Flare Sci-Fi Forums: Cash is irrelevent.

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Posted by D. Lerious on :

Do you think that we'll ever have a completly cashless society? If so, when do you think it'll happen? By cashless I mean that instead of paying in hard cash, you would just pay by having whatever you owe taken from your account and put to where it is required, like it's done now( but to a greater extent). I think that it is a possibility, but I doubt that it would happen within our lifetimes. I mean, cash, or some form of it has been a part of the way humans do things for thousands of years, so it won't be easy to change, no matter how fast computers become. Come to think of it, having a cashless society has certain implications: for example the government, or some other institution would know what and how much you buy ( kinda like what is happening now, but to a larger extent). Also, it would be easier for the government or another intitution to ration what you can get. Imagine that!!! This seems to be taking quite an Orwellian turn. This can be used for manipulation and control. For example, the government or private institution can cut your food ration in your are not doing what you are supposed to do, or give you more if you are a good boy/girl. Using food in this way will make people more tractable, because,as my mother says "A person can get used to anything but lack of food". In essence, the conveniences offered by a cashless society carres too high a price: personal freedom. Come to think of it, I don't think I'd want to have cash become obselete. What do you think?

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When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

[This message has been edited by D. Lerious (edited July 19, 2000).]

Posted by Mucus (Member # 24) on :

Wouldn't a cashless society just be like ours with people using credit cards and debit cards a whole lot more?
A cashless society doesn't necessarily imply a society with only one "control" over money.

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1957: The space age begins when the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, is placed in orbit by the Soviet Union on October 4. Our German rocket scientists get very
annoyed with their German rocket scientists. � Outpost

[This message has been edited by Mucus (edited July 19, 2000).]

Posted by Diane (Member # 53) on :

Jeez, hold the paranoia, would ya? Food rations? Using electronic money doesn't make us communists, you know. If we ever do use credit/debit cards exclusively, I doubt it'd be much different from how it's done now. Do YOU have food rations allocated by your boss or your credit card company? This is still a capitalist society last time I checked, so whatever electronic money you own would be what you've EARNED, which means no gov't or business can take it away, er, unless they tax you or sue you. I don't see why this can't happen in the future, but I agree that it won't happen worldwide for a long, long time because of the difference between rich and poor.

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"One more day before the storm
At the barricades of freedom!
When our ranks begin to form
Will you take your place with me?"
--Enjolras, "One Day More," Les Miserables

Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :

Cash is relative. We assign a perceived value to an object & blindly believe in it. Usually this value is assigned by rarity. Thus, gold is considered "worthless" in Trek because it's a basic element found all over, but latinum have very specific & rare properties, rendering it "valuable."

I remember seeing something a few years ago on PBS about a guy who drew what he considered to be art--copies of US currency in exact size with only the tiniest difference. He claimed that money was art & since his art was money, they were both valid; he used to trade his art for services. The Treasury Department didn't take kindly to this & overinvestigated the guy beyond belief, to the point of raiding his house & taking all completed & in-progess works, then saying "you're lucky we're not pressing on a counterfeiting charge."

A similar area is diamonds. We all have bought into the "diamonds are rare & special" line. Bullshit. Diamonds are simple & easy to find all over the world. The markets & supply levels are controlled by DeBeers, who artificially inflate the prices by holding back something like 74% of the world's supply; the advances in synthetic diamond are pissing them off, too. The REAL value is in the rarity of colored gems--rubies, sapphires, emeralds, etc.--because these ARE so rarely occurring in nature & as yet cannot be synthesized.

What ALSO is rare is people using paragraphs.

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"Do you know how much YOU'RE worth??.....2.5 million Woolongs. THAT'S your bounty. I SAID you were small fry..." --Spike Spiegel

Posted by Jay the Obscure (Member # 19) on :

Whoa!! Hold on there mister, back the train to the station...you watch PBS! Oh, wait, that's a good thing.

Cash is relative...it is a better system than carrying two chickens in your pocket to trade Simon for farm products.

I seem to remember somewhere that someone said e-mail and computers were going to create a paper-less office.

