A recent conversation has alerted me to the existence of a misguided philosophy that seems to be taking root in the minds of people. Someone actually insisted that the use of debit and the use of cash are one and the same. Needless to say, shock overcame me as my feeble mind tried to wrap itself around this hilarious concept. Besides the similarity that payment with debit and with cash are both forms of compensation using capital that one already possesses, I found that the differences between the two became quite stark as they diverged from that singular commonality. I shall explain.
- One is a plastic card and one is cash. I believe that this concept is fairly simple. The two have different names for a reason: to differentiate between two very different forms of payment. Both cash and debit can purchase twenty McNuggets and a large sweet tea at McDonald's, but the procedures for such a transaction differ greatly.
- Cash transactions are nearly untraceable and can be made without the use of electronic technology. A computer savvy individual can gain access to your banking information and find every single place you have used your debit card. They can find out what you bought, how much you paid, and exactly when you made the purchase. For that reason, most illegal business is carried out using the transfer of physical cash. When people don't want the police to know about their business, cash is the preferred tender.
- If I steal your wallet, you cannot call your bank and prevent me from spending your cash. If I should snatch your wallet from your pocket and promptly set it on fire, the money accessible via your debit card is still in your bank account. Your cash, however, will be gone forever. Your bank will not issue you new bills to replace the old ones that perished by my ridiculous act of arson.
- You cannot use your debit card to make a specific monetary donation to a bum. If you happen to meet a bum with a card reader, you should steer clear.
- A $20 cash purchase at a retail store implies that you are supplying the cashier with a $20 bill which his/her manager will expect to be present in the drawer at the end of the day. The swipe of a card does not yield a physical bank note, printed by the U.S. mint, and tangible when the time comes to count out the cash drawer.
- $10,000 cash in my wallet will make it very thick and cumbersome. However, while the amount of spending money immediately available to me increases dramatically, a $10,000 direct deposit to my checking account produces no change in physical mass upon the contents of my wallet.
So while I'm sure that the man insisting that debit is the same as cash will never read this post, I nevertheless send this message.
To whom it may concern,
While I understand and respect your right to hold your current view about the differences between payment with paper and plastic, I assure you that the vast majority of businesses in this country do not ascribe to the same philosophies that you do. Your unwavering belief that debit and cash are the exact same thing is both sobering and awe inspiring. While I support your endeavors to spread the gospel of the similitude and functional unity of debit card and cash payments to the the farthest corners of the earth, I humbly request that you respect the right of an institution to acknowledge the differentiality of the two entities as you have also made a plain discrimination between the two when you have paid in one form and are vehemently requesting a refund in another. Sir, if you expect people to accept your assertion that debit is the same as cash, why then does it bother you to receive payment in one and not the other? Has not the motivation behind your insistence completely contradicted the message you are trying to convey?
Yours truly,
An incredulous observer
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