Unlike digital forms of payment, cash does not crash.
“Cash payments only.”
These are not words you’d normally expect to see adorning the tills of the UK’s second largest supermarket chain, Sainsbury’s, which has spent the past decade or so encouraging its customers to use (often card-only) self-service tills and has even experimented with “SmartShop Pick & Go” checkout-free stores. But on Saturday (March 16), Sainsbury’s stores were blazoned with improvised signs informing customers that cash was (in some cases, together with chip-and-pin card payments) the only payment option available.
The reason?
A massive outage disabling contactless and mobile payments across all of the chain’s stores, as well as at its subsidiary Argos. Sainsbury’s blamed the outage on a software glitch that impacted its online ordering system and contactless in-store payments:
Due to an error with an overnight software update, we are experiencing issues with contactless payments and will not be able to deliver the vast majority of today's Groceries Online orders. Our stores are open as usual, accepting chip and pin and cash payments.
— Sainsbury's (@sainsburys) March 16, 2024
Bad Timing
As one IT security specialist told the Daily Mail, there’s a basic rule in technology, especially in the retail space — never deploy on a Friday:
The technology involved in these systems has only grown more fragile and complex over the years, and there is rarely an incentive to reduce the complexity or rebuild them properly from the ground up.
‘At this scale and complexity thorough testing is essential, as even the slightest mistake can have unpredictable consequences – as we’ve seen.
‘This is a fundamental risk of centralised control of systems by large companies — when these systems are not centralised any failures are local and so impacts are limited.
To compound matters, hours after Sainsbury’s system went down, Tesco, the UK’s largest supermarket chain, with some 4,000 stores, announced that it, too, was having to cancel online orders due to a “technical issue.” In a country where the overwhelming majority of people have abandoned cash in favour of the speed and convenience of contactless payments and where banks have been closing branches and ATMs at breakneck speed, making it harder for their customers to access cash, the result was chaos. From The Telegraph:
[Sainsbury’s] cancelled all home deliveries that were scheduled for Saturday and told customers to rebook for Sunday or later on next week.
In stores, customers reported being unable to pay using contactless cards and a number said tills were only able to take cash payments.
“Due to an error with an overnight software update, we are experiencing issues with contactless payments,” a Sainsbury’s spokesperson said.
The issues at Sainsbury’s come a day after McDonalds customers were left unable to place orders because of IT outages caused by a “third-party configuration change”.
In what is being reported as an unrelated incident, McDonald’s stores around the globe, including Australia, Germany, South Korea, Japan, Canada, China and the UK, on Friday suffered a technical glitch, “caused by a third-party provider during a configuration change,” that made it impossible for customers to pay for their orders, forcing the fast-food chain to shutter some of its outlets.
While all of Sainsbury’s stores remained open during the outage, many of them are so heavily geared toward self-service that when disaster hit the staff were unable to take up the slack. As the Daily Mail reported, “shoppers at a large branch on Cromwell Road, west London, [said] the store, which offers around 20 self-checkout tills, only had three operating counters, causing a ‘meltdown’ around the payment area and snaking queues.” Meanwhile, Sainsbury’s in-store ATMs quickly ran out of cash, leaving many customers unable to make any purchases at all.
System Fragility
This short-lived chaos at the UK’s two largest supermarkets serves, or at least should serve, as a reminder of one of the main dangers of going completely cashless: system fragility. Unlike all digital forms of payment, cash does not crash. As the author of Cloud Money, Brett Scott, notes, it won’t fail in a power cut or during a cyberattack (or as a result of a botched software update), meaning societies currently have a vital economic fallback in the case of natural disasters or attacks that compromise other payment options.
A case in point is Puerto Rico, which was ravaged by a category-five storm in 2017. Hurricane Maria brought all electronic payment systems down for weeks, turning the island into a de facto cash-only economy. So serious was the fallout that corporate clients began begging the New York Federal Reserve for large amounts of dollars in cash to meet payrolls. In the end, the Fed dispatched a jet loaded with an undisclosed amount of dollar bills to the stricken island.
Any society that runs exclusively on digital platforms operated by vast institutions “is going to have major resiliency problems,” says Scott. “[A cashless world is] a world where even the tiniest of payments will have to travel via powerful financial institutions, which leaves us exposed to their surveillance and control—and also their incompetence. A payments system without cash is one dependent on banks that are prone to financial crises, systems failure, and cyberattacks.”
