# Is "cashless society" the new great conspiratorial battleground? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 6, 2026, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cashless-society-the-new-great-conspiratorial-battleground/1028261 "2026-03-06T18:54:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2026, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cashless-society-the-new-great-conspiratorial-battleground/1028261/21 "2026-03-06T22:29:00Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#): > > Not sure where the debate is. Yes a cashless society will control everyone. Its inevitable. How exactly would it do that? ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2026, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cashless-society-the-new-great-conspiratorial-battleground/1028261/22 "2026-03-06T22:36:51Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#): > > Its not the knowing all our transactions thats a problem. What if the government.doesn’t like something you posted online? No money for you! Unless you have your life savings in $100 bills stuffed in your mattress, isn’t this a concern already? ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2026, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cashless-society-the-new-great-conspiratorial-battleground/1028261/23 "2026-03-06T22:38:40Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > I don’t live in the US. I should maybe have made that clear earlier Oh that’s ok then. The rest of the world is completely immune to fascists seizing power and oppressing their citizens by interrogating evey detail of their personal lives. There is absolutely no way that will happen anywhere except the US. Continue to tell the government all about everything single financial transaction you make and who and what you made it to. There will never be any downside to that. [This](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/24/reform-danny-kruger-uk-totally-unregulated-sexual-economy), for example, shows conclusively that no one outside the US has to fear the government using their financial transactions against them. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2026, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cashless-society-the-new-great-conspiratorial-battleground/1028261/24 "2026-03-06T22:44:32Z")
This is the future. We’re living in the future, and in the future, people don’t handle grubby little pieces of paper money like it’s the goddamn 20th Century. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2026, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cashless-society-the-new-great-conspiratorial-battleground/1028261/25 "2026-03-06T22:51:16Z")
In the UK, the only time I use cash nowadays is to put a £1 coin in the shopping trolley at Aldi. Cash is a pain in the ass, and every civilised civilisation in the universe got rid of it long ago. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2026, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cashless-society-the-new-great-conspiratorial-battleground/1028261/26 "2026-03-06T23:07:09Z")
Places have stopped accepting cash for one simple reason: cash is a large pain in the ass. Taking cash means needing a storage facility for the cash and for the change non-exact payments require. Cash means needing people to personally deliver money to banks, with the dangers that involves. Cash leaves no records other than those the employee makes, and humans make mistakes, fail to do proper notations, are tempted by fungible money, and can be taken in by scammers. The government didn’t force a recorded electronic society on us, nor did capitalism. People did. Every recipient of money, from the largest corporation to a single-person office, wanted a better system than handling cash (except obviously the already mentioned crooks). Whether America’s particular system is good or bad, it’s the product of millions of inevitable individual decisions. Other countries say they have superior payment systems, but I don’t know how their privacy compares. Nevertheless, people wanted electronic systems, they demanded electronic systems, and flocked to electronic systems. Younger Americans can’t even imagine using cash. Why? Shouldn’t everything be on the phone? Your complaints are exactly parallel to people saying that American manufacturing should never have outsourced factories. You know who wanted that? People, tens, hundreds of millions of Americans who wanted cheaper and cheaper goods at the same time they screamed about jobs being lost. Not the government, not capitalism. People. Democracy rules. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2026, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cashless-society-the-new-great-conspiratorial-battleground/1028261/27 "2026-03-06T23:09:29Z")
There is a way to visit cashless retail businesses while maintaining your privacy–buy Visa/Mastercard gift cards for cash at Walmart, supermarkets, etc. They come in denominations from $25 to $500. Unfortunately there are activation fees for using them. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2026, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cashless-society-the-new-great-conspiratorial-battleground/1028261/28 "2026-03-06T23:22:53Z")
> [@Eonwe](#): > > My objection is that “no cash accepted” and “there is a 4% fee to the purchaser for using electronic payment” are likely going to end up converging. That’s not going to happen , even if only because if everyone must pay the fee , it will just be built into the price. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > My general experience is that people object loudly to a cashless society for one of two reasons. > > - They’re paranoid cranks, perhaps amplified by internet nuttiness. > - They’re in a business that generates lots of cash and they love the idea of understating and underpaying their income taxes by 50-90%. They _really_ don’t want to give up their secret advantage. You forgot the group that’s afraid of anything “new”. I unfortunately know a bunch of them. Won’t deal with digital apps for baseball/concert tickets, so whoever has the tickets will have to meet them outside the venue. Complain about having to use something other than cash to buy food or drink (even though the venues have fee free “reverse ATMs”). Insist on paying the ticket buyer by cash or check even though Venmo or Zelle would be more convenient for everyone. They’re not paranoid and aren’t in cash businesses. I can’t say I knew that resorts are cashless- but I certainly wasn’t surprised to hear it. If anything , I would have though they were like cruise ships , where you pay for everything on board with your keycard but you can deposit cash at guest services periodically if you don’t want to leave a creit card. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2026, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cashless-society-the-new-great-conspiratorial-battleground/1028261/29 "2026-03-06T23:51:31Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > > [@wolfpup](#): > > > > I don’t live in the US. I should maybe have made that clear earlier > > Oh that’s ok then. The rest of the world is completely immune to fascists seizing power and oppressing their citizens by interrogating evey detail of their personal lives. There is absolutely no way that will happen anywhere except the US. But what advanced first-world democracy on earth, in the modern age, is in the thrall of anything like the lawless regime that is Trumpism? Heedless of law, heedless of the Constitution, there hasn’t been anything like it since 1930s Germany, and that was an extraordinary special case due to extraordinary circumstances. This is not typical of functional democracies, and isn’t what our financial systems should normally and realistically be designed for. I don’t care if my government knows what I spend money on, and my government doesn’t care, either. They have better things to do. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2026, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cashless-society-the-new-great-conspiratorial-battleground/1028261/30 "2026-03-07T00:19:06Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > This is not typical of functional democracies, and isn’t what our financial systems should normally and realistically be designed for Yup absolutely. Nothing to be concerned about. It will absolutely never happen in your country. Because your country is special. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2026, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cashless-society-the-new-great-conspiratorial-battleground/1028261/31 "2026-03-07T00:40:34Z")
