Cash society

Since I am currently being paid in cash I have begun to forget how much we use cards for everyday use at home, and in most western countries. I have got used to carrying fairly large sums of money around with me and having ridiculous amounts of notes in my wallet, especially as the largest denomination is worth about 5 pounds sterling.

I suppose the dependence on cash is partially due to unreliable technology. How can you scan credit cards when the electricity goes on a regular basis? It must also be due in part to poverty. Credit is not easy to come by here and people living on the poverty line won’t necessarily be able to pay it back, whether they want to or not.

And you know what? It’s not the end of the world not being able to use my credit card a lot. I have always lived within my means but often with part of next month’s salary on the card at the end of the month. It’s nice that this is not so any more. This reliance on credit (and don’t get me wrong it’s a great thing when you need it) was brought home to me when I was buying plane tickets a few weeks ago.

This particular airline doesn’t accept credit cards and so I duly totted in a hefty envelope of notes to pay for two tickets for myself and James. These, unfortunately, weren’t particularly cheap tickets. While I was patiently waiting in the queue to be served I couldn’t help but notice a British couple trying to buy plane tickets. They were getting increasingly irate over something and eventually the man’s voice was raised enough for me to be able hear them. His main problem was that they couldn’t pay on credit card. But why not he asked and was told that the company just didn’t. But I want to, he declared! We don’t want to waste our precious dollars on these! We must be able to! His voice continued to get louder and louder despite the fact that a desk clerk clearly couldn’t magically make the company take credit cards.

Eventually, in the midst of what I would call a tantrum, he demanded the price (all of $300) and said they’d call their agent in UK who would book it online for them for the same price. At which point he and his wife stood up and stomped out. He even slammed the door behind him.

Everyone in the place started to laugh and the staff wasn’t fazed in the least. The man beside me in the queue said “he was really furious” and started to laugh away to himself again. And I thought to myself, there is a time a place to get angry and to get angry about the fact that this is a cash society is not the time. After all, there is always the ATM just around the corner.