Major system outages have already occurred in Australia, the UK, Singapore, Spain and Canada, to name just a few places, over the past six months, all of which have raised serious questions about the resilience of their digital payments infrastructure.
Contrast the fallout of last weekend’s outage in the UK with the impact of a similar incident in Germany in June, 2022, when a software glitch affecting all H5000 payment card terminals made it all but impossible for many German retailers to process card payments. That outage lasted for days rather than hours but the impact was less pronounced. As we reported at the time, in Germany, unlike many other European countries, including the UK, cash is still king, albeit a diminished one:
At a personal level the impact of the payment outage in Germany was fairly limited, as long as you had access to cash. And just about everybody did, given that ATMs continued to work throughout the outage. In other words, there was an alternative to digital money that was widely available to all users — i.e. physical cash.
There is also something rather peculiar about Germans (as well as Austrians): they love physical money (a topic I have written on before for WOLF STREET). Even the intense demonization of cash in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic failed to shake the German people’s faith in physical lucre, although the use of cashless payment transactions, whether by card or mobile, has grown significantly in the last two and a half years.
The UK was also disproportionately affected by the massive 12-hour Visa card outage that hit Western Europe on a Friday afternoon in June 2018. As I noted in an article for WOLF STREET, it was not hard to see why:
In 2017, cards overtook cash for retail payments in UK for the first time ever, according to figures from the British Retail Consortium. According to Visa, payment processing through its systems accounts for a staggering £1 in every £3 of all retail spending in the UK. Which is why, when those systems stopped working yesterday, the chaos was greater in the UK than almost anywhere else as cashless customers missed trains, were unable to fill up their cars, pay for their groceries, or even clear their bar tab — this was Friday, after all!
“There is never a good time for the payments system to go down but a Friday afternoon, when there is a flood of people leaving work, must be among the worst,” one banking industry source said. The only way for people to pay for stuff was with co-branded Mastercard cards, or hard cold cash. Luckily, Visa cards were still working at ATMs, although the queues were considerably longer than normal.
Interestingly, the latest outage has prompted some surprising headlines in a few of the UK’s newspapers. The Daily Mail, for example, ran with a warning that the “Sainsbury’s and Tesco IT meltdown highlights ‘catastrophic’ dangers of cashless society and our reliance on ‘digital infrastructure’…” In a piece in The Telegraph, Emma Munbodh argued that the “Sainsbury’s meltdown proves we have to protect cash”:
It’s a salutary warning to the Government for the need to protect our access to cash. A system failure overnight meant Britain’s second largest grocer opened its doors on Saturday morning unable to accept card payments nationwide…
In a joint letter to Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, groups including the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) and NoteMachine, the UK’s second-largest ATM provider, urged Mr Hunt to do “much more”.
“We are writing to you as a collection of businesses and consumer organisations urging you to protect cash as a critical payment method now, and in the future, to uphold payment choice for people across the country,” they said.
Steve Makaritis, the chief executive of NoteMachine, called for “tangible action on the funding for independent ATMs to ensure free-to-use machines remain available to consumers.”
But it is not enough for the UK government to safeguard access to cash; people’s right to use cash in retail settings is just as important. Across Europe, more and more national governments and central banks are taking action to protect the use of cash, at least in the medium term, including most recently in Sweden and Norway, two of the world’s most cashless economies. Sweden’s Riksbank warned that the digitalisation of payments has led to a sharp rise in financial fraud as well as exclusion of some social groups, and legislation is needed to make sure cash can also be used to pay.
“Payments must work for everyone,” Erik Thedéen, governor of the Riksbank and chairman of the executive board, said in an annual report on the retail payments system. “In the longer term, all payments may be digital — but until then, cash plays an important role. We need legislation to ensure that cash can be used to pay. Banks must also ensure that more customers have access to payment accounts.”
Meanwhile, in the UK it is becoming harder for citizens to use cash. Big private sector players, including banks, tech giants, payment processors (primarily Mastercard and Visa), fintech startups and large retailers, have clear individual incentives to destroy cash — and have been trying to do so for over a decade. As journalist, author and cash advocate Brett Scott notes, since the pandemic the private sector has turbocharged its anti-cash drive, “as Big Finance, Big Tech and Big Retail have weaponised the public’s temporary fear of physical contact to amplify the anti-cash automation agenda that they already had.”
