If Society Goes Cashless, Panhandlers Will Need to Adapt
Today I found myself thinking about how the world will adapt to a cashless society. It all started at the grocery store. After all the items were scanned I watched the monitor on the credit card scanner. I noticed that a QR code for paying the bill showed up on the monitor. Normally, I just go right to using my credit card. But this time the QR code caught my attention and started me thinking about digital currencies.
It seems like everyday I hear some story about digital currencies and a cashless society in the near future.
Then I thought, how will those less fortunate who ask for donations need to adapt to digital currency. Most of us have seen people holding up cardboard signs asking for help/donations.
Image Credit
Charitable organizations are already adapting to a digital currency world. The Salvation Army has a QR code for donations.
Image Credit
In the cashless society possibly those less fortunate who ask for donations along our sidewalks and streets will need to seek out vendors for QR stickers.
Image Credit
The QR sticker would be applied to their cardboard signs.
Image Credit
To donate passers-by would just scan the QR code and make a donation.
Image Credit
Who knows maybe the QR scanning app will even make a clang-clang sound like coins being tossed into a pan.
Image Credit
You can probably think about other changes there will be as the world moves toward a cashless (digital) society.
Your comments and thoughts about what will need to change and how we will need to adapt to a cashless society are appreciated.
Special Note I added the QR code to the signs. Image credits are for the original pictures.
Thank you for this encouraging post, as I´m an occational busker, and have been slightly worried about the fact that less and less people carry cash.
The fact that homelessness still exists in this world of abundance is horrible though.
Upvoted and followed.
I find myself thinking about the less fortunate from time to time. If the economy does get worse, there will be more people finding it hard to survive.
Sometimes it is good to humbly reflect to look at how changes in society will affect other people.
Thanks for reading and commenting,
Steem on,
Mike
Great Post :) , let's do more good in this world.
Thank you!
Doing more good should always be a goal.
Thanks for reading and commenting,
Steem on,
Mike
You know, I'm not sure of the age of the poster of this piece but my guess is the person is between 20 and 35 or so. The reason I say that is I've noticed because younger people have grown up around high tech and the internet they are much more inclined to accept something like "a cashless society" without giving the ramifications of that a second thought. I've got news for all of you out there that are itching to live in a world where cash is no longer used . . . that world is essentially going to be a total control police state. Cash (and precious metals) are anonymous methods of payment - unlike electronic payments using debit cards, credit cards and yes, even Bitcoin (your Bitcoin transactions are extremely easy to track). I for one don't want to live in a world where TPTB can track every purchase I make and potentially block my ability to pay just with a click of a mouse.
The poster, @etcmike, is well into his 50's. I am certainly not looking forward to a cashless society, but that is the direction TPTB seem to pushing society. Besides the impacts you mention, the point of my post is how the less fortunate may need to adapt to a cashless society. TPTB decisions, no matter how noble, always seem to impact the less fortunate the most. To me it seems that actions not thought through are likely to have unintended consequences.
Another example of how a cashless, digital society will affect a segment of society is coin collecting. I am a coin collector. In a cashless, digital society will the US mint still produce coins? They may simply for commemorative purposes or bullion coins. I don't know. But a cashless, digital society will impact coin collecting. It may make a coin collector's collection more valuable.
A cashless, digital society is bound to impact different segments of society differently. Now is the time to consider those impacts and decide if that is the direction we want to go as a society. Who knows, we may have no choice but to accept a cashless, digital society. In which case, we must look at how we need to adapt.
Thanks for your feedback,
Steem on,
Mike