Quote:
Originally Posted by Julian658
What will drug dealers do in a cashless society? Or bank and store robbers?
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I think that part of the problem is in the USA most electronic transactions are not done anonymously. You present a credit or debit card with your name on it, and frequently the clerk asks for identification card. You mostly sign for the transaction, but on the East Coast stores seem willing to wave that requirement for small purchases ($50 or less).
Although most people are aware of anonymous electronic transactions like Google Wallet, I don't think most Americans think it is worth the trouble. They don't see any advantage over cash. But in other countries the anonymous electronic transaction is much more common.
Then there is the question of limits. In the USA the limit for an anonymous cash transaction has long been $10,000. At that point you must fill out an IRS form. The transaction is not illegal, but it is illegal not to report it. But various inroads are being made by law enforcement agencies to cash transactions of a much smaller value. Banks are often required to keep records of cash transactions of $3000 or more which can be subpoenaed by the police.
Rules regarding electronic transactions will be required. Clearly we are never going to have a society where you can send half a million dollars to an overseas destination with your mobile phone.
But with billions of dollars in drug money at stake, criminal organizations will try and figure out a way for these sales.
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Although for decades most of the Northern European countries have made increasing use of electronic transactions that far outpaced most of the rest of the world.
The Swedish experiment is of note. In 2009 they made the decision to produce a new set of banknotes and coins. They stopped producing the old coins (except for some emergency production of their equivalent of a penny), and launched a design contest for the new notes. It included all the current denominations (including the largest one) and added a new one roughly equivalent to the US $20 bill which we use for our ATMS. Previously they had a $10 and a $50 equivalent.
But rather than outright eliminate their equivalent to the $100 banknote, they simply removed most of them from circulation. They printed new ones, but so far they are still destroying old ones at a much faster rate than they are distributing new ones. At the end of November 2015, they were circulating
718,000 pieces of the new 1000-kr banknote, and
3,612,000 pieces of the old 1000-kr banknote. That is an incredibly small number of banknotes for over 9 million people. In comparison to equal the circulation figures on a per capita basis of the American $2 banknotes Sweden would need over 35 million pieces.
Denmark is often considered a good candidate to go cashless, since they are considering moving the cash registers out of most retail stores (primarily to reduce insurance cost and threats of robbery). But Denmark has not followed Sweden in eliminating high value banknotes. They are still circulating 34 million pieces of 1000-kr banknotes for a country of less than 6 million people.
Other countries have stopped producing their larger denominations (Canada terminated it's $1000 bill in 2000 because it was seen as a lubricant for criminal activity, USA stopped producing $500 and $1000 bills long before WWII). The Swedish 1000-kr banknote is not nearly that valuable, and is worth about US$118, but it effectively has vanished. There are no production figures, so we don't know if the government is storing notes in case of a bank scare. After Iceland's bank scare, they distributed more banknotes, but it took over 4 years to produce a new high denomination banknote since the Icelandic Crown had lost about half it's value relative to the Euro or USD.
Incredibly enough Sweden also seems to be removing their equivalent of the $50 banknote from circulation.
So
cashless is an extreme term, but
"low cash" may be more common. Sweden now has much less cash per capita (using current exchange rate) than any other country in the European Union, including poor countries like Bulgaria, Romania, and Poland.
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Now Sweden is a little different than the USA in that there are roughly 55 ATMs in the country that distribute their withdrawals in Euros. So an alternative currency is readily available and easily accepted for private untraceable transactions. Similarly most of the border are of Mexico will accept the US dollar instead of the Mexican peso. Presumably a lot of the drug trade will move to Euros. But cheating husbands will not find it as easy. Prostitution is legal in Sweden, so you can use your credit card.
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Anonymous electronic transactions
