Cashless society
In a cashless society, financial transactions are not conducted with physical banknotes or coins, but instead with digital information (usually an electronic representation of money).
[3] Among the first sociological studies about cashless societies, see Aldo Haesler, Sociologie de l'argent et postmodernité, Geneva & Paris 1995.
This makes card payments in the Nordics two-and-a-half to four times higher than the European average.Even though a cashless society is widely discussed, most countries are increasing their currency supply.
China's currency has decreased from 2017 to 2018 The amount of cash in circulation was much lower in past decades in all countries except Sweden.
[citation needed] Cash provides a good home for disease-causing organisms (i.e. Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella species, Escherichia coli, COVID-19, etc.).
[22][23][24] However, cash has been found to be less likely to transmit disease than commonly touched items such as credit card terminals and PIN pads.
[25] Such concerns prompted the German central bank, Deutsche Bundesbank, to state that "Cash poses no particular risk of infection for the public".
[29] Many countries have regulated, restricted, or banned private digital currencies such as Bitcoin, partly to prevent illegal transactions.
Large amounts of value can also be stored in real estate, antiques, or commodities like diamonds, gold, silver, and platinum.
Some have proposed a "reduced cash" system, where small bills and coins are available for anonymous, everyday transactions, but high-denomination notes are eliminated.
Cashless transactions leave a record in the database of the company[clarification needed] as one makes a payment, and this information becomes a way for the prediction of future events.
[42] Going all-digital, these data retrieved from transactions lead to widespread surveillance where individuals can be tracked by both corporations and the government.
Cashless systems can be problematic for people who currently rely on cash, who are concentrated in certain populations such as the poor, disabled, elderly,[44] undocumented immigrants, and youth.
[27] Electronic transactions require a deposit account (in a bank or other deposit-taking financial institution) and some familiarity with the payment system.
[48] Nationwide, 7.7% of people in United States did not have bank accounts, with levels over 20% in some cities and rural counties, and over 40% in some census tracts, as of 2016.
[54] Thus far, cashless electronic payment systems have been predominately provided by a variety of different private sector companies.
From around 2008, Swedish banks began giving special hardware to their customers that could be used to process financial transactions (like digital payments of invoices) from home.
But for "safety regulations", the maximum amount a bank customer could withdraw was about 5,000 to 10,000 SEK per week, and similar "security rules" for deposits were established as well.
[65][66] The banks (and initially media as well) have dismissed complaints about the change as "a problem for elderly people" only, essentially claiming that some were only struggling to learn new technology, rather than being unhappy with a totally new transaction method.
Concerns have been expressed about a rising number of fraudulent transactions, and the fast development of quantum computers contributes to fears of hacking within the system.
The debate about a cashless Sweden became more complicated when the Swedish authority Myndigheten för Samhällsskydd och Beredskap—MSB[67] or "the Authority for Community Protection and Preparedness" in their writing "Om Kriget Eller Krisen Kommer" ("If war or crisis comes") contained a list of items to store permanently at home to be prepared, which includes "cash in small denominations".
This movement has quickly grown to a considerable size, with many contributors describing troubles caused by the increasingly hostile attitude expressed by banks against cash.
[70] For instance, the TV3 figure Robert Aschberg became annoyed after having paid at a chemist with the Swish system via his mobile phone, because he almost immediately received an advertisement from the same pharmacy, raising privacy concerns.
