Why You Should Send Us All Your Cash
September 14, 2013 in Daily Bulletin
Tim Fernholz hates cash – though our requests for him to send us his have gone unanswered. Here’s his rationale:
- Cash encourages robbery – since stealing that is more or less untraceable while stolen credit cards will eventually be tracked. About $500 million in cash is robbed each year.
- Cash also spreads disease through all the different people that handle it.
- People lose 5.6 hours a year trying to withdraw cash – and spend $8 billion in ATM fees in the process.
- Cash hurts poor people the most since they use it the most and have to pay the most to withdraw and manage it.
- Businesses have to sort cash and securely transport it to banks. This costs $40 billion a year – or 1% of total revenues.
- Since cash is difficult to trace the government loses up to $500 billion in tax revenue each year. It also spends $1.5 billion printing and distributing currency.
- Ultimately the use of cash costs each household, on average, $1,739 in the United States.
Check out the effects that cash has on monetary policy, how European governments are cracking down on cash and more over here.
Source: Quartz
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