Cashless Society

For much of the past 50 years, scientists and sociologists both have been predicting the death of physical currency that will be replaced by an electronic accounting of each person's individual worth. So far, that has not happened. People still cling to having that jingle in the pocket or the wad of bills in a wallet. Maybe the reason is that no one is totally willing to have their net worth rely on an electronic tolling in some account in a bank somewhere.

So far, the only example of a cashless society is in the world of science fiction where the members of Star Trek's Federation of Planets claim to have eliminated money. That still does not explain how they pay for their drinks at the bar run by the Ferengi. In other imagined future worlds, money is transferred by handing over a card, much like the credit and debit cards of today.

Credit Cards

The first move into the world of the cashless society happened more than 50 years ago with the invention of the credit card in 1950. That first credit card was issued by the Diner's Club and, like the earliest forms of money, could be used to obtain food, in this case to pay restaurant bills. The next two did not follow until 1958. First was American Express and then the BankAmericard (now called Visa) was the first bank credit card, issued by the Bank of America.

These were marketed to traveling salesmen who were common at the time and advertised as time-savers rather than as a form of credit. To this day, the traditional American Express card is not a credit card since the entire due amount must be paid each month. Popularity of the plastic cards grew until the United States Congress was forced to begin regulation in the 1970s because banks were sending active cards even to people who did not request them.

Smart Cards

Congress might have done better to ban the cards altogether. Today credit card debt is one of the most troubling forms of servitude. Interest rates have risen dramatically as a percentage of the pie owed to those who offer the cards and widespread bankruptcy among those who have relied too heavily on them has been the result. The next step in the process is supposedly transferring all our assets to a card with a computer chip, called a "smart card," so we can carry our net worth around with us at all times.

Economists have said that the elimination of physical money will greatly simplify the monetary system. Without having to spend all that time counting and storing currency, banking and accounting will be much more efficient. Still, there are a number of problems remaining in the idea, with identity theft being chief among them.