![[tmbchr]™](/journal/popocculture-blog-logo.jpg){kind=logo}
Cash In A Cashless Society
{Following up on my article about gift cards as complementary currency.}
Let’s say that cash is eventually removed from the picture within our society. It certainly seems to be moving in that direction, though I have no special crystal-ball information in that direction. Just hunches and observations about the way things are moving. Thinking through the subject of companies issuing gift cards, etc as complementary currencies to retain monetary value, the subject eventually collided for me with that of the cashless society.
If paper currency is eventually eliminated, won’t we still have gift cards from stores? That trend doesn’t seem like it’s going anywhere; it only seems to be increasing. So if cash goes away, there is going to be a vaccuum for trading small amounts in a relatively anonymous way. Gift cards seem like an obvious way to fill that void: you have $25 on a Barnes & Noble gift card, and someone else has $10 on a Walmart card. Seems like a no-brainer to just begin swapping cards from various places based on how much value is stored on them. One of the things we would need in such a situation is (1) a widely-available way for regular people to verify how much value is stored on a particular card, and (2) a quick and easy way to establish exchange rates between them.
This is the kind of thing which, if really worked out as an idea, I could see becoming a strong possibility for the foundation of future businesses.
October 15th, 2007 at 10:30 am
Ripple Pay seems to address some of these issues of exchange rates between various systems of currency:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Ripple_Pay
October 15th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_currency
October 15th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Yaarrrp…
I buy that. But if I’m playing devil’s advocate I could see ways for the PTB to target item (1)…
Weird things happen (I keep saying that!) in a market where it’s not easy to determine the real value of goods for exchange. Some guy won a Nobel prize for a paper on this called something like ‘the market for lemons’, an interesting take on the world of the used-car salesman. I forget where I read that (might have been here even, I dunno!). You end up with a race to the bottom where the items in circulation have the minimum possible acceptable value. There’s some explanation off the back of this as to how paper money evolved: if you’ve got gold in your pocket, and paper money with equal face value, which are you going to spend? As soon as there’s paper money, gold goes out of circulation.
October 15th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
Interesting… I’m filing that away as I don’t know how to respond now but it feels important.
October 16th, 2007 at 3:35 am
One more thingk: if store cards become non-transferrable (obviously for anti-theft purposes ;-D) then either gifts of actual objects or the issue of local currency become the only options.
October 16th, 2007 at 10:12 am
I like the idea of gifts of actual objects… That gives me an idea for a real-life acting tips article about bringing people gifts when you go to see them.
[Reminder to self]
October 16th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
This is a very important Law of Economics. It has it’s own name but I can’t remember it now.
October 16th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
if the money supply is totally controlled then those outside the system will find a symbol to represent effort.
it has always happened, is happening now and will continue to happen as long as there is a value on effort.
if we find controllable devices to remove the necessity for effort then things will change to fighting for control of the devices………..
October 16th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gresham’s_Law
Here’s the link. Apparently this law works for milk too. Creepy.
http://givingupcontrol.wordpress.com/2...6/when-bad-milk-drives-out-good-milk/