Of Checks and Czechs

Amid all the chaos surrounding the Senate debate over health care, I try to find other things of interest. It's kind of cut and dried really. Working people want health care reform. Liberal Democrats want health care reform. Rich people, Republicans, and conservative Democrats, for the most part don't want to change anything. The arguments go on and on. I've taken a wait and see attitude. Now what is there, of interest out there aside from that and the ongoing wars in the Middle East?

Yesterday I found something that piqued my interest. It seems that the board of the UK Payments Council, a body largely made up of Britain's leading banks is making plans to abolish checks. I told Babs that the Brits were trying to abolish checks and she said, "Slovaks too?" No, not Czechs, checks. We're talking finance, not genocide.

Apparently studies show that fewer and fewer checks are being written in this electronic age. Debit cards and PINs are de rigeur. In the UK, a great many retailers have stopped accepting checks already. The problem is that there is still an older generation who have not adapted to 21st century banking practices. There are a great many people over the age of 65 who never use the internet. Many older citizens don't seem to do well with PIN numbers and debit and credit cards for payment. They don't like the idea of keeping track of their accounts online.

The target date for ending checks is October 31, 2018. Okay, that's a few years yet. People have time to get used to the idea. The banks have time to educate people. People have time to electronicize their financial lives. And this is all in Britain. What about the USA?

Frankly, considering all the to do over health care, I suspect the USA won't do away with paper checks until somewhere in the next millennium, or when the apocalypse comes, whichever arrives first. I have to ask you, "How many checks do you really write?" For myself, the only place I ever write a check is if I'm contributing to a charity or if I'm going to the dry cleaners. Why the heck is it that dry cleaners don't do debit or credit cards? Even the cabs are starting to take plastic. Checks are just plain primitive. Why my bank sends me a paper statement anymore is just befuddling.

I don't think I'm going out on a limb here when I say that the UK is on the right track. The oldest check on record in Britain is from 1659. That's 350 years that checks have served us well. All things must pass. The electronic age, c'est arrive. And it will be that much less paper we'll be using. In an age where we're worried about global warming and the buildup of greenhouse gases, we can use all the trees we can muster. Let em grow. Don't make paper out of em.

Of course, the fact that doing away with paper checks is being proposed by forward thinking liberals means that, in all likelihood, the tea party sorts, those who oppose a woman's right to choose, those who oppose health care reform, those who deny global warming is real, those who think that violence and mayhem in our society can be dealt with by giving everyone a gun, those who would bring the Christian religion into every public school classroom, those people will find some way to oppose the very sensible step of doing away with paper checks. Now that I've said that, can we face the fact that pennies are useless, and dollar bills could honestly become a useful tool, as a coin?