So I'm chatting with this young friend of mine across the pond.
I asked him how he thinks of his money and paycheck. How does he know to trust it? Because he trusts his employer, his bank, his government? He just trusts the paper trail? For exchange rates, he just trusts it's all being done legit?
He said, well, yeah why wouldn't I?
Got me to thinking about how we learn about money and currency, or what we trust. As a youth in my after school jobs I used to handle a lot of paper cash and coins, and make the till even out. We even had a time when folks would try to pass off Canadian dimes or pennies, but I'd have to say those are no good here. (Later it was the opposite.)
Nowadays so much of our money transactions don't involve ANY handling of cash or coins. We have computerized registers that can recognize a swiped a card for a purchase (but cashiers who can't fucking make change). Buy a sandwich, a gallon of gas, a plane ticket, just swipe your card!
Do you think this is good for convenience but perhaps bad for understanding money and being financially literate?