Use Cash Movement

A peoples' movement toward banking & monetary reform

Did you know that the banking industry makes BILLIONS of dollars a year from consumers like us using credit and debit cards?

Deprive the banking industry of some of this money...

Maybe its time that we do something that actually has the potential to make a difference. Deprive the banking industry of some of the billions of dollars they receive just because it is easier for us to pull out the plastic than to plan ahead and have a little cash on hand.

Yes, you can write a letter to your congressman and hold a sign on the village green but what does that really accomplish. The politicians don’t listen. They know that Republicans are still going to vote Republican and Democrats are still going to vote Democrat – even when their respective candidate stinks and they have to hold their nose while doing it. After all, it is us against them, regardless of what team you are on.

And the banking industry knows that we are going to keep using those plastic cards and living beyond our means. It is what they have programmed us to do and we, being the good little sheep that we are, do what we are told.

There is an excellent documentary, The Century Of The Self, that starts in the 20's and 30' with how Freuds nephew Edward Bernays showed "American corporations how to make people want things they didn't need". It was the beginning of the "all-consuming self". The documentary continues on to show how that has evolved into dominating our culture today. It is a four hour four-part BBC series and well worth watching.

Individual change is never easy. We all have to sacrifice a little if we truly want to make things better. Some of us will make that sacrifice and we will feel better about ourselves when we do. It may be a small cut but at least we are doing something that actually can make a difference. The rest of us will bitch and moan, point fingers, blame the other side and continue doing those things that make it so damn easy for the big guy to get exactly what they want.

While I have realized for a long time that using those credit and debit cards really only benefits the banks it wasn’t until I was introduced to the Use Cash Movement website that it really hit home. It is not an organization and there are no memberships or dues. It is a peoples’ movement and that is truly the only way anything is going to change for the individuals betterment.

Following are some quotes from the Use Cash Movement website.

Merchants pay fees that average about $3.50 on every hundred dollars, plus the cost of those days they wait to be reimbursed by the banks. They pass these fees on to their customers in the form of higher prices. The purchaser pays the fee, whether they know it or not. So, every plastic payment is like getting money from an ATM that charges you 3.5%.

Credit card use, rewards or no rewards, costs an average American family, paying with credit cards or not, between $427 to $600 per year. At $500 a year that's $59 billion dollars in revenues to Big Banking.

Yes, to do this we must suffer some small inconveniences. If we’re not willing to be inconvenienced, we do not deserve meaningful change.

Chains retailers and restaurants love credit cards. They have their own. They prevent theft. They're easier to handle than lots of cash.

Small businesses, independent businesses, mom and pop businesses, hate credit cards. Plastic payment use costs these businesses thousands of dollars a year. Their merchant fees tend to be higher than the big boys, forcing them pass along even more banking fees in the form of higher prices.

Anyone can do it. You don't have to pay-off credit card balances first. We all make purchases, do as many as you possibly can with cash.

If we are not capable of this, we do not deserve change. If we can not take direct actions like Use Cash, what will we tell our children? That we did a lot of bitching and moaning online and it didn’t work?

Be informed and spread the word!

Bo Bice at the Infinity Music Hall in Norfolk, CT

My day started by waking up with a head cold. I briefly considered canceling my plans but decided that I should just suck it up and carry on. That was my first mistake.

I left my house late and didn’t even realize it. I was scheduled to meet one of my AT Monitors in West Cornwall, CT at noon. Now I know where West Cornwall is, (it is famous for its covered bridge) and I know it takes me two hours to get there. But for some reason I forgot that and only gave myself an hour and a half. Then to make matters worse I took the route I usually take for the northern part of the AT instead of the southern part which added another 6 miles and a much slower speed to my already late road trip. Luckily, the fellow I was meeting was very nice about me arriving an hour late.

We met at his place to review the maps of the missing monuments. He has a beautiful house on the side of the mountain overlooking the Housatonic River with a backdrop of the rolling mountains of Northwest CT. You could hear the water of the river as it was rushing by. It is a wonderful soothing sound. I miss living in a house with water nearby.

Our mission was to find three missing monuments around Breadloaf Mountain. Luckily they were all rather close to the road because I was still beat from my 5-mile ice hike the day before with Giz and Rubaduc. We did manage to find the witness trees for all three monuments but none of the monuments. The first one was likely washed away. The second had some very large rocks covering it. The third may be found in the spring. The winter scenery was fantastic but of course I forgot that I had a camera with me.

On the way back we went to feed his wife’s horse some carrots. The horse seemed to enjoy the carrots while the other horses were looking on, in envy no doubt. I finally remembered that I had my small camera on me and managed to get this picture. We stopped at Baird's General Store next where I learned that the owners name is KC and that they have the best hamburg you can get.

Anyway, from this adventure I headed off to Winsted to have supper with my son. We went to Sophias, a place that used to be one of my favorite places to eat. I don’t know if we just hit a bad night but it didn’t seem as good as usual. Although the cheesecake was still as awesome as I remember,

I had some time to kill so I hung at my son’s house watching Repo! The Genetic Opera. While this film is not for everyone I enjoyed it. I didn’t get to see the end so I will have to finish it next time.

My next adventure was off to see Bo Bice at the Infinity Music Hall & Bistro in Norfolk, CT. I found a spot along the road and poorly parallel parked my sons car. Funny, I can back my Jeep Cherokee into just about any place I need to but I can’t parallel park my sons little Toyota car. With the keys in my hand I locked the door. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem except as I looked down I realized that I had the wrong ring of keys in my hand. There is only one door key and it was not one of the keys in my hand. Great!

I didn’t want to miss the show so I went inside and asked for a payphone. The young men at the counter gave me a quizzical look and said that they had heard of such a device before but they didn’t have one. Now Norfolk, CT is something like a village in size. Quaint, charming and dead after dark. Thankfully, the staff at the Infinity Music Hall were extremely helpful. They were willing to do whatever it took to get my car unlocked. As it turned out it I ended up logging into Facebook (I don’t know my sons phone number as it has always been programmed into my phone which was locked in the car) to get a hold of my son who of course gave me a hard time. He did come out and wait for the AAA guy to come pop the lock on the door and I thank him for that.



Bo Bice was AWESOME! I love his voice and his southern rock style. And seeing as I only bought a single ticket (no one else here knew who Bo Bice was) I was in the third row. Very nice. He had another fellow with him who was wicked good on the acoustic guitar. Bo Bice was engaging and funny and sounded amazing. He played a lot of new material which was great and I am looking forward to his next album.



After the show he was signing autographs downstairs and I think 200 of the 270 people there, were waiting to meet him. It took forever to get out the front doors as there was a major traffic jam at the signing table. As much as I would have liked an autograph I just couldn’t hang out with that many people to wait.

It was a long day and I still had an hour and a half drive home. Hopefully Bo will grace the Infinity again in the future. If he does, I will be there!