While the UK government and financial regulator have proposed new rules to maintain what they call “reasonable” access to cash for personal and business customers across the UK, they have shown zero interest in ensuring UK citizens can actually use cash once they’ve managed to access it. In early 2023, the government responded to two public surveys calling on it to prevent retailers from rejecting cash payments with the following statement:
The government does not plan to mandate cash acceptance. While the government recognises the ability to transact in cash remains important to millions of people across the UK, particularly those in vulnerable groups, it remains the choice of individual businesses as to whether to accept or decline any form of payment, including cash or card. This may be based on factors such as customer preference and cost.
Shifting Customer Preferences
Customer preferences regarding payment methods appear to be be shifting somewhat, as we reported here. In September 2023, a report on payment trends by UK Finance, the country’s largest bank lobbying group, included a striking finding: cash payments had risen in 2022, for the first time in a decade. The number of cash payments had risen by 7%, the report noted, adding that surging inflation had prompted many people to turn back to cash or use it more often than before to help them manage their budgets.
This trend was further confirmed when the British Retail Consortium (BRC) released the findings of its annual payments survey, which also covers 2022. Like UK Finance, the BRC survey found that cash use had increased.
“This year’s Payments Survey shows an increase in cash usage for the first time in a decade, up from 15pc (in 2021) to just under 19pc of transactions (in 2022). Faced with rising living costs, cash was a useful tool for some people to manage their finances and track their day-to-day spending.”
Perhaps most impressively, cash use is rebounding despite the concerted efforts by the government, banks and retailers to limit its use.
As inflation has surged in the UK, more and more people have struggled to make ends meet, and many are turning to cash for relief. It is an example of how one broadly negative trend — the gradual pauperisation of large swathes of the population through austerity and inflation — can give rise to a broadly positive trend: the rediscovery of the enduring benefits of cash. With a little luck, the past weekend’s mayhem at McDonalds, Sainsbury’s and Tesco may help to accentuate this trend.
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As you may or may not know Nick, one in three youngsters from Stoke live in poverty. Cash is scarce. Which is why, on May 1st – Mayday – we are introducing the Potteries Pound. Nothing like the Brixton or Bristol Pound except for its beauty and the fact it is actually a note, it is earned into existence when young people give their time to our community. 15 Potteries Pounds per person per hour. If you have the time, come visit the demo we are hosting at the Burslem School of Art.
Thank you, Mike and good luck. One hopes you will keep us posted.
Is Jonathan Gullis invited / coming? Is he aware of that statistic about poverty?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notgeld
I actually have some Notgeld.
I’ve got a Prosperity Certificate.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosperity_certificate
Hi Mike, thanks for the heads-up and the invite. Sounds very interesting — especially the fact that it will come in physical form, which as far as I’m aware is not that common for local currencies, the Totnes Pound being another exception. What’s more, both of my parents are from Cheshire county and I have a soft spot for the region having visited many times in my childhood and adolescence. The only problem is that I’m currently visiting my in-laws in Mexico City and will not be returning to Europe until May 3rd. But I will definitely be watching developments from afar. As the Colonel says, please keep us posted, both here and by DMing me on Twitter.
Been seeing various such outages over in Norway as well, and i think Sweden just had a server farm get hit with a ransom attack that knocked out parts of a store chain.
And still i see recent news that our biggest digital ID provider is now pushing for their app to do everything, even replace physical ID at the post office or similar. Just wave your phone over some terminal and hey presto.
Last time I was in Amsterdam, it was annoying how many places wouldn’t take cash. Then the payment systems went down, and they suddenly discovered how great cash was.
You probably didn’t hear about this outage, the same way I never heard about the Norway one. If it didn’t happen in an English-speaking country, it didn’t happen….
