New advances such as Apple Pay makes every day tasks like grocery shopping more convenient by enabling us to go “cashless.” We, as a society, look at the positives impact that technology has on our lives but we tend to overlook the negatives. This article discusses the negative impact of going “cashless”, especially on those who cannot afford to have a bank account, have an iPhone, etc.
This is really interesting, I don’t remember the last time I carried cash in a meaningful way. I might have one or two dollars with me, but that’s generally it. I thought that the main reasons for not having a bank account were extremely interesting. The top five are: don’t have enough money to keep in an account; needing privacy; not trusting banks; and avoiding account fees. This brings to mind the very hard reality that more than half of all Americans have less than $1,000 in their savings accounts and are such unable to respond to financial emergencies.
I agree that its a hard reality that more than half of Americans have less than 1K in the bank. I have a local friend who has faced that reality several times this past year–one thing has hit after another, and he regularly has less than $10 to his name to live off for a few days until the next paycheck arrives. Yet, my friend does not understand why he would need/want to have more than $250 as a safety net.
Very interesting article about how new technologies might be perceived as only beneficial and making life more simple and easy by a (wealthy) majority while it also creates disadvantages for certain groups / minorities.
Following up on the problem of “underbanking”, the article below describes how minorities often have problems to access small business loans and why this could diminish their ability to become entrepreneurs.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesfinancecouncil/2018/01/22/why-minorities-have-so-much-trouble-accessing-small-business-loans/#7308c26455c4
Annie, I appreciate the article. I think it is interesting so many of the things we take as a given at the law school (access to smartphones, credit cards, etc) are not available to many Americans. Indeed, yesterday I was at the South Bend Library and was surprised at how full it was. Then I realized that it was filled with people looking to use the internet. I bring this up because I think the unequal access to cashless payment is part of the broader, and truly stultifying technology gap in modern America.
Annie, great article. I agree with Richard that we take our access to credit cards for granted because like this article says, they are not available to all Americans. There are a lot of people that get left behind with technological advances and it’s important to take unequal access into consideration.