May be its
because I am merely a jealous, bitter old things but every time Mr. Calvin
Cheng, former nominated Member of Parliament opens his mouth, my eyes tend to
role. I state that I could be jealous of him because he is everything that I am
not – clever (went to Oxford), successful and has his hair. However, despite
all his advantages in life, he seems strangely proud of being out of touch with
reality.
Let’s look at
his latest tirade, which has been against hawkers who only accept cash. Mr.
Cheng has decided that we need to boycott people who are “backwards,’ and has continued
to double down on his crusade against people who only accept cash as form of
payment.
https://mothership.sg/2023/02/calvin-cheng-boycott-cash-only/
Cash can be
cumbersome to carry around and do you really want to have people constantly
handling something that carries germs in this day and age of diseases like
Covid? On the retailer’s end, it’s also been shown that having alternative
methods of payment can up your top line.
Having said
that, there is no reason to go to war against cash or against people who want
to be paid in good old fashioned hard cash. There is an old adage that goes “Cash
is King.”
Cash is the
physical manifestation of money and physical manifestations have a way of
being, well, far more real than numbers on a screen. Then, if you look at the
two largest economies on the planet, which also happen to be the two societies that
have been most successful at eliminating cash, you’ll find the real value in
holding cash and insisting on having cash.
Let’s start with
the USA where everyone uses a credit card. When I was last in the US a decade
ago, I found that I was the weird Asian guy paying in cash. Everyone had a
credit card. Go to a stall in the middle of nowhere and you’ll find that the
little old lady living on her pension will pull out her credit card to pay for
a cup of coffee. While this seems like a wonderfully convenient situation,
there’s a flip side to it. Everyone is in debt. Borrowing money is a way of
life. Every institution and individual is indebted in one way or another. The
official statistics state that every American is US$90 plus odd thousand in
debt doesn’t look like a creation of statisticians when you see everyone
pulling a credit card to pay for the most minute of things (as a matter of full
disclosure, I have only paid off my personal credit card debts around two years
ago).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_external_debt
Having debts is
fine if you have constant cash flow. Banks will happily allow you to keep things
moving along as long as you have a job of sorts. However, what happens when the
job stops? Given that this is a day and age where job security does not exist,
it is clearly not wise to pay for everything with your credit card. People who
use cash have a way of knowing what goes in and out when compared to people who
put everything on credit (saying from personal experience).
At the other
end, you have China. The Chinese take pride in how advanced they have become
with mobile payments. I remember a PRC customer at the Bistrot proudly telling
me that cash is not used in China because everyone has a QR code. Even the beggars
on the street use Alipay of WeChat Pay. Sure, China’s payment systems are
wonderful from a convenience point of view.
However, let’s
not forget that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has shown that it has been
happy to clamp down on people and there’s no better way of clamping down by monitoring
ones money trail. Since everything is online in China, it’s extremely easy for one
to be tracked. While one might argue that one shouldn’t fear being monitored if
one is clean, there is a point to say that “clean” can be twisted by the man in
power to suit his or her needs.
Mr. Cheng
should stop going after small businesses that insist on being paid in cash and
cash alone. These businesses are being prudent by having a means of watching
their cash flow and avoiding unnecessary debts. They may not declare everything
in tax but these businesses are the backbone of the national economy, buying
from local suppliers and hiring family members, thus keeping things moving along.
Instead of
focusing on small businesses who actually ad value to the national economy, Mr.
Cheng should instead focus on companies that are effectively predatory such money
lenders or labour suppliers. Focus on the companies that have many means of
getting paid but refuse to pay what is due to their suppliers. The world would
be much better off if Mr. Cheng knew where to focus his energy.
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