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I don't have too many issues wit the way it is going.
I regularly pay in reasonable cash sums into teh bank, but as counter service is disappearing, it is often by machine which asks no questions. Same for cheques, though they are very very rare these days.
What is being hit will be the black economy. And probably the reasons for the push towards cashless.
When I had some work done on our house, I got the disting feeling a lot of the workers were ion low wages in cash, but being supported by the state. Nothing conclusive, but from talking to them etc.
Some of the builders I have used on projects have refused cash payments at all, too much grief.
I bet taxi drivers are paying rather more tax now most pay via card... so there is hope that it will result in a fairer taxation system where some people actually pay their fair share.
Can't disagree with any of that, though I do still insist on personal service by a human at banks, supermarkets etc. Automation is all well and good (except it destroys employment opportunities) until something goes wrong which needs sorting out, or you have a peculiar 'non-standard' transaction to make which the machine hasn't been programmed for...
BUT (yes, that's a big but)
You only need look at how folk can then be controlled by access to your credit being limited or withdrawn entirely; say the wrong thing, have a counter opinion, befriend the wrong person, refuse the wrong injection etc etc and in the dystopian future of Programable Central Bank Digital Currency your liberties are curtailed. Trudeau did this earlier in the year with the Canadian truckers, forcing the banks to freeze not only their assets, but also anyone else who assisted them!
I have never used contactless payment, use cash wherever I can, and have stood in Sainsburys demanding they open a till when none were with the threat of having a trolley full of goods for them to put back on the shelves. I'm already in a minority, but when the inevitable happens, I certainly won't have been a facilitator. Sitting at the bar in the local some months back watching the rugby on the widescreen, I noticed I was about the only person in a packed pub paying for beer with cash; most refused the offered receipt and few if any gave the terminal a second glance before tapping it with their card or 'phone, madness!
As for theatre programmes, they'll soon be digitally supplied to an app on your 'phone after digital payment, removing the need for a human programme seller, the cost of printing them and the livelihood of the print shop that makes them. When all the jobs at the banks, the supermarkets and printers have gone, who'll be able to afford the luxury of a theatre visit anyway?
Being hassled by a 7 year old recently at the motorway services as she wanted a 'ride' in the 'postman pat' van, I demonstrated I didn't have the correct coinage in my pocket, only to be shown by her that it took card payments...for a 30p ride!!
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