Becoming a " Pauper " !

Earlier this week the east coast of Australia and to a lesser extent the Perth area of Western Australia was thrown into chaos when a Telstra outage disabled the function of both the ATM network and eftpos machines.   The system went down at about three in the afternoon and was unable to respond until seven in the evening.

For four hours this threw the commercial world into chaos.  A wide range of retailers that included Woolworths, Caltex and Australia Post were unable to process card payments and it was inevitable that many people were seriously embarrassed.  Both the debit card and the credit card in their many forms are rapidly replacing the cash people used to keep in their wallets and purses to make small purchases and we have been rapidly becoming a cashless society.

This ever changing world now trades 24/7 and the " tap and go " use of cards is fast banishing that endless fishing out change to make small purchases. Items such as buying a newspaper or a cup of coffee are now paid for with a card rather than the time consuming function of paper money and the acceptance of change.   The commercial world is fast becoming aware of the ever increasing costs of handling and banking cash.  The card system simply transfers money from the customers bank account to the merchants in a seamless operation.

It would be interesting to know the personal embarrassment individuals suffered during that four hour outage.  How many people had filled their car with fuel and were waiting at the counter to pay for that purchase  ?  How many arrived at the checkout with a trolley full of groceries only to find that their credit card could not be processed  ?   No matter how much money they had in their bank account, at that moment they were a " pauper ".

This was not the first time the system has crashed - and it certainly will not be the last time either. This entire money system is prone to attack by hackers and the idea of cyber warfare would enable an aggressor to close down the money system and throw an enemy country into chaos.  Not only the money system but the entire delivery of essential services such as electricity, water and food is governed by the world computer network.  This short outage delivers a clear warning of the vulnerability facing our way of life.

Many of the people who were seriously inconvenienced by this weeks outage and have the financial ability to do something about it may in future tuck an emergency amount of money away into the back of their wallet.   It would bring relief to know that in a similar emergency that cash could enable whatever purchase was in progress to complete and they would be absolved from " pauper " status.

The event of this week was a sobering experience for many.  Perhaps for the first time finding themselves stranded and without access to money.