Why Cash Still Matters in a Digital World

Georgie: 00:00:00

Hey folks, it's Georgie here. And today we're diving into the cashless society madness.

Why it's creeping in everywhere, why it's dangerous and oh yeah, let's talk about those ridiculous public holiday surcharges while we're at it.

So this all comes about because it was last Anzac Day and we're going back to the Caloundra again this Anzac Day and I called into an ice cream shop to grab a cold drink out of the fridge and one, I wanted to pay cash and they wanted card and two, they wanted to charge me a public holiday surcharge of 15% for the privilege of buying a can of coke that they have nothing to do with with it. So the push for cashless for a cashless society. So my belief is that, that banks, corporations and governments are pushing us towards this.

It's not a conspiracy theory, it's just a fact. Belief I have is that. And it's the same with social media, if you're not paying for something, you are the payment.

So what I mean by that, your email address, your bank account so that they can control and see what you do.

One of the myths that I want to knock down on the push for a cashless society is that it's easier, faster, safer, but to me it's all about tracking fees and control. So what do I mean by that?

When we go to shop and this happened to me at a beautiful restaurant, shout out if you're in the bigger rewarders area in Queensland. Mr. Chairs, bigger, beautiful food. So I gotta Pay, the bill's $49.60, I think it was.

I go up to pay and the bill is $50.15 because I saw a little surcharge thing there, still paid it didn't have any cash on me.

So we can accept these fees or we can change the way we do things because if you go, say for instance, you have, you're out for the day, you're shopping, you're going to different retail shops, then you do a grocery shop, then you have lunch, then you might have a coffee after that and then you just keep on going for the day and you keep on using your card and there's a dollar surcharge. Go to 10 places, there's $10 extra that you paid for all those goods for that day, never mind on a public holiday.

So I've been to a few places where they refuse cash now and what I do is walk away. And the problem is most of the government departments here in Queensland or facilities do not take cash.

You can't walk in and pay cash for your rates, you can't walk into the footy stadiums and pay cash for your food.

So and then the next bit is what happens during a power outage, what happens if there's a bank glitch, what happens if there's a lot of things that can go on.

So the one thing I will say, and Bob Katter bought this up and no big fan of Bob Katter, he's pretty much a two faced politician that thinks he's got some power but he hasn't gives in to whoever pushes his button. So it's the legality of refusing cash in Australia.

r the Australian Currency Act: 1965

So: 1965

That's the technicality of the way it's written. However it's legal tender.

So my philosophy behind it is and the same with Bob Kaddow that day in Parliament cafeteria that they refused him cash and the legal advice is it's legal tender, they must take it. But when you read the act it's a little bit hairy fairy and can get a little bit ambiguous.

So they can refuse cash, but it's a bad look and pushes us further into the digital trap. Now I'm all for technology, I'm all for doing things faster, better, quicker, but not when it comes to money.

So and this brings you to the how customers are being nudged into the digital only transactions without understanding their rights. So as much as they have a refusal, the right to refuse how you pay, you got a right to refuse whether you shop or do business with them.

So it's up to us. That's the end of the day with this going to card only.

And before we get on to the next bit, if you've had any experiences like I've had, shoot me a DM message or whatever on all the socials and it'll be great to get involved with your thoughts on the, on the cashless society that we're getting pushed into. So there's still a few issues. So why does cash still matter? Well there's the privacy and Freedom thing.

When you pay cash, no one is tracking you, no one is saying how much you can spend or which can happen down the track.

There are instances in a few places overseas now that if you spend too much on petrol and things like that and you start to get refused things like insurances because your carbon footprint's too big. So there's a whole controlling mechanism around this.

So the other side to it is that, and this goes back to Canada for instance, if you, when they, during COVID I think it was covered when all the, the truckies went into Canada and Justin Trudeau decided to freeze all their bank accounts. Well, if you had cash only, that wouldn't matter. They can freeze it as long as they like, as long as you've got your cash.

So it's, there's another side to why cash matters. And here's the one of the significant ones.

We travel out to Stanthorpe, Maryborough and a lot of country towns, a lot of markets and they're starting to change where you can only pay by card as well. But low income earners, like the people on pensions and things like that.

