A cashless future is a bad idea, but it’s not a conspiracy .

Anonymous money is so important...

True, but there needs to be convenient digital solutions for that. Currently there are unfortunately no anonymous digital way to pay in a convenient way.
- Any way that is invented will quickly be cracked. Bitcoin is very complicated and was built for anonymity, yet the government figured out how to track transactions almost immediately once it gained enough popularity to see common use. The only real way I can see digital transactions being anonymous is an agreement that they won't be tracked, and that agreement will almost immediately be violated by corporations and the government alike.

I like cash. As a tradesman, doing cash jobs in my off time is how I can maintain being competitive against huge established businesses and help out people who can’t afford to get work done by said businesses.

I like cash over smartphone app crap.

Great way to sell the point for your article with that cover image.

Tldr: stopping to use cash is bad as it leaves financial control to the current powers and banks.

Me: physicial money based economics vs digital money based economics smells like gaslighting from big money.

Thanks for the TL;DR.

What difference does the form of currency make when people still use some rewards program to have their shopping tracked, or with all the NFC chips on products, that track you through the whole store?

I believe the form of payment is the minor issue here.
- Its an ideal but i keep dreaming of a post profit world. My mindset is that by aiming for perfect ideals we can get as close to them as possible, every step in its direction is a positive.
  
  I personally believe we should dedicated ourselves:
  
  Automating Laborious Tasks: Automating hard, dirty, and monotonous jobs while honoring those who perform such tasks.
  
  Enhancing Leisure Time: Ensuring that all individuals have more time for leisure, enhancing quality of life.
  
  Sustainable and Durable Design: Designing products that are not only built to last but are also sustainably repairable.
  
  Clothing Maintenance and Replacement: Providing services for clothing repair or replacement without any cost.
  
  Automated Delivery of Essentials: Developing a public system for automated home delivery of high-quality essential items like bread, free of charge, based on household size.
  
  Additionally, the concept of earning ‘luxury rights’ over time or through contributions could be implemented. For instance:
  
  On birthdays, individuals could choose gifts from a special catalog.
  
  Volunteers at a clothes repair shop might be rewarded with collective vacations periodically.
  
  Skilled individuals, such as those adept at fixing devices, could receive personalized rewards like custom screwdrivers.
  
  Need anything else? go to a website and ask the warehouse if they can arrange it for you. You don’t need to pay or are required to be reasonable, the warehouse will decide wether your request is reasonable (based on demand, supply, extra effort, local common sense) and simply aims to accommodate the people it services as well as they are able.
  
  Probably most essential to my way of thinking and also it potential point of failure, i am betting that if people see value in having a certain resources there will always be people willing to work to create it be it a small local diy workshop or by organizing to build and automated factory.
  
  I’d be happy to learn how to build and design robots for free, as a way to pass the time if my survival needs are otherwise provided for.
  
  Science has shown that the act of giving generates more happiness than receiving, there where always be people who want to help others and there will be others who want to help reward the helpers.
  
  When we can stop working for personal survival we can finally start working for actual mutual aid.

That was too long to read. I already hardly ever use cash. It is so inconvenient.

How is it inconvenient?
- Gotta pull it out from an ATM or get a check cashed.
  
  Gotta know how much you're gonna need lest you need to pull out more.
  
  Gotta count it out and do math to make sure you're paying the right amount as well as making sure you got the correct change back.
  
  If your wallet is lost or stolen, that cash is fucking gone.
  
  Meanwhile with digital:
  
  Can tap and pay in like 10 seconds.
  
  Don't need to do any math
  
  If I lose it, I can turn it off with my phone and not lose any actual money.
  
  If I forgot my wallet, but still have my phone, I'm not SOL because I can tap and pay using my phone, too.
- I'm not the guy you replied to, but you have to carry it around, which means you need a wallet...I don't want to carry a wallet around all the time. You also have to get cash regularly to always have some on you. That is super inconvenient for me since my daily life doesn't take me anywhere near an ATM. I don't want to carry an entire weeks worth of spending half the time.
- Did you ever have 2000€ in your bank account and 0.63€ in your wallet? And then it was summer and you were thirsty, so you bought something with your card instead of riding the tram to the next ATM to get a 50€ bill and ride the tram back to the kiosk, where they did not have the right exchange for the 50€ bill, which was then the reason to visit the stores around to exchange money, what they did but they looked at you very suspiciously, because that’s a common theme for a scam, and then you could finally buy your drink, but the whole ordeal cost you 45 minutes?
  
  That’s just one example.
It is an essay.
What a stunning counterargument. Really illustrates the issues at play.
- I don’t know the issues. Didn’t read the article.

I haven’t used cash in years. No lie.

I could imagine this becoming in reality. Maybe in 2 or 3 world wars and 100 more genocides there might be a society emerging like this.

It is obvious that this society is superior. It is also obvious that it is impossible to achieve for any culture that is living today.

We are already optimising and automating a shit ton! And we could already rest more than 100 years ago. Instead we just consume more.

I have like four different pairs of trousers, a 75 inch flat screen tv, a laptop, a tablet, a phone, a smart watch, and I eat meat like three times a week ( which is even low compared to my kin ). Stuff breaks all the time and a buy new ones.

My 80 year old uncle told me they did usually not eat meat when he was a child. They had two eggs per week, which were used for baking. And they were not poor. A normal household.

If we would consume as much as 100 years ago, I bet we could send half the work force into life long vacation!

My other bet is that our wealth will rise the more we automate, but we will still be working the same amount to afford our future wealth.