Thanks for this update, Nick. Entirely predictable this and it is even inevitable that this will happen. So what would have happened if those McDonalds, Sainsbury’s and Tesco had gone to their bank’s ATM to pull out cash to make their purchases with – only to discover that the bank’s ATM were also down. If a tree falls in the forest with no ears to hear does it make a sound? If a country loses either it’s power or internet service after going full digital, does it still have an economy? It may not be so much system fragility as extremely few bottlenecks that are vulnerable to critical failures. If cash is kept, then it can act as an emergency backup for a nation in case of a digital failure. I did notice though that when the town near us lost power for a few hours a coupla years ago, the post office and the major supermarket just shut their doors, even though they could have taken cash. But I guess that governments will still insist on a digital cash society because the benefits – for them – with total surveillance and control are too tempting to ignore. One other problem with all digital cash. With regualr cash you can always build up a ready reserve at home in case of emergencies. With digital cash you can do zip.
But I guess that governments will still insist on a digital cash society because the benefits – for them – with total surveillance and control are too tempting to ignore.
I suspect that should a country truly attempt to go cashless, then a foreign currency with palpable banknotes (probably the USD, possibly something else) will become the de-facto cash for at least a subset of transactions.
Or some easily convertible item will replace it.
Was there not a story about some brand of detergent getting used as a currency for drug trades or similar?
With digital cash you can build up a ready reserve for your bank or government to raid whenever they deem necessary.
This has already happened to me. California said that I owed them money, which I probably did, but I could not get through the always busy telephone of the private business doing the debt collecting for the state. When they zapped my savings account, which held my stimulus payments, I still could not get through at all. I gather that this is happening to a lot of Californians over vehicle registration, state income taxes, and other fees and fines. Be accused of owning money to the state, have your bank account frozen, and have only perpetually busy phone numbers with a limited amount of time to fight or make arrangements. Legal robbery on mostly the poorest people. I find the IRS much more easy to contact, understanding, and accommodating. Yes, I prefer dealing with the Internal Revenue Service compared to California and other debt collectors.
This. DMV website shows up to 8 weeks to process payment of car registration by mail. This is new in the last year. It has caused many people I know problems because their tags look out of date even though they’ve paid. For me, initially, I thought it was just lost in the mail and paid again(with late fee) on-line and put a stop payment on the check. 2 months later, I get a refund check, but since my original check wouldn’t clear, they then sent a nasty gram demanding a cashiers check or money order. Huge mess and hassle. They are basically forcing us to pay online to avoid dealing with their incompetence.
yabbut they even fail online. i got a nastygram about a bounced cheque from the dmv. i don’t have any cheques. i paid online. transaction never posted. they cancelled my licence which is no big deal cuz i don’t live in california anymore.
Thanks, Nick, for tying together several news stories. Are we now to expect the random occasional collapse of payment systems as part of the New Abnormal?
Some underlying cultural factors are also evident in the article, even if they lurk:
–The skim factor. Many of the anti-cash entities like the credit-card companies want to skim commissions off the transactions. They also want to trace the transactions.
–Which comes to the second factor, the constant postmodern exchange of convenience for privacy. Individually, people give up information about themselves for the sake of convenience.
–Invented self-serving conveniences: The word “contactless” is also another indication. Is there truly some advantage in “tap and go”? Are we worried that if a credit card has to be inserted into a little machine that they might make baby credit cards? It’s silly–yet it is profitable, or companies wouldn’t be doing it. Every purchase becomes an impulse, recorded by some company.
–The tax on time, as Yves Smith calls it. How many times have you stood in line while someone fumbles with a credit card that then doesn’t register in the machine, that then is rejected? Cash is much faster, a cleaner transaction. It’s the needless complication of a simple transaction.
–And skimming for geolocations and consumer data, the surveillance state courtesy of McDo’s.
Tax on time: I’d say cash and card/app average out on time. Greatest amount seems to be ‘spent’ on fiddling with phone apps.
Thank you, Nick.
Your post is better than anything in the UK MSM, yet another reason why, where possible, readers should support NC.
In November 2021, the Bank of England offered me a job to supervise this sort of thing and lead policymaking. Unfortunately, two days earlier, I had accepted a better offer from the sponsor of Ajax, something I often regret.
There’s no one at the Bank able, if not willing, to articulate what you have written at the Bank and HM Treasury.
Thanks for this post. Aside from what I consider the general govt nonsense of trying to eliminate physical cash, trying to eliminate cash and rely on electronic payments at the same time as reducing electricity production capabilities (leading to much higher energy costs) is sheer madness. Fragility built on fragility.
