I’ll see you at the ATM
Last night, when I was settling up at the dive bar, I began thinking once again about the tradeoffs of technology. I was thinking about it because I paid in cash.
Post-pandemic, it seems that more people than ever are using credit cards for payments; they are now the vast majority of transactions, according to a report from Capital One. Not that my life is representative — I am a freak — but this bears out among my friends as well. I am frequently the only person carrying cash.
Some of this is just that I like cash; it inherently makes it easier for me to budget because I can’t spend money I don’t have. I also enjoy that it doesn’t sign me up for stores’ email lists. And — I did tell you I was a freak, didn’t I? — there is very little in…