TR EMERITUS

May be its because I am merely a jealous, bitter old things but every time Mr. Calvin Cheng, former nominated Member of Parliament opens his mouth, my eyes tend to role. I state that I could be jealous of him because he is everything that I am not – clever (went to Oxford), successful and has his hair. However, despite all his advantages in life, he seems strangely proud of being out of touch with reality.

Let’s look at his latest tirade, which has been against hawkers who only accept cash. Mr. Cheng has decided that we need to boycott people who are “backwards,’ and has continued to double down on his crusade against people who only accept cash as form of payment. [LINK]

OK, as a matte of disclosure, I do like using fintech payments like PayNow and PayLah. It’s convenient when you can just scan and pay or send money to people via their mobile number instead of having to wait in line at the ATM machine. Given that DBS and its subsidiary POSB won’t let you draw anything less than $20 out at any given time, it helps to have a means of paying for things when you only have $19 in your bank account.

Cash can be cumbersome to carry around and do you really want to have people constantly handling something that carries germs in this day and age of diseases like Covid? On the retailer’s end, it’s also been shown that having alternative methods of payment can up your top line.

Having said that, there is no reason to go to war against cash or against people who want to be paid in good old fashioned hard cash. There is an old adage that goes “Cash is King.”

Cash is the physical manifestation of money and physical manifestations have a way of being, well, far more real than numbers on a screen. Then, if you look at the two largest economies on the planet, which also happen to be the two societies that have been most successful at eliminating cash, you’ll find the real value in holding cash and insisting on having cash.

Let’s start with the USA where everyone uses a credit card. When I was last in the US a decade ago, I found that I was the weird Asian guy paying in cash. Everyone had a credit card. Go to a stall in the middle of nowhere and you’ll find that the little old lady living on her pension will pull out her credit card to pay for a cup of coffee. While this seems like a wonderfully convenient situation, there’s a flip side to it. Everyone is in debt. Borrowing money is a way of life. Every institution and individual is indebted in one way or another. The official statistics state that every American is US$90 plus odd thousand in debt doesn’t look like a creation of statisticians when you see everyone pulling a credit card to pay for the most minute of things (as a matter of full disclosure, I have only paid off my personal credit card debts around two years ago). [LINK]

Having debts is fine if you have constant cash flow. Banks will happily allow you to keep things moving along as long as you have a job of sorts. However, what happens when the job stops? Given that this is a day and age where job security does not exist, it is clearly not wise to pay for everything with your credit card. People who use cash have a way of knowing what goes in and out when compared to people who put everything on credit (saying from personal experience).

At the other end, you have China. The Chinese take pride in how advanced they have become with mobile payments. I remember a PRC customer at the Bistrot proudly telling me that cash is not used in China because everyone has a QR code. Even the beggars on the street use Alipay of WeChat Pay. Sure, China’s payment systems are wonderful from a convenience point of view.

However, let’s not forget that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has shown that it has been happy to clamp down on people and there’s no better way of clamping down by monitoring ones money trail. Since everything is online in China, it’s extremely easy for one to be tracked. While one might argue that one shouldn’t fear being monitored if one is clean, there is a point to say that “clean” can be twisted by the man in power to suit his or her needs.

Mr. Cheng should stop going after small businesses that insist on being paid in cash and cash alone. These businesses are being prudent by having a means of watching their cash flow and avoiding unnecessary debts. They may not declare everything in tax but these businesses are the backbone of the national economy, buying from local suppliers and hiring family members, thus keeping things moving along.

Instead of focusing on small businesses who actually ad value to the national economy, Mr. Cheng should instead focus on companies that are effectively predatory such money lenders or labour suppliers. Focus on the companies that have many means of getting paid but refuse to pay what is due to their suppliers. The world would be much better off if Mr. Cheng knew where to focus his energy.

Tang Li

*Although I’ve been based mainly in Singapore for nearly two decades, I’ve had the privilege of being able meet people who have crossed borders and cultures. I’ve befriended ministers and ambassadors and worked on projects involving a former head of state. Yet, at the same time, I’ve had the privilege of befriending migrant labourers and former convicts. All of them have a story to tell. All of them add to the fabric of life. I hope to express the stories that inspire us to create life as it should be.

18 Responses to “Cash is King”