They also want better ways to spy on and control people even when the algorithms don’t work all that well as post showing how much of a mess Google’s censorship with yesterday’s post of its treatment of NC. Digital money is another tool for that.
That the proles are more vulnerable to such crashes and any mistakes, and there are plenty of mistakes, is not important as long as the important people are not bothered.
Just look at all the problems with the technology used by the police and state security that often nab innocent people sometimes for decades: bad drug testing, unreliable algorithms using mass surveillance for false arrests and convictions, civil asset forfeitures, incompetent and corrupt police routinely testilying in court… all this has affected millions of often innocent people and for decades; having a few million of the little people affected by wonky computers, internet connections, and electricity is just as unimportant. Reliability, functionality, and accuracy is less important than profitably crushing the problem people. If millions are unjustly hurt, you can’t have an omelette without breaking some eggs.
What fees are charged retailers in a transaction by the digital transaction? – and if fees of any amount are charged … the retailer will of course pass that along to both cash and digital users (a private tax?) –
So why the imposition of fees it looks to constitute a skimming operation – what real, or any benefit to an all digital currency and- in my view – open to abuse and rickety system open to all sorts of ‘market manipulations’ in negative to public interests?
It is creepy Orwellian
Retailers get charged about 2.5% by card companies, give or take a little. There are also digital payment companies popping up like mushrooms, all piggybacking on the already existing ACH system, and all dipping their fingers into the till as well. So yes, lots of fees, which would be much better called a private tax as you noted. I challenge anyone to try reading a merchant credit card statement and determine what all the various fees are for. It’s pretty much impossible.
So not only does this allow for surveillance, but it’s big money for all those in the businesses of reinventing the wheel with their “new” payment platforms, as long as they play nice with government entities and block all the right people. And it’s all very confusing for the actual counterparties of any transaction. What’s not for Big Brother to like?
Yes, a lot of fees are charged. But except in neighborhood stores and some gas stations, you don’t get a discount if you’re paying in cash.
I am fortunate enough to travel around the world and thus go to many small barbers, shops and cafés and hire taxi drivers. I ask if they prefer cards or cash and when (almost invariably) they say “cash” I respond with “Cash is king” — to which I get a big smile in response.
Everyone should have a stockpile of cash — easier said than done in cases where people are living paycheck-to-paycheck, I know, but as this post demonstrates it is now more essential than ever to be protected from IT or grid failures.
I mentioned this in links yesterday, but given this new post, it seems like a good place to mention it again – in the US at least, businesses are NOT required to accept cash as payment.
It might say on your dollar bill ‘This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private’, which I thought meant anyone had to accept cash as payment. Apparently though, that is not what it means. I found that out when I noticed businesses in my city starting to refuse cash payments, spoke with the city manager about it, and a lawyer eventually pointed to the Fed’s website – https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/currency_12772.htm
“There is no federal statute mandating that a private business, a person, or an organization must accept currency or coins as payment for goods or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether to accept cash unless there is a state law that says otherwise.”
So cash is just a legal offer of payment, as opposed to say a hand full of magic beans, but no one is required to accept it according to the Fed.
Some states and municipalities have passed laws requiring cash to be accepted, some recently, and some decades ago. But for the most part, businesses can accept digital payments only if they chose. I did try to get my city to pass an ordinance requiring businesses to accept cash after learning about this, and it got shot right down very quickly. I got the distinct impression that a few of the councilors didn’t even understand what I was getting at, because while I was the one who brought the issue up, a business representative from the Economic Development Committee (don’t even get me started on this useless bunch) was allowed to opine against my suggestion at length, being a speaker requested by the council, while I as a member of the public was given just the allotted two minutes to make my case.
Anyway, thanks for another great post, and for reminding me that I need to take this issue up with my local council again now that is has some new members on it.
Can you imagine a social media movement with the message ‘If my cash is not good enough for you, then neither is my business’ with an app that lists by business type those that will take cash. And have people walk into businesses and ask if they take cash. If they say no, then say that they will take their business elsewhere and walk out the door.
The irony of relying on an app to find places to do business without electronic payment is rich.
Oh! I would do my shopping first and then leave the cart full of groceries.
