This report mentions drug addiction

 

 

 

I keep hearing about a cashless society but can you imagine if this actually happened? The pandemic pushed us more into cashless transactions. Most places insisted on card transactions only. I understand the reasoning behind this was to avoid spreading the virus through notes and coins exchanging hands, but I’m not sure it is legal to refuse cash as it is legal tender.

In 2020 cash transactions dropped 35% and it’ll probably never return to the old levels because a lot of people prefer to use contactless and phone apps. Our shopping trends have changed and we’re definitely buying more and more stuff online. If we lose cash completely it will hit the most vulnerable and poorest people in our society yet again.

What about the person on the streets who are asking passers-by for money ? What about the family on minimum wage, already going to food banks, but does a little bit of cash-in-hand work to help pay the bills? What about the addict who needs to score? What about the little lady outside Iceland selling the Big Issue who I give a couple of quid to put in her pocket? What about the charities boxes in shops, pubs etc.

I’ve cleaned people’s house, worked behind bars and waited on tables, all cash-in-hand just to help pay bills because benefits aren’t enough to live on even the humblest of existences.

A cashless society will have such a negative effect on homelessness and will create even more people facing eviction, crime will increase and a lot of dark stuff will disappear further underground.

In a cashless society for example, if an addict needs their fix and all he/she has is their body then that’s what they’ll be selling. I know this already goes on but it will increase tenfold. If we get to the stage where no money is exchanging hands then we soon find out other things to barter with, it’s called survival.