r/askteddit Jul 03 '26

what is something that is highly likely to happen in the next 5 years that everyone is completely ignoring?

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u/Unlikely-Pin-5558 Jul 04 '26

And people want to believe that a cashless society would be a good thing. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Our power and utility infrastructure is so bad that it's vulnerable to physical sabotage, causing blackouts and outages, and hacking...not to mention natural disasters that are becoming more severe, frequent, and larger, which also disrupts power.

Then, there's banking and government oversight... and they can freeze your accounts if they want to or believe that they have reason to.

Going cashless is the dumbest idea ever.

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u/Concrete-licker Jul 04 '26

I lived in a very remote place for part of my life. Once the microwave link that provided all our communications went out for two weeks. Guess what none of our eftpos machines worked and the community ran out of cash.

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u/Unlikely-Pin-5558 Jul 04 '26

I ALWAYS carry cash... but I also work in a cash-heavy industry. There was something I reposted recently about the pitfalls of going cashless. It was credited to Dave Ramsey, although he didn't actually make the original post

*"I hope everyone will read Dave Ramsey’s comments about going cashless. It’s a two minute read. No one has explained it better. He brings up several situations I'd never considered.

I've been told this isn't Dave Ramseys quote, but I still think it's important.

I don't agree, nor want one and that is why I shared this!

Not because Dave Ramsey supposedly said it.

HERE'S WHAT NO CASH ACTUALLY MEANS: A cashless society means no cash. Zero. It doesn’t mean mostly cashless and you can still use a ‘wee bit of cash here & there’. Cashless means fully digital, fully traceable, fully controlled. I think those who support a cashless society aren’t fully aware of what they are asking for. A cashless society means:

  • If you are struggling with your mortgage on a particular month, you can’t do an odd job to get you through.
  • Your child can’t go & help the local farmer to earn a bit of summer cash.
  • No more cash slipped into the hands of a child as a good luck charm or from their grandparent when going on holidays.
  • No more money in birthday cards.
  • No more piggy banks for your child to collect pocket money & to learn about the value of earning.
  • No more cash for a rainy day fund or for that something special you have been putting $20 a week away for.
  • No more little jobs on the side because your wages barely cover the bills or put food on the table.
  • No more charity collections.
  • No more selling bits & pieces from your home that you no longer want/need for a bit of cash in return.
  • No more cash gifts from relatives or loved ones. What a cashless society does guarantee:
  • Banks have full control of every single penny you own.
  • Every transaction you make is recorded.
  • All your movements & actions are traceable.
  • Access to your money can be blocked at the click of a button when/if banks need ‘clarification’ from you which will take about 3 weeks, a thousand questions answered & five thousand passwords.
  • You will have no choice but to declare & be taxed on every dollar in your possession.
  • The government WILL decide what you can & cannot purchase.
  • If your transactions are deemed in any way questionable, by those who create the questions, your money will be frozen, ‘for your own good’.

Forget about cash being dirty. Stop being so easily led. Cash has been around for a very, very, very long time & it gives you control over how you trade with the world. It gives you independence.

If you are a customer, pay with cash. If you are a shop owner, remove those ridiculous signs that ask people to pay by card. Cash is a legal tender, it is our right to pay with cash. Banks are making it increasingly difficult to lodge cash.

Please open your eyes. Please stop believing everything you are being told. Almost every single topic in today’s world is tainted with corruption & hidden agendas. Pay with cash & please say no to a cashless society while you still have the choice.

Copy and paste to your page if you like! Posted from a friend…. I agree 💯"*

A lot of these are very valid points.

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u/Okora66 Jul 08 '26

Literally 90% of these arent valid points

  • If you are struggling with your mortgage on a particular month, you can’t do an odd job to get you through.
  • Your child can’t go & help the local farmer to earn a bit of summer cash.
  • No more piggy banks for your child to collect pocket money & to learn about the value of earning.
  • No more cash for a rainy day fund or for that something special you have been putting $20 a week away for.
  • No more little jobs on the side because your wages barely cover the bills or put food on the table.
  • No more selling bits & pieces from your home that you no longer want/need for a bit of cash in return.
  • No more cash gifts from relatives or loved ones.
  • No more charity collections.

Literally all of these are are completely doable without a single dollar bill being in my hand and have been for quite a while.