I have never had any trouble with cash and I use it most of the time
Thanks for clarifying this. I know that there has always been much discussion that due to the statement on the dollar bills, a business must accept cash. As an aside, I have two ancient credit cards. When they got “smart,” I stuck them in a faraday bag along with the “smart ID”. Does the chip in the credit card track, does anyone know? These days, I assume they do…and yes, always have a stash of cash. You will not get gas/petrol without it in an outage, among other things.
The chips in cards have no energy source or way to store power, so they can only communicate when they’re getting power from somewhere else—either being inserted into a reader, or in very close proximity to a non-contact reader. I expect that there are ways to read non-contact cards at greater than normal distances, but only with special equipment that would not be practical for mass deployment.
Thank you for that! A relief. My paranoia is on display….
Truly, if you aren’t paranoid, you aren’t paying attention. It is only the necessary degree, and the amount of tinfoil needed, that needs debate.
IANAL – but the statement on the Federal Reserve Note (FRN) aka “cash” raises an interesting scenario:
1) I walk into McDonalds and order a cheeseburger and drink. Bill is presented and I offer FRN in payment. McDonalds refuses the FRN and will only accept a non-FRN method of payment.
2) I walk into Appelbees and order and consume cheeseburger and drink. Bill is presented and I offer FRN in payment. Applebees refuses the FRN and will only accept a non-FRN method of payment.
The FRN states (as you point out): This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private. In scenario 1, I haven’t incurred a debt but I have in scenario 2.
What I wonder is if an institution can refuse payment by FRN for a partially completed transaction (one where a debt or obligation has been incurred by one party to the transaction). Logically, if no debt is incurred, then the FRN could be refused (I’ve ordered food but haven’t received it) but if I’ve incurred the debt I don’t think it could be refused (I’ve ordered and eaten the food).
If you’ve incurred a debt or obligation, I don’t see how the creditor or obligor could refuse to accept FRN to settle the debt or obligation based on the “tender for all debts” statement on the FRN.
IIRC, and I am not a lawyer, in the United States, unless the business states before the transaction that it will not accept cash, it must accept cash for the payment of the debt; if there is no sign nor verbal statement saying otherwise, if the business gives you a bill for that five course meal you just ate, it must accept cash. No ifs, ands, or buts.
I don’t know the exact answer to that, but a couple years ago against my better judgment, we stopped at MickeyD’s for a quick breakfast. I hadn’t been to one for many years, so I was a bit surprised to see the new to me kiosks where I was expected to place a digital order and pay for it digitally. I stood at the counter instead until someone finally offered to help and I insisted that they take my order since last I checked, I didn’t work at McDonald’s. They did and I paid in cash. Took a while because nobody up front knew how to run the cash register(!), but they did take my cash eventually, even though they clearly would rather not have. I assume I’ve now been placed on a watch list as a subversive.
Good article. I was on holiday on the Isle of Skye in 2012 when thieves stole the telecoms cable linking the island to the mainland. The island community lost both its telephone and internet services for a couple of days. No card terminals or ATM’s would work and everyone was left with the cash they had in their pockets, shop tills etc. Fortunately, I had about £80 in cash which I made stretch. Other tourists were not so lucky. Some had to sleep in their cars and depend on the kindness of strangers for food & vittles.
A couple of local banks would advance cash, but only to their own customers on production of a valid card of their own issue.
Since that day I have always carried a few days supply of cash with me on holiday. It was a valuable lesson.
The benefit of smaller communities during such times is that everything can be handled via IOUs.
going cashless is fascism. fascism never sleeps. civil society must always be on guard against fascism.
since 1993 the western world has been doing what ever is possible to remove sovereignty, and hand it to the rich and corporations.
Domestically I think legal tender laws were intended to put bank notes on an even footing with gold. Internationally to force payment in the local currency, which was probably an advantage in a mercantilistic world.
All very good etc, but from a merchant point of view cash transactions *can* be expensive. If you hold a lot of cash, you can get robbed. You need a safe car to collect and deposit the money for you at the bank, etc etc etc. It’s not costless for the business.
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In a hyper inflationary society like the one I grew up, people moved to digital very easily. You had overnight investment products. You only drew cash if you really needed, otherwise you’d be literally losing money. Of course those were the people who had the means. If you lived paycheck to paycheck you were doomed. Your morning cash was worth half in the afternoon.
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Just some counterarguments for you. Not all is doom and gloom.