One of my colleagues recently spoke of a town near them where the internet is constantly dropping out and impacting businesses as they can't take Eftpos payments.
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It reminded my of the Black Summer fires on the South Coast of NSW during the Christmas of 2019.
With the power out due to the fires there were a multitude of challenges - this included making payments for anything - unless you were doing a cash transaction.
These are just two cases that quickly spring to mind with regard to the value of cash, but they are most definitely are not isolated.
I have also had many occasions while shopping when I was told by the staff that I could only pay by cash as their Eftpos machines were down.
It makes me ponder the question "how could we possibly have a cashless society?"
There is already a move towards the end line for cheques.
I notice there are an ever-increasing number of references, on social media in particular, from people concerned that we could be headed toward a cashless society.
And I can understand the concern with the use of electronic transactions becoming far more prevalent.
I have even seen businesses that choose to only accept electronic transactions. As I understand this is a side effect - so to speak - of the COVID pandemic and the desire to not handle money that may have passed through many hands. Surely nearby sanitiser would be helpful.
While I don't dispute the ease with which transactions can be made in the digital era, I hope cash is always an option for payment.
I fear a society without cash could be fraught with complications - unless, of course, there are guarantees that the internet and other electronic facilities never fail.
I doubt that is a likely prospect - ever.
On the other hand cash never fails.
With that in mind I stand by the popular old phrase that cash is king.
Jackie Meyers, editor
