Obviously they aren’t going to make any technological breakthroughs with cold hard cash that will change the way we use it, but I’m sick of credit cards, banks cards and other forms of electronic payment trying to prove that cash is the caveman’s financial transaction.
Lately, there are numerous commercials on television that are trying to give us the impression that electronic payment is lightning fast, high-tech, and the only acceptable way to do business. While they do that, they describe cash as slow, clumsy, and a nuisance to the world around you. There’s a commercial featuring a crowd of people marching around a food court from one fast food stand to another, everyone paying in a cash and the entire crowd moving gracefully until one guy in the group pays for food with crumpled dollar bills falling out of his hand. The crowd fumbles, the cashier looks nauseated, and the customer looks like me the first time I ever touched a girl’s breast.
I had been meaning to write a complaint about this for a couple of weeks, but what really got me to write this is the latest Monopoly Board Game commercial. Monopoly is famous for its colorful dollar bills. However the newest incarnation of the board game no longer features paper money.
The new monopoly game, instead of paper bills, features debit cards and a card swipe mechanism. My initial reaction was “How am I supposed to cheat now?”. But on a more serious note, this is one more way get everyone aboard the electronic transfer bandwagon.
Counting cash, using paper money, and not relying on electronic equipment is an essential skill that all human beings living in the modern world should have. Schools don’t stop teaching multiplication because calculators were invented, so why should we neglect cash? It only takes a short power outage to remind us how important paper money is.
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You’re exactly right about this. I saw this coming when they started taking plastic at fast food places.
Discouraging cash transactions means one thing - more money from interest rates for banks. Banks don’t make a dime off of your cash transaction. If they can make the cash user look like an idiot, which is exactly what they do in the commerical you describe, the banks have a lot better shot at (pardon the pun) cashing in.
@tc3, you’re very right to mention the interest rates. You can’t overdraw your wallet of cash. You can, however, pass your limit on your credit card, and over draw your debit card. That plastic card gives us the impression of an endless supply of money because we’re not actually holding the diminishing stack of bills in our bare hands. The weight of the card is constant. That’s a pretty subliminal thing really, but I think it holds merit.
The young girl in the monopoly commercial states something to the effect of “Fast transactions and just plastic. That’s how I play monopoly.” It’s a desperate effort by the board game company to keep their incredibly old yet incredibly famous product alive. You can still purchase numerous versions of monopoly that still use the cash system, fortunately.
Personally I feel a bit ridiculous using credit or debit for a purchase of less than $20. One day it will completely take over. But those of us who live during the age of cash will know the satisfying feeling of a wallet packed tightly with greenbacks.
Are you serious there is no paper money in new Monopoly games? I’ve taught my kids how to count cash with Monopoly money. Depressing.
it’s only one version of monopoly that offers the debit cards. there are many many cash versions still available.
Hey on the same line here it was only a few years ago that the there was talk and im sure by the instigation of the banking industry that they wanted to modify how cash works. This is obviously in an atempt to get banks to cash in or force the use of plastic. The scenario was this you would withdraw money from the bank it would be dated and it would loose value over time until it was worth nothing. So to force people to keep their money in the bank becuase it would not loose value if it were behind the bars of the bank. Now isn’t that the most obsurd concept you have ever heard of but believe it if the banks could get this into place they would without question!.
Mark on October 9th, 2007 at 3:36 pm | Link
Yeah, cash being considered obsolete by TV commercials is rather ridiculous. It is really expensive for mom & pop type stores to process credit and debit card payments totaling $5 and under.
I like cash. There’s nothing more awesome than having a big wad of cash in your wallet to spend over the weekend.
mcdonalds actually did a lot of research on this subject.
on average you spend 20% more when you use plastic as opposed to cash.
then again all the richest people i know, use cash and only cash when ever possible.
they also don’t own any vehicles produced earlier than 1993 though.
if you actually want to be wealthy you can’t go about spending more than you have. you can’t go overdrawing your wallet, thats why i use cash. its easier to budget, you don’t take more than you can afford to spend. and the best confidence boost out there aside from being endowed like a porn star is having a pocket FULL of cash.
Andrew on February 28th, 2008 at 10:25 am | Link
You are so far off, you sound like a dinosaur opposed to change. Cash is not obsolete. But it will be. The bottom line is we are moving numbers. This can be made more accurately, efficiently, safer, and more easily tracked by doing it all digitally. You are missing the big picture.
-Young Visionary
Cameron on July 1st, 2008 at 10:40 pm | Link
Ok young visionary, here is the deal. When the cash is gone and plasic is all we have available there are some dramatic things that will happen. # all sales will be “taxed” by the banks. Now let me explain, you do realize the banks take a cut of every purchase put on plastic wheather it is 3% to 7% or the total when using credit or a flat fee ranging anywhere from $.25 to $10 or $15 dollars in some cases. So by using plastic we have just signed on to be taxed by a private corporation. They get this money more than our government takes in sales tax and they put it in thier pockets and do absolutly nothing for their take.
The banks allready are raping us for every cent we they can and when it is plastic only what then they will have free rien to charge whatever they want. Allready there are vendors dropping credit cards as a means to pay all over the USA. The banks are charging so much for gasoline purchased made on platic the gas stations are loosing profits and beging to make it more and more difficult to take credit cards.
There is a price for conveince but are you willing to pay 3% to 30% to the banks for that conveince. Hey Ill take you cash into the store for you for 7% of your purchase.
mark on July 2nd, 2008 at 3:24 pm | Link