New Jersey has popped up in the news for being the second official state to pass a bill that bans cashless establishments. The trend is popping up among restaurants, bars, or stores as technology gets more advanced and less and less people actually carry cash. Younger generations such as Millennials and Generation Z hardly ever carry cash on them and only just their cards. Why? Most find it easier to carry their card rather than cash. With cash you have to constantly visit the ATM or bank unless you visit a store and purchase a product with cash back. With your card, it's all there, no need to go out of your way to seek out funds. It is more convenient and there is definitely a laziness fact here for why a lot of people prefer cards over cash.
To ban cash transactions all together though is extreme because it's telling it's customers how they are obligated to pay and does not give them any choice. Some like New Jersey Assemblyman Paul Moriarty finds it "discriminatory". He told the local CBS affiliate in New York: “I think a ban on cash is discriminatory. It marginalizes the poor, marginalizes young people who haven’t established credit yet. People prefer to pay in cash, and people who don’t want every aspect of life notated by a credit card company, right down to a stick of gum."
The New Jersey Business and Industry Association is fighting back against this ban and disagrees with it. They believe this ban removes a business owner's right to freely chose how they would like to receive payment. They don't believe business owners would do anything to compromise their flow of customers. A representative, Michele Siekerka of the NJBIA explained why businesses are for going cashless: "Business-side efficiencies: Safety, security, not having to take bags of money to the bank at the end of the day, another cost to the business.”
How do you feel about cashless establishments? We here on "VB in the Middle" have hardly run into this. Then again Waffles and myself hardly ever use cash so it would be rare we even notice this as an issue. We probably would never see this in Massachusetts anyway because it's been banned since 1978 to have cashless establishments. Do you think in time we'll be part of a society that is completely cashless? I think so, what about you?
-Producer Lightning