-And that problem is difficult to solve even in a well-functioning democracy. When visiting Sweden recently, I was surprised to find a number of bars, coffee s

-And that problem is difficult to solve even in a well-functioning democracy. When visiting Sweden recently, I was surprised to find a number of bars, coffee shops and the like only accepting digital payments - no cash. While this makes lots of sense from the vendor's perspective - handling cash is expensive and inconvenient - a customer may feel different about it. These vendors presumably decided that the benefits of not having to handle cash outweighed the risk of alienating a small percentage of their customers (As 'everybody' in Sweden carries debit cards and cell phones with e-payment solutions, few people rely on cash exclusively). Now imagine what happens if the authorities also held the power to say that you WOULD not accept cash. That would make anyone assisting someone with a low social score buy items normally not available to them an accessory to subversion of the state (or something similarly eerie-sounding). Not good. Unless you are The State.