Keeping currency

Of course Visa wants a ‘war on cash’

Visa says it’s “declaring war on cash.” It might as well say it’s declaring war on privacy, convenience and certain vulnerable Americans.

The credit-card company wants to give 50 small American businesses — for now, though the program may expand — as much as $10,000 apiece to go cashless. It’s also arguing that handling cash carries labor costs: Businesses must keep track of their cash and ferry it to banks.

Of course, Visa has an interest in weaning the country off cash. It charges merchants fees for transactions on its network, and its network isone of the main alternatives to cash.

Paying with plastic, of course, has advantages. But so does paying cash. As long as businesses offer both options, customers can choose whichever suits them. But losing the cash option would have costs for all of us — andespecially steep costs for some.

Cash provides privacy. When customers pay cash, it creates no record of their presence in the store or what they bought. Credit and debit cards inevitably do. For some people, not being able to use cash would have even more disadvantages. Poor people’s neighborhoods may not have banks. Some people are paid in cash. And young people face restrictions on getting their own credit accounts.

It might be nice for Visa if cash went away. That doesn’t mean it would be good for the rest of us.