27 July 2007

As I was getting of the T last night, a guy was at the top of the escalator asking for 50 cents. I had nothing and gave the shake of the head I usually give people asking for money, but a question then popped into my head.

How much longer is panhandling going to be a viable way to get money?

It may be the cheerily dystopic Visa commercials, but the general sense I have is that the average person is less likely to carry cash now than, say, five years ago. And if we ever work out payment from sources like cell phones, I'd think that the likelihood of someone carrying cash would decrease further.

Of course, not everyone is going to embrace card or electronic payment fully, but as generations become more comfortable with the technology that number is going to drop. Why do I get the feeling that panhandlers are going to wind up getting most of their money from other panhandlers?

Anyway, that's my random thought for the week.

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