And I can always remember growing up as a little fella, my grandparents were pensioners. They'd go up, they'd get there, go to Centrelink on a Tuesday, get their money, it was always cash.

Then they par would come home and there'd be tins everywhere around the unit. They lived in a commission housing flat and there was all the tins, one for electricity, one for gas, one for this, one for that.

And when they put all the money into those tins, then par out his money for having a bit of a punt on a Saturday and then be able to go off to bingo. But they had control over their money and how it was spent and it allowed them to live.

Whereas now, even for people my age, you know, like late 50s, early 60s, you know, using apps to pay for things and do all of that, it's a little bit hard. And then you've got the other side of things, which is the people in rural areas, they rely on cash a lot to pay for a lot of their things.

And if we keep on pushing down this path, it's going to make it harder for them as well. You know, like you go out to Stanthorpe, a lot of the stuff is still cash there or card.

The farmers rely on cash a fair bit for paying for feed and things like that. So it's, it's just, to me, it's just a stupid thing that we're predominantly going cash less and there's also the, the security risks.

Wayne Moss, who I.

If you go back to one of my previous shows, he has a YouTube channel, Fiasco de Gamma and he's now over the last couple of months, had his bank account hacked from overseas.

He travels overseas, he travels to Bali, India and around and he's used his card bankard overseas and it's been hacked and there's been a fair sum of money taken. Now when we're in Bali, we predominantly use cash.

We go to the BNI bank, take out, you know, a couple of, couple of million at a time and yeah, everything's paid by cash. And now let's move on to my pet hate. This one might take a little bit longer, but it's, it's a pet hate. And this is the public holiday surcharge.

Now there is no just cause for a business to charge you a public holiday surcharge. And I don't care. You can scream blue in the face.

That are wages are more expensive and things are more expensive for the proprietor on a public holiday. Crap. That is the biggest load of crap that I've ever heard.

When you budget for a year as a small business owner, you take into account all of the public holidays. So you will allow for a certain amount of staff for that public holiday. You know what the cost is going to be. So why pass it on to your customers?

It's just absolute crap. I ran a photography business.

It didn't matter whether we were working Saturday, Sunday, public holiday, the fee was the same and it was the same with the bank fees. We never, we never passed them on to. Well, technically we did because we built it within our price that, okay, this is what it's all going to cost.

And we'd include. Okay, well we've got staff, we gotta, you know, have to have them on a public holiday.

And to be fair to them, we're gonna bump their salary up just for that little bit. But it was built in over the year, not all. We'll take 20% and this is the next bit. So anywhere between, I think it's now 15, 20% they'll charge.

And then on top of that you can't pay cash, so you gotta pay card. So technically you're paying about 22% extra a public holiday. So why when it should be built within there.

Now I know there's, there's small business owners that got to listen to this and say, I don't understand. Well, I do. Been there, done that. You don't have to do it. It just started out of the blue somewhere.

Now where I do get it is in some of the restaurants only for the simple fact is that it's service. So if I go back to the example of that gelato shop. Yep, he's got to scoop up the ice cream. But it's not a full on service.

So I don't know where it started. Just sort of creeped in and crept in and crept in was mainly restaurants and then it came, you know, local cafes.

And then on it went and on it went and on and went. And it's just, just. I don't like swearing much, but that's just. And they got to stop it. But it's like anything, once I started, they can't stop it.

And I just think it's wrong if you, if you, if you're struggling that much as a small business to open up on a public holiday and you've got to charge 20% extra to get the cost of your staff back, don't open. Simple as that. Mr.

Chair doesn't open on public holidays, he doesn't want to pay the extra and all the other bits and pieces that go along for staff on a public holiday. So it closes and it's there, it's open, it's, it's there. You know, don't get me started.

If you listen to yesterday, the episode about Australia Day, you'll listen there. But I just think Australia Day should be said like Christmas Day and Good Friday when nothing opens anyway.

So it's getting harder and harder to look for the places that don't charge for a public holiday. We'll go back to. There's a beautiful smoothie shop on the Esplanada. I can't remember the name of the road at Caloundra there.