I think there’s a difference between being a conspiracy theorist and being cynical, and thinking that governments and companies will abuse any information they can get for their own benefit when they are _already_ doing exactly that is the latter. ---
**Author:** ![fedman1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e495f1/32.png) [@fedman1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman1)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2026, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cashless-society-the-new-great-conspiratorial-battleground/1028261/32 "2026-03-07T00:42:26Z")
whoa, that’s $1.34 USD, and it’s only a quarter here in US ---
**Author:** ![Mavis\_Topholese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7feea3/32.png) [@Mavis\_Topholese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mavis_Topholese)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2026, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cashless-society-the-new-great-conspiratorial-battleground/1028261/33 "2026-03-07T01:46:37Z")
I guess that business they print on the dollar bill about it being legal tender for all debts is just so much hot air these days. Oh well. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2026, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cashless-society-the-new-great-conspiratorial-battleground/1028261/34 "2026-03-07T01:56:06Z")
Buying Twinkies is not a “debt”. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2026, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cashless-society-the-new-great-conspiratorial-battleground/1028261/35 "2026-03-07T02:03:56Z")
Do people not realize there can be many computer errors? Oops, we don’t know where your thousands went. I have only paid with cash my entire life. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2026, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cashless-society-the-new-great-conspiratorial-battleground/1028261/36 "2026-03-07T02:34:17Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#): > > Do people not realize there can be many computer errors? Oops, we don’t know where your thousands went. Yeah, I have a small stash of cash just in cash something unexpected interferes with accessing my bank account. Not to mention issues like somebody getting your bank/credit card information and stealing from you. At least somebody needs to get to it physically to take cash. Nobody can reach into a drawer from across the country and pluck cash from out of it. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2026, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cashless-society-the-new-great-conspiratorial-battleground/1028261/37 "2026-03-07T03:31:45Z")
> [@fedman1](#): > > whoa, that’s $1.34 USD, and it’s only a quarter here in US I think the reason that it is only a quarter in the U.S. is that the quarter is the highest value coin in common use. The UK in contrast has one and two pound coins available. Aldi probably realizes that a quarter is not enough incentive for everyone to return their carts–but there isn’t a higher value alternative available. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2026, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cashless-society-the-new-great-conspiratorial-battleground/1028261/38 "2026-03-07T03:39:16Z")
> [@Mavis\_Topholese](#): > > I guess that business they print on the dollar bill about it being legal tender for all debts is just so much hot air these days. Oh well. This gets pointed out a lot by proponents of paper money. When you go to purchase something, you aren’t technically paying a debt, AIUI, as you don’t take possession of the item until after you pay. But, you may disagree. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2026, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cashless-society-the-new-great-conspiratorial-battleground/1028261/39 "2026-03-07T04:18:03Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > > [@wolfpup](#): > > > > This is not typical of functional democracies, and isn’t what our financial systems should normally and realistically be designed for > > Yup absolutely. Nothing to be concerned about. It will absolutely never happen in your country. Because your country is special. I don’t claim my country is “special”. For a counterexample of a country that **does** claim to be “special”, look up “American exceptionalism”. I don’t know exactly what “American exceptionalism” is supposed to be, but it must apparently mean the ability to elect as your leader an ignorant orange doofus who is currently the laughingstock of pretty much the entire world and who is systematically dismantling democracy in America while making it – at least in some quarters – the most hated nation on earth. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2026, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cashless-society-the-new-great-conspiratorial-battleground/1028261/40 "2026-03-07T06:06:51Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > I don’t claim my country is “special”. Good, because it isn’t. The widespread US paranoia about mysterious perils of digital transactions may be mostly ignorant obscurantism, but [the widespread Canadian cluelessness about the **actual** risks of digital transactions](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/cybersecurity-implications-cashless-canada-f8t8e) is largely ignorant complacency. > [@](#): > > Most Canadians don’t realize how fragile the digital payment chain can be until it breaks. When a major telecom outage in 2022 disrupted Interac services across the country, millions of people couldn’t make purchases, withdraw cash, or even pay rent online. For small businesses, it was a stark reminder that a “cashless” operation can grind to a halt in seconds. […] > > Ransomware has evolved from locking files to locking entire economies. Financial institutions, municipal governments, and payment processors are high-value targets for attackers seeking to freeze operations and demand payment in cryptocurrency. […] > > We’ve already seen signs of this risk. Several municipalities across Canada have faced ransomware incidents that disrupted everything from utility billing to parking payments. Even if no money is stolen, the inability to move funds can cause panic and erode public trust. Cybercriminals know that downtime equals leverage — and in a cashless world, that leverage is immense. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cashless-society-the-new-great-conspiratorial-battleground/1028261.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cashless-society-the-new-great-conspiratorial-battleground/1028261.md?page=3)