Legal tender for all debts public and private. That’s what it says right on the money. Don’t believe me, find the one dollar Joe Biden hasn’t tried to steal from you.
What I am trying to say at the outset is that you should have some kind of cash on you at all times. You never know when that little piece of plastic that you keep in your wallet isn’t going to work.
I can’t tell you how many times I have been somewhere that while standing in line, the card machines go down and the only thing that the place can suddenly take is cash.
For example, about ten years or so ago my wife and I drove from Michigan to Florida to visit family.
We figured out what the cost of gas and food was going to be and brought that amount in cash with us to pay for the entire trip just in case there was some sort of problem with card readers.
Learned to always carry cash from my father. We used to take a big trip every year and he would keep all the cash he needed on him for the entire vacation. Of course, he did grow up in the blissful era before you had to pay for everything with cards.
I mean, I appreciate the fact that it is an option to use cards in case I can’t get to the bank that day or I am grabbing something small. I even think that the Apple Pay thing is kind of amusing if not a little invasive and potentially dangerous.
I just don’t like the idea that so many places are insisting on people not paying with cash. It’s all about control in my opinion. With cards, you can track much more easily.
If you look hard enough you can find every single transaction you have ever made with one.
Which brings me to the National Park System. Recently there was a woman named Elizabeth Dasburg who was going to visit one of the sites monitored by the NPS. She attempted to pay for her park entry with cash and they pretty much told her to pound sand.
Where some people would just shrug their shoulders and think that’s the way things are now, she knew that it wasn’t right.
She went and got an attorney and is now suing the NPS for forcing non-cash payments for entry. The lawsuit she has filed claims that the park’s out-and-out refusal to allow cash payment is violating federal laws.
Let’s face it, there are some folks who just like paying with cash. The government has taken so much from us, let us at least have that.
