Picture this: After saving up your money, you finally have enough to buy that toy, game, or piece of clothing you've been dreaming of. You go to the store and find the item. But at the counter, you see a sign: "Hello! We've gone cashless(不用现金)."
Situations like this may become common if more stores and restaurants stop accepting cash as a payment. Instead, customers must pay with a credit card, or by smartphone app. Many business owners believe that getting rid of cash has benefited the way their business run. Staff members don't have to worry about having enough money to make change or about delivering bills and coins to the bank.
But a growing number of people think that cashless stores are unfair. According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, more than 8 million households in the US don't have bank accounts. Also, many people, including kids, don't meet the requirements for a credit card. "A cashless economy(经济)is not an inclusive(包容广阔的)economy," Tazra Mitchell told National Public Radio. She's a policy director at the DC Fiscal Policy Institute. In her opinion, cashless stores are "essentially discriminating (歧视)against people". Plus, people who do have credit cards might prefer paying with cash. "Cash is still very popular with consumers," Nick Bourke said. He's a director at the Pew Charitable Trusts' consumer finance project. "It's used by almost eight in ten adults in the US every month. That's more than any other payment type."
Lawmakers in several places have taken steps to ban cashless stores. A handful of major cities including New York City and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, have already passed laws to solve the issue. In San Francisco, California, a law banning cashless stores was passed in May. It says most stores in the city must allow customers to pay with cash. Cerek REmski helped write the San Francisco law. He works for the city. "It's really about equity(公平)," Remski said. "It's about understanding that not everyone has equal access to things."
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They like using the Internet. They have lots of pocket money to spend. And they spend a higher proportion of it online than the rest of us. Teenagers are just the sort of people an online seller is interested in, and the things they want to buy — games, CDs and clothing — are easily sold on the Web.
But paying online is a tricky business for consumers who are too young to own credit cards. Most have to use a parents card. They want a facility that allows them to spend money.
That may come sooner than they think: new ways to take pocket money into cyber space are coming out rapidly on both sides of the Atlantic. If successful, these products could stimulate online sales.
In general, teenagers spend huge amounts: $153 bn (billion) in the US last year and £20 bn annually in the UK. Most teenagers have access to the Internet at home or at school — 88 percent in the US, 69 percent in the UK. According to Jupiter Research, one in eight of those with Internet access has bought something online — mainly CDs and books.
In most cases, parents pay for these purchases with credit cards, an arrangement that is often unsatisfactory for them and their children. Pressing parents to spend online is less productive than pressing on the high street. They’re more likely to ask “Why” if you ask to spend some money online.
One way to help teenagers change notes and coins into cybercash is through prepaid cards such as IntenetCash in the US and Smart cards in the UK, Similar to those for pay-as-you-go mobile telephones, they are sold in amounts such as £20 or $50 with a concealed 14-digit number that can be used to load the cash into an online account.