Beautiful smoothies, good price, no surcharge. And that's what we've got to start looking for.

You know, if they want to start charging the spank fees and then service fees and this, that and the other. It's your money. And in a cost of living crisis, you've got to try to save every cent you can from wherever you can get it from.

What are the dangers of a cashless society? And at this stage, if you're still listening, don't think I'm a conspiracy theorist, this is just a factual thing.

If you go and listen to the bfm, the World Monetary Fund or WMF or whatever they call themselves, this is the way they want to take the world, to monitor everything that you do in the way, and especially with banks, they'll they'll end up using your spending habits as lending criteria if they're not already doing it. So you have the loss of choice once cash is gone. We're at the mercy of banks and tech companies. Fees, fees and more fees.

Think you're saving money, Think again. Those hidden charges, as I said, it may be $10 a day, you do that over a year, or $5 a day, depending how many.

Like petrol station, groceries, school, everything that you can think of. Whenever you tap, you get charged. Now and then you have the Commonwealth bank saying, oh, that shouldn't be charged. But yeah, whatever.

Oh, then there's the potential of government overreach, the risk of control, like spending limits, social credit systems or financial tracking. That's scary. Can happen down the track, you know, may not be around the corner at the moment, but you just never know.

And the silent impact on small business, they pay the price for car transaction fees and compliance costs. However, they are now bringing it on to us as well. So they've had enough, they pass it on to the consumer.

So every time something goes up, especially in Australia with the way our economy is, everything goes up every week. So they say surcharges are starting to get bigger and bigger and bigger. So what can we do to push back?

Because we do have some say over this and way we go about stuff. So use cash whenever possible.

So instead of if you got to go into say, coffee shop and they say, no, it's card only, the next coffee shop's cash, go to the one that's cash. So spread the awareness, educate others. The card only is a trend and it's, it's here to stay at the moment.

Unless we push back and start saying, hey, hey, we don't want to do this. You know, there's the convenience of, you know, you're running, you've run into a petrol station tap, there's going to be those sort of instances.

But when you're out and about, when you do your shopping, grab yourself a couple hundred dollars cash even, you know, you're out and about. Like for instance, the theme parks here on the Gold Coast. Jane works in retail. There's another one that doesn't charge public holiday fees.

All the retail outlets, but they're paying, yeah, don't get me on those public surcharge. So it's not uncommon for a family to spend anywhere up to 6, 7, 8, $9,000 for the day at a theme park.

And back when cash was king, parents had probably taken to the theme park, say, okay, Johnny, you've got X amount to spend on food and everything for the day. And once he spent it, that was it, over, done with. And the other thing with cash is that you teach kids the sense of worth of money.

Whereas at the moment all they do is say tap, tap, tap. And I keep on thinking money's there. Now on, attached to your card, you might have an overdraft. It could be a credit card with a high limit.

So they don't see the worth and value of money. So that's the other side of it. Demand transparency, challenge surcharges and advocate for fair pricing. So what do I mean by that?

So question and I'll do this the next time I'll, I'll ask to speak to imagine, I'm sick of it. As you can probably gather on a, on a public holiday surcharge, I'm going to say justify it. And if they say, oh, because of wages? No.

Why, why haven't you built it into your pricing for the year? You know, there used to be a column in your spreadsheet when you run a business called Cost of business. A public holiday is the cost of business.

And the cost of business is for me, you're either open or you close. If you can afford it, you open. You don't charge. If you can't afford it, you close. It saves your face as a business. So what are my final thoughts?

Well, look, at the end of the day, cash gives us choice and control. Let's not give that up without a fight. So here's my little spin for you. Are you still carrying cash or have you given in? Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks for getting to this stage of the show. You can leave your thoughts at Peter. Hey, Georgie Dot com.

You can leave a voice message there and you can leave comments in the, in the podcast platforms that this all goes out on, even YouTube, the podcast is there. You can leave comments there. So let's join in the conversation. Let's have a serious chat about the push to cards.

And as the slogan for hey Georgie's, it's all in the conversation. Let's have a conversation about it. And as I always say, thanks for listening.

And when you wake up, just try to be the best version of yourself for that day. Thanks for listening.