> I'd imagine 1970s Ireland was a much different place, with tons of paper money all over the place. Exactly. Perhaps that was the GP commeners point. Banks,

> I'd imagine 1970s Ireland was a much different place, with tons of paper money all over the place. Exactly. Perhaps that was the GP commeners point. Banks, phones and internet connectivity are not necessary for survival of economic life given a sufficient circulation of stable physical currency. Gold and barter don't count because of agreement/coordination problems. Cash money is not like any other sort of imaginary money. It exists. Physically. In the world. It has physical stability. It therefore acts a buffer, more like a flywheel maintaining momentum and providing strong resilience to back up more ethereal transactional instruments. Modern cash is also a highly advanced technology, using state of the art mathematics and materials science. Contactless, and debit cards are fine things, for those who want them, but without actual cash as a foundation they're a deadly trap. I am uttery aghast that supposedly "clever" economists and technologists seem not to grasp this simplest of concepts.