High strung on Caffeine and scared shitless of the Boogeyman terrorist is the perfect recipe to boost the economy.

Since that east coast blackout of 2003 90% of my transactions are by cash only.
Nothing is more disturbing than witnessing so called civilized societie  going nuts a couple hours after a blackout because they can’t access ATM’s.

C.R.E.A.M: Cash Rules Everything Around  Me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjZRAvsZf1g

Potentially NSFW, you poor poor puritans.

Personally, I do not think that lending and borrowing money is bad by itself and is probably needed for some undertakings, but lots of debt these days is simple consumer credit.  Not only for stuff of essential use and resale value – like a house – but cars, computers, TVs, etc. 

And there is no zero interest consumer credit – you almost always get a better deal when paying all at once. 

“Customer travels illogical distance to participate, or location is illogical for group”.

You mean like, going half way across the country to play paintball in a big castle with old fashioned pump guns?

The problem though is that you don’t receive them as change, so it’s terribly inconvenient if you want to use them. I suppose you could get a huge stash from the bank once in a while, but that seems silly to me. The thing that’s great about dollar-equivalent coins elsewhere is that you always have them because you always get them as change if you use paper bills, and you’re not forced to keep a huge stash of them. You only have a couple handfuls at any one time, because you spend them all the time.

I then (recently) spent a large part of a year in Thailand. It’s not impossible to use a credit card for most things there, but you’ll miss out on everything worth experiencing. I got into the habit of carrying around cash – and coins – and using them. I was the same way when I traveled to Europe, and in Canada (where I’ve spent a lot of time, and worked).

Now the only place I typically use a card is the grocery store, and online of course. I spend much less money.

I think though that US currency is not really usable in the same way that it is in any of the places I just mentioned. There are no dollar coins – which are fantastic for daily small purchases, tips, etc. Everywhere else has these (or equivalent), and the lack of them really inhibits the flow of small amounts of cash, at least for me.

I got a notification from the bank saying that this was illegal and that they were obligated to notify Homeland Security if it happened again (more than 6 transfers in a month, or something.)

This was all because the 9-11 terrorists used electronic transfers from savings or some such nonsense. I ask you, is it not MY money to move around if I want to play mind games with myself to try to limit my spending? Or if I choose to pay cash? The stupidity of these rules- it burns.

There are studies that show that people spend markedly less when they use cash. There is an actual pain response to spending that is reduced when it’s a check, and almost entirely negated when it’s a card. Good little consumers are conveniently also less likely to be terrorists, I guess. Eddie Bernays would be proud!