But I remember back then thinking they were really going overboard with their cashless society. Short taxi rides, a quick cup of coffee, EVERYTHING was by card. This was about the same year when my wife took pity on a young mother who needed to buy $5 worth of formula (this was in Massachusetts) for her baby, and got to a grocery store right after their electronic card system had failed, so it was only accepting cash. The woman had only a card with her and started to cry because she couldn't pay to feed her baby. My wife took pity on her and gave her the money to buy her formula, and asked her what was she thinking having no cash on her at all?
We HATE the whole concept of the cashless society, since with cards, you leave a trace of everything you do, every place you go, and everything you eat, acquire, or contribute. This is what the socialist governments of Eastern Europe were shooting for, and they collapsed under the weight of having more information on the people that they were trying to control than they could ever monitor. The East German civilian population was appalled when they were granted access to all the files their government had on them. Cashless societies are the control freak government's wet dream. My wife and I pay cash for everything that comes even close to being convenient. Let the bureaucrats guess what we like to eat or which films we want to see and when we want to see them. One "Heil Honecker" was enough.
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