Tank Slap - Motorcycle Forum

Good TV prog on C4 last night with Kathy Burke. She's looking at the haves and have nots.

The interesting bit was a discussion with a money expert. She explained the rationale behind a moneyless society - it makes you spend more.

If you got out with £100 in your wallet you know you've got £100. You know roughly how much that is worth, how long you have to work to get £100 and how many times between each pay day you can spend £100. As that money gets spent, you physically see it go.

If you move to a moneyless society then money loses its meaning to you. You lose that connection between work and reward. It's just numbers to you. Need more? Get a loan, increase your credit card limit, get an overdraft.

Money is losing it's meaning. It is exactly the fact that the link between work and reward is losing it's connection.

Credit is hugely to blame - both for the economic shocks that will come, but also for the ease in which it can be obtained and extended. People have too much up front rather than having to work and save for it. That bubble is stretched to the limit presently.

I foresee a time where a major shift from a money oriented society will have to happen.

Inflation is already appearing on the radar which will take a lot of people by suprise and teach them exactly the meaning of money (or lack of it).

Exactly right. The convenience outweighs the meaning of money. I'm guilty of it that's for sure.

Look at your account, see £1200, "yeah I can get this £65 bargain". That may take someone a day to earn and it's spent on a whim. I found myself doing it yesterday. I saw an amazing MTB upgrade in stock in exactly the spec I wanted.. it was £1000. I had just paid off my Cyclescheme Voucher so thought I could easily get another.. "it's only £70/month". It's just too easy. If I had to go to the bank, retract £1000 and then go to a shop to purchase it, I wouldn't think twice about how much I do not need that upgrade.

I know that I have too much credit at the moment and am doing what little I can to pay it off, but just as I was reading this thread my phone pinged. Virgin money want to double my credit limit on the card I have with them to over £10k... It's so easy to get trapped in a debt spiral. I declined the offer.

That card was destroyed immediately, it's a 0% deal which seemed a sensible way of paying some debt.

I have way too much short term debt. The repayments are manageable but I'm not making much of a dent in it really.

Unfortunately I'm at the stage in my life where my spending and income are near identical.. I'm well aware that things do get easier as you get older as income goes up and outgoings begin to reduce. So long as I can at least tread water for that long I'm happy. I certainly don't miss out on a lot that's for sure.

I never use cash, I don’t even take my wallet with me anywhere now.

We have digital drivers licences on the phone and I have all my cards loaded into Apple Wallet.

Even the kids pocket money is cashless. We have a cloud shared iOS Note, I update it on payday for them, they can see what they have and I just debit it as they request apps, songs or games on their devices.

I LOVE ca$h. Cash is king!!!
Credit is fine when used properly.....but at some point it becomes something akin to Monopoly money....some sort of detached or abstract concept of "free money".... or at least it does for some people.
Cash is something tangible you can hold in your hands and see & feel the value of.... especially British banknotes... they're way better than US dollar bills, which all look & feel more or less the same..... they're gradually changing them for the better though.

'Gis a sub, anyone??

Electronic payments are all well and good until there is a power cut or internet outage or you have a government like China and disagree with them on something or you need to be discrete and don't want to leave a digital footprint . the majority of e-payments have hidden costs either to the vendor or the customer , although that being said many banks now have a cash handling charge . I like cash , the new stuff is even waterproof , I wouldn't like to hold a large amount of it though I'd rather have gold or silver .