A day in the year of 2100

Fast forward quite a few decades, and I’m living in the year 2100. I’m yet to see a flying house or have a TV set built into my hand, but the world is changing faster than expected. Two innovations that have taken society by storm are contactless credit cards and the subsequent abolition of cash… 

World domination of contactless credit cards is by now pretty much complete in this advanced year. These cards where you just touch in, rather than insert, are now used by all, and payments can even be made by some mobile phones. I envisage mobile phone payment rather than credit card payment to be the next big move as we move beyond and into the ensuing couple of decades. 

How did all this happen? I guess that over the years, society became apathetic towards the vanishing banknote. Along with this is the disappearance of handwriting; people in 2030 now use keyboards for everything; in fact, in the primary school curriculum, handwriting lessons have now been replaced with I.T. and keyboard learning. 

What happened to our affiliation to cash, to our expression through our individual style of handwriting? What happened to the individualism of the British, not to mention the Scottish now-extinct banknote? 

Invisible money
It can sometimes feel as if money doesn’t even exist; money you are never actually able to see or hold certainly has its defects plus you never quite know how the banks are using your savings when they are holding your money. That sense of certainty that accompanies the physical, hand-to-hand exchange of cash, conducted between friends, the familiar shopkeeper or banking staff in your local bank branch, rather than online, is a human touch missed by all. 

As I walk down a main street in central London, a city that has now increased in size by at least a half in the last half century, I listen to a busker singing for his supper. In the past I would most likely have dropped some spare change into his hat. Now however, it is a far more awkward process. To give to any entertaining busker, street performer or charity chugger, rather than just dropping a hasty but friendly coin into their hand - or chugging-tin - you now have to go through the laborious and awkward process of making a proper stop and giving ‘virtually’. 

Tipping cabbies, waiters, waitresses and cleaners is also more difficult and more obvious, plus the elimination of cash also means that all tips and also any kindly street donations are now logged and taxed; nothing escapes ‘The System’. Ladies and gentlemen, Big Brother has finally arrived. 

So many retail and entertainment outlets such as funfairs, ice-cream vans and market stalls have now closed down, resulting in yet more unemployment. Those that haven’t have been taken over by national organisations, taking away any of the individual authentication that may have come with visiting the local chippie up the road.

Big Brother Society
Simple and quick exchanges such as borrowing a ‘fiver’ from a friend is of course no longer possible – we have to do it all through online banking. When I do need to borrow from a friend or family member, the whole process becomes more ‘obvious’, and, if you like, rather awkward. 

To be honest, I no longer feel like a free and independent person; my every spend is tracked by my card - I am effectively being followed at all times and as a result I find myself plagued by emails targeting consumers who know exactly what I’ve just bought that morning. Even deep in the country, when I’m buying fresh eggs from the local farmer, this also is tracked and most likely stored in some other bank of personal information somewhere.

No more pocket money, no more choices…
My sister has two children, aged eight and nine. She has had to reduce their ‘pocket money’ to nothing, taking away their limited independence; they can’t even choose their own chocolate bar with the odd 50 pence any longer – Mother makes all the decisions. They’ll probably get hugely drunk on sudden monetary autonomy when they eventually hit the dreaded credit card age. The surprise and glee a child may feel at having their own small stash of money when opening a birthday envelope filled with crispy new banknotes has been lost altogether. 

If, some time ago, we had all been more pro-cash, I feel almost certain that our friendly neighbour cash would still exist today. Without cash, some of the sense of British identity that goes with notes of different denominations and designs has been lost; cash had an authenticity that is simply not matched by electronic money.

A cash-filled future will be regained
James Woudhuysen, professor of Forecasting and Innovation at De Montford University in Leicester, says that he always thought that Britons would to hang on to the ‘lovely stuff’, partly, ‘out of a desire not to be too institutionalised, too branded, or too virtual’. But also, because cash was not just a store of value or means of payment, but it made a statement as to what kind of person you are: free and not easily confined. 

I am now marshalling my fellows to fight back for our right to cash once again. We shall never surrender to the human right for an autonomous society and this quest remains unanimous with the resurrection of cash. A large underground movement to bring back cash is slowly building day by day… Watch this space my fellow friends, for a long-standing cashless society will never hold a place in the hearts of Britons!
 

Monday, 14th February 2011

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