Society/
================= more here:
8 in 10 Americans have less than $50 on them
A new survey shows Americans' declining reliance on cash for transactions.
By MSN Money Partner Thu 12:48 PM
the results here:
http://money.msn.com/saving-money-tips/post--8-in-10-americans-have-less-than-dollar50-on-them
=======================================================================
Take a look at this:
Tuesday, May 20, 2014, 05:44 am PT (08:44 am ET)
Morgan Stanley predicts Apple will incorporate NFC into future iPhone for mobile payments
By Neil Hughes
While prognosticators have given failed forecasts for years predicting Apple will add near-field communications technology to the iPhone for touch-less mobile payments, investment firm Morgan Stanley offered the same prediction on Tuesday, suggesting that NFC will be a key part of the company's so-called "iWallet."
While competing smartphones have shipped with NFC chips for years, tapping into services like Google Wallet, mobile payments have yet to take off with consumers. In a rare candid comment about potential future plans, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook hinted that his company could join the fray and enter the mobile payments space by leveraging the secure Touch ID fingerprint scanner found on the iPhone 5s to authenticate transactions.
What the iPhone 5s doesn't have, however, is an NFC chip. To date, Apple's close-proximity wireless efforts have relied on a combination of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, most notably with the location-aware iBeacon specification that debuted last year and is now used by numerous retail outlets, including Apple's own stores.
Still, Morgan Stanley believes Apple will go one step further and incorporate an NFC chip into its future devices, making the technology a "core part of its mobile payments strategy." Analyst Craig Hettenbach said in a note to investors Tuesday, a copy of which was provided to AppleInsider, that he believes NFC is reaching an "inflection point," thanks to new partnerships, potential licenses, and patent filings, including those from Apple.
more here:
http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/05/20/morgan-stanley-predicts-apple-will-incorporate-nfc-into-future-iphone-for-mobile-payments
Watch, when Apple makes a move to NFC, the Mark will be one more step closer...
NFC:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_field_communication
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.