ABSTRACT, INVISIBLE TRANSACTIONS

THE electronic world in which we now live does have its advantages, but it comes with host of disadvantages too.

I chuckled as I tore up my last cheque book the other day. “Won’t be needing THAT old thing again,” I said as the fragments of paper fluttered into the bin.

I’m not needing to carry as much cash as I used to do, either. Slip a card into a slot, press a little keypad and voila! Paid. Why carry cash?

On the other hand, maybe we’ve made payment a little too easy. When I paid people by cheque it took some thought and effort. I was, in effect, writing a letter to my bank manager asking him to take money from my account and deposit it in somebody else’s account. I had to be sure the money really was in my account before I wrote the letter.

A “bounced” cheque was a matter of embarrassment.

Likewise, when I bought my groceries and paid in cash, it was a “real” transaction. I counted the notes as I peeled them from the wad in my wallet, and the wad was thinner after I’d peeled off those notes. In each case I was personally involved in moving my money.

I don’t feel that involvement any more. It’s just a couple of key clicks. My bank has “awarded” me an overdraft facility (without my asking) so when I make a card payment I receive an SMS to say I still have quite a lot more money available. Available, yes, but it’s not actually my money.

I believe this fictionalisation of money is one of the big problems of the world today. Politicians are so used to creating money by pressing the keypad on a phone that they think all debts can be settled that way

We hear they’re spending a billion here to bail out SAA and another billion or two there to create jobs and probably a few billion to increase cadre salaries. But where are those billions coming from? Like my fictitious overdraft, they don’t really exist.

Just press a key and money appears. Or not.

I wonder whether there’s any way we could go back to using real money, or even writing cheques.

Probably not, but we’d be a whole lot more careful how we spent it.

Last Laugh

A man rushed into an upmarket bar and ordered a double shot of a rare 12-year-old single malt whisky. He grabbed the glass, gulped down the whisky and ordered another.

As he gulped down the second one the barman remarked: “You seem to be in a big hurry.”

“Well, so would you be if you had what I have,” said the man. “Why, what do you have?” “Only five rand.”