Farhad Manjoo reviews David Wolman’s new book, The End of Money: Counterfeiters, Preachers, Techies, Dreamers—and the Coming Cashless Society:
Cash is inconvenient. It can’t be traced or insured; if you lose your cash or if it’s stolen, that’s that. It’s expensive—think about all the costs involved in producing, moving, protecting, scrutinizing, and reissuing bills and coins. Wolman cites a study that estimates that by switching from paper-based currencies to electronic ones, countries could save about 1 percent of their gross domestic product annually. That’s about $150 billion a year in the United States. Cash is also dirty, both literally—all your bills are contaminated with germs and drugs—and legally, a key enabler of the criminal underworld and mass tax evasion. If we didn’t have paper money, we’d probably have less crime and better-funded governments.
Seth Stevenson vows to give up cash for a couple weeks:
How can I reward that excellent violinist on the D train platform? Can I (should I?) buy drugs with a personal check? Will the lobster roll food truck accept some form of barter? Is there any way, absent paper bills, to make it rain at a strip club?
The Dish 