弃用现金,实属不智.docx

弃用现金,实属不智 Can we do without cash ？ Since 2015， digital payments in the UK have outnumbered those in cash ， and we are invited by the great and the good1 to cheer this on. The fully cashless era will be magnificently convenient ， they say ， with goods delivered directly to the door ： no fumbling for change ，2 just tap and go. Some London branches of several chains don’t accept cash any more. Many others fast-track3 customers who can pay by contactless means. Businesses and banks want to abolish cash because they have nearpathological4 fears of the black market and tax avoidance. Yet we should worry about the death of cash， because physical money possesses worth far above its face value. Cash is the great leveller. Every penny ， pound and banknote sits the same in every hand， identical in value and appearance. A pocketful of change is a gallerycum5-museum. Yes， the Queen is the mainstay， but coins abound in symbols of the Union ： the medley of Tudor roses ， thistles， ostrich feathers and lions still circulates ， now jostling with shards of the Royal Arms.6 These numismatic quirks reveal the strata of history that shaped the United Kingdom.7 Where else worldwide would a pocketful of change include royal portraiture， papal titles， Virgilian tags，8 Roman and Arabic numerals， and three languages？ Actual physical money ， in the hand， teaches us its true value. With cash，what you see is what you have. Exchanging it demands personal engagement and oils the wheels of a community. At a shop till or pub bar， the exchange of cash takes time： it involves a flutter of physical contact，9 eye meeting eye and a reminder that trade is human. A digital touch payment is done in a flash： no human interaction necessary. Spare a thought， too， for high-street communality.10 The more that transactions are ceded11 to electronic devices， the less human the reality of work and trade becomes. Black Friday once denoted disastrous losses of life ； now it heralds an artificial ， week-long whip