A Shanghai clothing market that allows customers to pay using the apps Alipay and WeChat.
CreditYuyang Liu/ The New York Times
SHANGHAI — There is an audacious economic phenomenon happening in China.
It has nothing to do with debt, infrastructure spending or the other major economic topics du jour. It has to do with cash — specifically, how China is systematically and rapidly doing away with paper money and coins.
Almost everyone in major Chinese cities is using a smartphone to pay for just about everything. At restaurants, a waiter will ask if you want to use WeChat or Alipay — the two smartphone payment options — before bringing up cash as a third, remote possibility.
Just as startling is how quickly the transition has happened. Only three years ago there would be no question at all, because everyone was still using cash.
“From a […]
OK, but what about the points I receive with my VISA? hahaha To say nothing about, will VISA, MC and AMEX etc., still have a business model?
This still leaves me with a different kind of shiver than yours. I attended a lecture at Darden, UVa’s business school and later wrote a memo for the regional tech group I was working with. The talk was given by a well known and respected man in DC whose company did data mining and it was scary. The amount of money that changes hands over computerized data mining is astounding in the banking, government and sellers markets is astonishing. And of course, that’s used for marketing purposes that support our consumer society. Although I do believe we could see cyber attacks that might have us without money for 24 hours but that bothers me less than the current banking entities and Wall St. Would love to hear what you have to say about my doubts.
While I usually agree with your observations in this I do not. The removal of the “cash option” from financial systems worldwide, while convenient for most, makes our private lives and the modicum of control there less and less. Besides that who is encouraging this movement to cashless transactions? It is not the little people but the big guys-government, banking and large businesses that will control us more while extracting more profit. I’m part of the low wage workforce, a massage therapist, who works for a spa. I am very grateful for all tips particularly cash!
I also am usually in agreement with you, Stephan. En plus, I had it wrong re cyber attacks. They’re apparently a bigger risk according to Lloyd’s of London and accessing income ir bank accounts could be 24 hours or more. Can’t begin to imagine the havoc that would create! Sure there’s better and better protection online, but when the ongoing attacks are multiple from all different fronts and the programs and hacker teams that mount them are working 24/7? See Reuters link:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cyber-lloyds-report-idUSKBN1A20AB
I cannot believe that you would celebrate this as an advance. To give government entities even more control and ability to monitor our affairs is nothing to be pleased about.
Albus. I didn’t celebrate this development; personally I think it is the final nail in the modern surveillance state. What I said was that it represented social change arising from quotidian choices collectively made by thousands of people. I describe this process in The 8 Laws of Change. The election of Donald Trump is another example of the process.
— Stephan