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In a brochure with the title If Crisis or War Comes that will be sent to every home in Sweden next month, the defence ministry advises people to use cash regularly and keep at least a week’s supply in various denominations as well as access to other forms of payment such as bank cards and digital payment services. “If you can pay in several different ways, you strengthen your preparedness,” it says.
If only there were another way to pay that would fit this very purpose ;)
This reminds me of how so many of the lifestyle choices pushed by progressives became problems during Covid: mass transportation, high-density/multi-family living, reusable grocery bags, not having emergency food stores or other supplies, etc.
It turns out there are completely valid reasons for the way people like to do things, even if some know-it-all control freaks don't get it. Cash is just another example of this.
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Ah, man. Reminds me of Taleb and his fragility/optimization thing
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That sounds right. I've never actually read any of his books, but I've heard him talk about them a bunch on EconTalk.
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20 sats \ 2 replies \ @OT 31 Oct
I think cash will be around for a while too. We've seen banks and financial platforms experience outages of hacks. It makes sense to carry a little cash just in case. Even bitcoin requires (well, pretty much) an internet connection. And sometimes the internet goes down.
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Right, internet is a bottleneck in the case of BTC.
A few, less than perfect, alternatives:
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For big transactions the Internet will be there in one way or another. Fur smaller transactions lightning may or may not work. Accounting systems would come into play for trust issues and then settlement when the chain is available.
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No doubt! It's amazing that they pretend there is no Bitcoin. It's warped conservatism.
I've seen it here in the US as well. People saying that electronic fuckery exists ( even though they use phones, Facebook, social media and YouTube as well as credit cards and good old Western Union... They order their dog and cat food...
But there can never be money that is controlled by math.
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I'd still keep some cash around. My sister's city in NC recently got hit with a hurricane. Luckily she had cash laying around, because for a while there wasn't power, or internet access.
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...or the hurricane/flooding washed away the floorboards under which the cash was hidden.
oops.
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Why would someone hide cash under theor floorboards? We're talking about a week's supply...
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Pff, i dunno where your sister keeps her stash
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Once I helped a friend's family member move. This family member was hitting hard times and didn't have any money. I was moving her mattress and found $1300 USD in 2005. We all were laughing about this because the family member still didn't know she had this money. A week later we gave it to her and she was nearly crying for joy.
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yes people also under estimate the risk of power outages by sabotage, this would also affect the payment system
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Having cash is important at times of wars and calamities. But why do they see that war might come to their land?
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Wow.
Russia protecting Norway and Sweden from a cashless society wasn't on my 2024 geopolitical bingo card.
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