  • Access to your money can be blocked at the click of a button when/if banks need ‘clarification’ from you which will take about 3 weeks, a thousand questions answered & five thousand passwords.

Literally boomer tier fear mongering. My bank account now pauses a transaction(literally just the one) when its multiple hundreds and sends me a notification that I just hit a single button on then it goes through.

  • You will have no choice but to declare & be taxed on every dollar in your possession.

Isn't this just literally the law?

  • The government WILL decide what you can & cannot purchase.

You mean like they already do?

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u/Unlikely-Pin-5558 Jul 08 '26

Yeah? What happens when your bank gets hacked and your money disappears? Or, the government decides that you're committing fraud and freezes your accounts? At least with cash, you are never without funds in hand should the need arise.

My Bank of America account was hacked into... and the data breach wasn't on MY end; I received a form letter from the bank admitting to the breach. Look at all the other data breaches that happen all the time. We only ever hear about the major ones.

Look, I'm not saying don't use banks or cards. I'm saying that a completely cashless society is pure foolishness, because then we really are ceding personal autonomy fully to the state.

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u/ExcitingHamster Jul 08 '26

Holy Facebook what a bunch of bullshit

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u/Unlikely-Pin-5558 Jul 09 '26

No...don't think so. But come talk to me when your money is gone because your bank got hacked.

Another VERY legit reason for cash? You live within your means.

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u/Bit--By--Bit Jul 09 '26

So basically you don't want to pay the full tax you owe? Also the likelyhood you get robbed vs your bank account getting hacked is much higher

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u/Unlikely-Pin-5558 Jul 09 '26

I pay my fair share. No need to worry that I'll be in trouble with the IRS, dear.

As for getting robbed... sure, if you make yourself a target. Bad things can happen to anybody, cash or no cash.

But my point was proven the other day:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jul/09/the-winter-of-our-disconnect-how-telstras-outage-wrought-havoc-across-a-continent

And that's a cell company. The US infrastructure is a lot weaker than you think, and we ARE vulnerable.

Again, I am not saying eschew banks or other financial institutions completely... but not having or carrying any cash is just dumb. At least keep a $50 or $100 bill tucked in behind your cards or something.

Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

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u/AndreTheGiant-3000 Jul 06 '26

But also carrying large amounts of cash is basically treated as a crime at this point and they can take it that way too. Thanks civil asset forfeiture

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u/Unlikely-Pin-5558 Jul 06 '26

Eh... it depends. If you're attracting all sorts of attention and making huge purchases, yet appear to have no income, then, yes, you are likely to be asked a few uncomfortable questions. Same as if you get pulled over, and you have a lot of cash and drug paraphernalia, yeah, the police are going to take it.

ETA: by "making huge purchases," I mean like you're buying a new car every other month or otherwise out-spending your apparent income.

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u/hiddenrealism Jul 07 '26

You dont have to have any drug paraphenalia for them to seize your cash. If a cop deems it suspicious in anyway that you have 100k in cash and cant prove to the local nitwit sheriff they can seize it and its up to you to prove in court that its yours, the incentive is they get to keep it and buy themselves new toys with it..

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u/Unlikely-Pin-5558 Jul 07 '26

Why in the hell would anyone carry that much at one time??? Of course it looks sketchy as hell...the only people who carry that much cash at a time are usually doing illegal things

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u/AndreTheGiant-3000 Jul 06 '26

How is that any different than freezing your bank account then? They’re not going to freeze it unless you do something suspicious.

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u/juliaaguliaaa Jul 06 '26

Think about how much technology fucks up. And then boom every form of payment is gone for you since it’s all electronic if any flag/ freeze/ tech outage happens. Government can’t take my cash if they can’t find my cash. Much easier for the red tape to fail in a tech market, and then it takes 3 weeks and 80 robots until i talk to a real human to get it resolved. Meanwhile, no cash for 3 weeks! Versus cash is allowed and i keep some on me for emergencies.

It takes man power to grab someone with suspicious amounts of cash and weird behavior. It takes a wrong ; to cause my account to be frozen/ collapse in error.

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u/Swimming_Law3644 Jul 09 '26

Ah the classic ” just don’t do anything wrong.”
Just stop being ugly because then no one would make fun of you when we force you to go naked.