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Oh, fiddle faddle, everyone knows that our mutants have flippers. Oops, I've said too much.....
~C. Montgomery Burns

And be sure to visit The Field Marshal project http://fieldmarshal.virtualave.net/

Posted by First of Two (Member # 16) on :

If the programs I watch on the local Christian station are any indication, we will never have a cashless society because the Fundies will go to war to prevent all information being stored on chips and/or barcodes, because a lot of them believe in some "Mark of the Beast" mumbo jumbo.

In fact, I had a lady last month tell me that the barcodes the library uses on the books are a version of that Mark. And I heard another one call on talk radio and tell everybody that the bars used for calibration on the UPC codes stand for "666"... until the host laughed her off the air.

*makes ghostly noises* oooOOOOooooo....

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"Nobody knows this, but I'm scared all the time... of what I might do, if I ever let go." -- Michael Garibaldi

Posted by Mucus (Member # 24) on :

Out of pure idle curiosity. Where does the 666 thing come from? The first time I saw it was in a old horror film, "The Omen", but surely that can't be the origin.

Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :

Revelation.

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"To disarm the people [is] the best and most effectual way to enslave them."
- George Mason, American Statesman and Author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776)

Posted by Fructose (Member # 309) on :

I doubt we'd ever get a cahsless society. As convienent as credit/debit cards are, cash has it's advantages too. I'd much rather hand someone a buck for something than whip out the card, swipe it, sign something, and hold on to the receipt to enter into my records later. Cash is quick for small amounts, while credit/debit is useful for large sums.

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It doesn't matter if you don't know what you're doing as long as you look good doing it.

Posted by D. Lerious on :

"If the programs I watch on the local Christian station are any indication, we will never have a cashless society because the Fundies will go to war to prevent all information being stored on chips and/or barcodes, because a lot of them believe in some "Mark of the Beast" mumbo jumbo.
In fact, I had a lady last month tell me that the barcodes the library uses on the books are a version of that Mark. And I heard another one call on talk radio and tell everybody that the bars used for calibration on the UPC codes stand for "666"... until the host laughed her off the air.

*makes ghostly noises* oooOOOOooooo...."

hmmmm. How silly!! I mean if that Mark was to show itself, I think that it would chose a better place then a library bar code. And about the 666, I doubt it has much significance. Can't people understand it's just a number?????

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When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Posted by Mucus (Member # 24) on :

Revelation?
Movie, band, tv show, book?
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1957: The space age begins when the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, is placed in orbit by the Soviet Union on October 4. Our German rocket scientists get very
annoyed with their German rocket scientists. � Outpost

[This message has been edited by Mucus (edited July 20, 2000).]

Posted by Diane (Member # 53) on :

We'll never have a cashless society if the Amish is any indication.

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"One more day before the storm
At the barricades of freedom!
When our ranks begin to form
Will you take your place with me?"
--Enjolras, "One Day More," Les Miserables

Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :

Book. A fairly famous book.

I dunno. Yeah, cash is useful for small amounts, but almost anything over a tenner I use a card for. I don't really like carrying cash around with me, cause I know the moment I'm carrying a few hundred quid on me is the day I loose my wallet.

In fact, the only times I use cash is when I'm in the pub, or lunch at work. And it's a pain having to go the cash machine every few mornings to getr ten quid out, especially since it somehow dissappears in less than an hour.

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"You're confused Polly. We're not meeting Paul Newman."
- Polly & Speedy; Samurai Pizza Cats

Posted by First of Two (Member # 16) on :

D.Lerious: Not only that, but the Mark is ONE mark... not several billion different individual ones.

And it's probably three straight lines up and down, since 666 is "vev, vev, vev" (III, without the serifs) in Hebrew.

But some people get their jollies from spreading paranoia, and some from BEING paranoid.

Remember when some of 'em said that Reagan was the antichrist, because he had six letters in his first, middle, and last names (Ronald Wilson Reagan)? I do.

Fundies are nutters.

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"Nobody knows this, but I'm scared all the time... of what I might do, if I ever let go." -- Michael Garibaldi

Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :

This is the rare religious instance where I'd agree with you, First. 'Bar codes' my butt.

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"To disarm the people [is] the best and most effectual way to enslave them."
- George Mason, American Statesman and Author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776)

Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :

Cash will probably stick around until its electronic equivalent becomes so pervasive we don't notice it. So, ten or fifteen years, maybe.

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