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Author: OrmontUS   😊 😞
Number: of 3853 
Subject: First we lost the telegraph
Date: 12/30/25 8:33 PM
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Then the phone booth. Then the fire alarm pull-station, then the penny.

And now, Denmark has gotten rid of mailboxes.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/12/30/europe/denmark-...

PostNord has been removing the 1,500 mailboxes scattered across Denmark since June. When it sold them off to raise money for charity on December 10, hundreds of thousands of Danes tried to buy one. For each mailbox, they paid either 2,000 ($315) or 1,500 ($236) Danish krone, depending on how worn they were.

Instead of posting letters, Danes will now have to drop them off at kiosks in shops, from where they will be couriered by private company DAO to both domestic and international addresses. PostNord will continue delivering parcels, however, as online shopping remains ever popular.

Denmark is one of the world’s most digital nations; even its public sector utilizes several online portals, minimizing any physical government correspondence and making it much less reliant on postal services than many other countries.

Actually, all of the Nordic countries have become plastic-happy and cash is rarely used. Whether taking a taxi, a bus or buying food or shopping in general, cash is rarely used. I suspect the fixation in the US of using cash has more to do with tax avoidance than anything else. Although, come to think of it, the lack of financial training in school means many Americans are likely to get into trouble if they misused their credit cards.

Jeff
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Author: suaspontemark   😊 😞
Number: of 3853 
Subject: Re: First we lost the telegraph
Date: 12/31/25 1:47 PM
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I don't really think Americans are still fixated on cash. I see a lot of people paying with phones, credit cards reluctantly, and try to find a young person primarily using cash. The only time I have bona fide *needed* much cash in the past few years was driving up the eastern seaboard, where for whatever Jerseyan reasons, one needs cash (not having an E-ZPass myself) to pay those tolls on the Jersey turnpike and vicinity. Checks? I might write 4-5 a year, usually to trades/repair guys, but more and more of them take credit cards...or even Venmo or such.
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Author: Steve203 🐝  😊 😞
Number: of 3853 
Subject: Re: First we lost the telegraph
Date: 12/31/25 2:02 PM
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I don't really think Americans are still fixated on cash.

Did I mention on this board, what I noticed at Burger King last week? There is now a permanent sign at the counter that, due to the penny shortage, they are pleading for people to pay with a credit card or cell phone. I have not seen a sign like that elsewhere, yet.

Steve
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Author: Lapsody   😊 😞
Number: of 3853 
Subject: Re: First we lost the telegraph
Date: 12/31/25 2:20 PM
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I suspect the fixation in the US of using cash

When I came back from the Philippines in 2022, I gladly gave up needing cash. I love not having coins in my pockets. I still carried cash, but I didn't use it. My cash gets used up paying the lawn man or a handyman, or settling debts/gifts in the filipina system. Or I buy something through marketplace. Everything else is plastic. It was one of the adjustments I made coming back to the US, cash is king in the Philippines.
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