I've been spending more than usual over the last couple of weeks, being in full-on holiday mode and all, with many of my payments having been made in good old cash...
And at times I've literally been the only cash-payer in the shop, with everyone else making their purchases by (typically) contactless cards or (now not uncommon) just bumping their phones on the payment machine.
And the stats bear this out...... cash has dropped from 56% of all payments in 2010 to just 17% of all payments today...
(Source, same for screenshots two and three below))
And contactless payments have indeed increased in popularity rapidly, in a relatively short period of time...
And over half of 16-24 year olds have registered to use mobile payment apps meaning this method of payment is set to become the norm as the years roll on....
The rise of surveillance capitalism
I think it's fair to say that these stats strongly suggest that we are now fully in the age of surveillance capitalism.
This is because every digitised payment, be it by card or app is linked to an individual and can be data-harvested to find consumer-trends - when people buy what products, and what products certain types of people buy together.
Big consumer-spending data sets become an informational product which can then be sold on to businesses which can tweak their products, product placement and broader marketing campaigns to more effectively steer their consumers into buying more expensive products.
For example if most people who buy cappuccinos also buy almond croissants, make that a deal, and if there's a third thing they buy along with the main two, shove that under their noses at checkout as an upsell item...
Of course Google and Facebook use the same model - but it might interest you to know that Google's data harvesting business model was actually inspired by consumer-data gleaned from credit and debit card purchases in the 1990s, at least according to this article (worth a read btw).
Cash as Resistance...?
It's a funny thing thinking through spending as resistance against consumer-capitalism, but compared to using yer card or yer app it's a step-up.
At least with cash there's no data harvesting - no big data can be gleaned because there is no digital transactional record of what you have purchased, at least if you don't use a store-card (reward-card) when you make your cash purchases.
I imagine that the option to buy in cash won't be around for every BTW, but in the meantime I'm certainly going to be using the Queen's Head when I make purchases to avoid contributing to the surveillance capitalism data harvesting machine.
Funnily enough I have been using some cash too lately. I've built up a load of loose change, so I've been using it to pay for my train tickets to work. Unfortunately if one of the machines is out of action then the other only takes cards. I've encountered a car park machine recently that doesn't take cash either.
I really wonder what companies actually do with all this data. People don't actually have more money to spend on stuff and may have less the way things are going with many costs going up. I'm sure they have analysts processing it all in different ways, but most people will stick to their spending habits. Even if we use crypto then a lot of that can be tracked unless you have a really anonymous platform.
As I understand it there's two markets for the data - just sell the raw data on and then use it find correlations which you can use to nudge people's spending habits/ stock more appropriate products - I guess there is a non-cynical usage as it could help stores just stock the right stuff at the right time, meaning less waste.
And I agree, crypto doesn't offer a solution at all!
Come to Germany. You won't get far without cash at many places.
Oh I'm surprised I would have thought Germany would be well on the way to digital cash by now!
Germany is well-known for reliance on cash. This partly a result of the conservative German mindset but also the German aversion to what seems like overt surveillance. Germans lived under totalitarianism in the West until 1945 and in the East until 1990. Even Google Maps Street View has fewer areas covered in detail in Germany. Germans like privacy.
It's important to maintain the possibility of paying with cash. That's why I recommend that everyone use cash for at least small purchases.
Yes I agree, crucial for that 'under the radar potential' - very big in Portugal!
I feel the phrase "Cash is King" is losing it's relevance. Data is the new king and business will pay and innovate to get your data. COVID helped to drive the contactless payment method that everyone is now using without thinking twice.
I personally pay for 90% of everything with either a card or my phone, most of the people I know are the same. I like to travel light, so not having to carry a wallet around works fine for me. The whole surveillance thingy and trying to avoid is pointless to a cynic like me. If you can't beat them, milk them?
Don't forget to smile! Hi Big Brother!
I guess if you're alert and disciplined about your expenditure it makes little difference whether you use cash or not TBH, so fair enough!
Convenience is going to win the day, people don’t care if they know what they are buying. But it always a good idea to have a few hundred under the mattress
Classic - cash under the mattress, love it!