Cash is key to a free and inclusive society
Cash, dosh, dough, brass, lolly, bread, moolah… given the special relationship we humans have with cash, it’s hardly surprising we’ve come up with so many pet terms for it. Nor is it surprising that we have the saying “Cash is King”. Perhaps because people inherently sense just how important it is to own hard cash. And maybe that’s because coins and notes give us more freedom than we sometimes realise.
Cash is irreplaceable — if we want society to be inclusive
Anton Debatin GmbH co-founded the Cash Counts! Campaign in order to protect the inclusive nature of our society. DEBATIN’s CEO Thomas Rose is one of the three board members for the Campaign. But what motivated him to make this commitment?
“Cash is irreplaceable, particularly when it comes to making sure people from all walks of life are included in day-to-day life. People who don’t have much money don’t have credit cards. Small market stalls don’t have card readers for contactless payments. When street musicians delight us with their music, we can hardly throw our bank cards into their hats. And the list goes on.”
Children learn to handle finances by handling cash
For Thomas Rose, CEO for DEBATIN and board member for the Cash Counts! Campaign, there is a further, ethical dimension to using cash: namely, the freedom it offers. “If you pay in cash, you can do so anonymously. In other words, using cash protects our privacy. Why should our bank know or care where we buy our jeans, or which supermarkets we frequent?” he asks. Plus there’s another important factor — children don’t learn to handle finances with bank cards or implanted chips! “If you have ten one-euro coins, and you spend five of them, you know just by feeling or looking in your purse that spending money leaves you with less,” he explains.
Cash needs protection
Naturally, DEBATIN also has an “ulterior motive” for protecting cash; it plays a direct role in the company’s business success. DEBASAFE® safe bags are a mainstay in the DEBATIN product range. These bags feature tamper-evident sealing strips to ensure cash and other valuables can be transported safely and securely from A to B. When the euro currency was first introduced, DEBATIN bagged one of the largest orders in its corporate history. “We produced no fewer than 35 million security bags to collect Deutsche Marks when the euro was introduced,” Thomas Rose tells us.
Nor is DEBATIN alone with its concerns. The Cash Counts! Campaign has a veritable army of supporters, including the German Bookbinder Guild, the Bavarian Association of Butchers, the German National Print and Media Association, the German Private Breweries Association, the German Central Association of Orthopaedic Footwear, the Society of German Bakeries, the German Federal Association of Cash & Valuables Services and the German Federal Association of CVIT Companies, to name just a few. The Cash Counts! Campaign was founded to safeguard three key demands. Firstly, to ensure all retailers continue to accept cash payments; secondly, to ensure all citizens have access to cash; and thirdly, to ensure fees for depositing and withdrawing cash are regulated and do not exceed certain thresholds. At a workshop involving a number of organisations including the German Association of Showmen and the German Central Association of Loan Services, the founders of the campaign developed a white paper to ensure cash remains an option alongside cashless payments.
