Demand your right to use cash?

Do you have a right to use cash?

Sounds like a silly question to anyone who has ever rented a car.

But it is a question apparently being asked in the city of Chicago.

Before you roll your eyes at the potential lunacy that the city council there can get into, let’s give this question a look.

There are businesses in Chicago that do not accept cash payments.

They say it saves them money in their payment processing.

Saving money is generally a good idea in business. It makes the action to not accept cash a logical one.

If you don’t have to get change, collect cash, count it and then deposit it in a bank, staff time is reduced.

The businesses also say that not taking cash reduces the risk of robbery.

Now, in Chicago, robbery is more than a theoretical concept.

Erecting defenses against this crime also seems logical.

So what’s the problem with the no-cash business?

Well, it discriminates against those who do not have credit or debit cards, or cell phone payment mechanisms.

Those individuals are stuck with cash they cannot spend at the cashless businesses.

Countering this cash discrimination is becoming a political issue.

What will happen?

On the news report I heard on WBBM Newsradio 78, some sort of compromise was suggested.

Compromise is usually a good thing in any dispute, but what is a compromise in this case?

Instead of Casserole Tuesday, its Cash Tuesday at the local diner?

This would be the day the business puts employees at a cash register.

There is an armed guard present to deter robbery.

The city council is considering an ordinance that would outlaw no-cash businesses.

Collectors generally defend cash.

They like using it.

They also worry about the trend to cashlessness.

Is making the use of cash the right way to go?

A penny for your thoughts on this.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper won the Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog for the third time in 2017 . He is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."

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