無現金的社會理想嗎？

印度總理莫迪為了打擊貪污及洗錢，上月無預警地宣布停用500及1000盧比紙幣（約235和471台幣），引發軒然大波。11月底，莫迪進一步宣示，將致力推動印度朝無現金社會前進。專家普遍認為，無現金社會雖然理想，但是印度要做無現金社會，就不太理想了。

莫迪怎麼說
"Our dream is that there should be a cashless society. This is correct that a 100% cashless society is never possible. But we can start with a less-cash society - then cashless society will not be a far-off destination," Modi said in his monthly 'Mann Ki Baat' address, appealing to youth to teach 10 families daily on how they could do cashless transactions through mobile apps, mobile banking and debit/credit cards. –The Economic Times

The Economic Times報導，印度總理莫迪在每月例行的全國廣播中說：「無現金社會是我們的理想。的確，100%無現金的社會難以實現，但我們可以從少現金社會開始，那麼無現金社會也就不再遙不可及。」莫迪也呼籲印度年輕人，每天向十個家庭推廣他們如何透過行動app、行動銀行、現金卡或信用卡進行無現金交易。

專家怎麼看
“The timing is also odd. India has recently introduced a system that makes it easy for anybody to make or receive payments from their mobile phone, whether they be businesses or individuals. But the Unified Payments Interface, as it is known, is still in the early stages of implementation, so cannot really help overcome the current cash-crunch.” –The Economist

經濟學人認為，此政策推出的時機怪異，印度近期推出的系統（統一支付介面Unified Payments Interface）讓企業、個人都能透過手機收、付款，但系統仍處於早期實施階段，無法有效協助處理現金不足的問題。

“It's long been a dream of a certain type, that cashless society. If all transactions are electronic then all transactions can be chased, can be recorded, checked. And thus it will be possible to monitor what everyone is doing, in detail. That's not a power I would want to offer the State….”—Tim Worstall, Fellow at Adams Smiths Institute, Forbes

英國Adam Smiths研究員Time Worstall在富比世的專欄中說：「無現金社會長久以來都是一種理想。但交易完全電子化，代表所有交易都可以被追蹤、紀錄、檢查，每個人交易行為皆有可能被全面監控。我不會想讓國家擁有這樣的權力……。」

哪個國家推行無現金社會最成功
“Sweden is beginning to look at doing away with physical money in favor of a completely digital currency given that the amount of hard cash and coin in circulation has already decreased by 40 percent (in 7 years).” “This abandonment is due to several factors, among these is the prevalence of cards, both debit and credit. According to the Riksbank, Sweden’s Central Bank, the number of cash withdrawals are steadily decreasing while the number of credit card transactions are increasing.” –Futurism.com

Sweden’s strong IT infrastructure which leads to more adoption of payment apps like Swish and the digitization of some Swedish Banks.

「鑒於紙鈔和硬幣的流通（在七年間）已下降了40%，瑞典開始考慮廢除現金，讓貨幣全面電子化。」科技新聞網站Futurism.com報導，現金卡和信用卡的廣泛使用是政府考慮廢除的眾多原因之一，根據瑞典中央銀行Riskbank表示，現金提款頻率穩定下降，而信用卡交易頻率則在提升中。瑞典強大的資訊科技基礎建設讓民眾易於採用行動支付app如Swishand，同時幫助了部分瑞典銀行的數位化。

字彙與口語

1. Appeal to 呼籲
The citizens appealed to their mayor to try to find a solution to the housing crisis.
市民呼籲市長為住房危機尋求解方。

2. Doing away with 廢除
The government did away with free school meals.
政府廢除了學校免費提供膳食的做法。

Do I have to do away with my habit?
我是不是得改掉我的習慣？

3. Prevalence 普及；流行
Fewer people choose cable TV with the prevalence of streaming TV.
隨著線上串流節目普及，選擇有線電視的人減少了。

資料來源：The Economist, The Economic Times, Forbes.com, Futurism.com 

 

加入Line好友