We will be convening here at the ZigZag café, Suisse, on Thursdays for conversation and dialogue. I invite you to stop by every Thursday for the question of the day. Your thoughts and participation are most welcome. Pull up a stool, avec un café, un thé, ou un chocolat chaud, et un croissant, and join in here on Thursday at the ZZ café.
For today:
What are your thoughts about how we should view the arrival of a new world without cash and credit cards?
8 comments:
If cash disappeared people would fight about materials which actually have some sort of universal worth: gold, oil, diamants. Gold has been recognized as valuable in various cultures (in all of them?). People would go for such materials because gold itself has worth (the less availabe, the more), it isn't like money which does not have any worth in itself (it is just coloured paper). Its worth is impressed upon it.
And afterwards people would again find some other forms of money. The idea of money had been around for a very long time.
Sisyphos,
Thanks. I was thinking that money and cash are not the same thing. Does it bother us that the hard copy (cash) will disappear? We are soon to be forced further into an electronic/techno world. Money will still be there, but it will take on an unseen dimension.
Sisyphos,
Not sure why your second comment didn't post here, but I got it.
We could surely do with looking at money differently than we tend to do. The economy of gift would be one way of starting to do this.
I'm also interested in whether the direction of a cashless society that will soon even do away with credit cards - the tech is there and coming strong - will have an impact on how we view humanity.
From Sisyphos.
The question is rather vague (no complain, opens up different thoughts).
A world without money because people rejected it for the sake of a global economy of gift?
Or: a world without money because there is a global distrust in all the currencies, culminating in a hyperinflation: end result break down of the intersubjective tradedevices. As I pointed out in the previous comment, the consequence would be some other forms of tradedevices.
It makes me uncomfortable and
want to go back to simpler ways
of living, raising food...
I see some bartering of goods and
services as a good option.
I know this guy in my town who
refuses to move forward, lives
off the grid, lives close to
work and walks there, doesn't
embrace technology.
I haven't gone that far, but
sometimes I think that is
closer to how God intends us
to live.
Maybe a forced change of money
would force some into an exile
from technology.
Angela,
Thanks. As we move further and further into a tech world, perhaps one of the dangers that comes with it is that our identity is under threat in an even greater way than it is already. We start to get lost in a world of gadgets and apps. True, these have benefits and aren't in principle destructive, but I wonder if the way that they're used will have such an effect. Going cashless means more tech and cash is bad enough. I like the bartering idea and wish more of that was possible.
Hi
I see now what you meant.
I am going to come back later.
Just one thought: without technology we could not disucss this topic. Good, bad? Needs to be developped, it is just paradoxical:
Critique of technology by means of technology.
Not to be meant as a "making fun of" or refusing the thoughts so far, but it shows the ambiguity of technology.
Maybe a stepping back of it would not be bad (or a total embrace? is there a universal, natural numanness whose identity is endangered? Maybe we are chameleons)
Sisyphos,
Yes. That's why I tried to qualify tech - not the problem per se, but its use that potentially is a danger.
If the view of humanity is that we are merely sophisticated machines, this will have a bearing on how we and others are treated. The social weight to conform and stay in line may become even greater than it is already - and for my cash - that would not be a good thing.
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