Originally Posted by
Redhead
It is not in the interest of the greater economy to be cash-based. Cash is expensive to manage - even though the merchants don't like to admit this - since it increases chance of theft, requires time to count, bundle, and deliver to the bank (or you have to pay someone to do that for you); it also increases the likelihood of tax evasion. Merchants also don't like to admit that when someone shops with a credit card, they are more likely to spend more. For the consumer, cash is also a burden since it can be lost or stolen without a chance of recovery.
I try to avoid cash 100% if I can
Perhaps. At the same time, if cards weren't really a thing here, it could have resulted in a faster push for native instant bank transfers (instead of via third party apps) or some other less expensive payment option. We could have even just adopted a domestic equivalent to WeChat or Alipay for everything like what China's done.
Of course, it's kinda late to put the genie back in the bottle now. Time will tell whether Kroger and others are completely successful at drastically reducing/eliminating interchange (though I think Visa/MC will ultimately have no choice in the end but to make some concessions in order for the US to fully adopt the contactless future they're envisioning).