What Are the Advantages of a Cashless Society?

The main advantage of a cashless society is that a record of all economic transactions through electronic means makes it almost impossible to sustain black market or underground economies that often prove damaging to national economies, according to Infowars.com. Because it is also much more risky to conduct criminal transactions or avoid the proper payment of due taxes in a cashless society, such violations are likely to be greatly reduced.

Recent technological developments and the ubiquity of debit cards in developed economies have greatly reduced the use of cash in consumer transactions worldwide. According to Infowars.com, the governments of countries such as Sweden and Israel are considering or have implemented policies to move their countries to cashless economies. And even in the United States, where the symbolic value of the dollar and thus cash is more pervasive, up to 80 percent of consumer transactions are conducted without using cash.

The legal and macroeconomic benefits mentioned above are not likely to bring about a cashless society on their own. If history is taken into account, the customer convenience benefits brought about by debit cards and smart cards are more likely to be the driving force to a cashless society, according to Wikipedia. Even though consumer rights groups have warned about loss of privacy and security concerns by completely relying on electronic transactions, customers continue to use them at a rapidly growing pace.