I just about use no cash right now. Almost everything is done by pushing around electrons. Of course, if I wanted to get cash and do it all that way, I could still do it, but that would be a lot more trouble for me. I would imagine there is a great number who are like me.
What’s going to happen is that there is going to be a “tipping point” and things will shift real fast at that tipping point. One can’t predict those kinds of things, as they just come out of the blue, but that’s how some things change and change really fast. I believe the change will come about as a “tipping point” issue and then it will happen virtually overnight.
But, all the talk about how long such a thing could be or will be before it happens reminds me of the child always asking, “Are we there yet?!”
It gets old after a while, because you know that we’re getting closer and closer to the destination - all while the question keeps coming up again and again.
AND THEN ... all of a sudden ... we reach the destination.
Operative term there: just about. I’ve got a monday dinner at a bar where I use cash, a thursday lunch, and the concession counter at the movie theater, plus the random under $10 purchase. That’s pretty much it, but that’s all it takes to make sure I always have cash on me. There might be a great number like you, but if there’s one thing to learn from how the entertainment industry has fractured it’s that in a nation of 311 million it doesn’t take many to be many. There’s still clearly a strong demand for cash even if you don’t count the people buying drugs.
It’s not going to be a tipping point, it’s going to be a killer app. Somebody will finally come up with a method of storing and distributing money that achieves what cash does. It’s easy to spot it, just ask yourself: is this method of payment fast and easy enough that if you had all payment options available to you you’d use this one to buy a soda at a convenience store? If the answer is yes that’s the one that replaces cash. If the answer is no cash lives another day.
Or the government says “screw you guys” and stops printing the stuff.