Older Americans May Find It Difficult to Adapt to a Cashless Society Brought on by COVID-19

Plamen Nikolov, assistant professor of economics at Binghamton University, State University of New York, thinks older Americans may find it hard to adjust to a cashless society that could arise in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, reports Newswise . "Older Americans are not as tech-savvy as younger generations and will likely be affected negatively due to their more limited use of electronic forms of payments," he observes. "Other vulnerable populations e.g., low-income populations who do not use mobile forms of payments are also likely to be negatively affected." The Pew Research Center estimates that about 30 percent of Americans make no purchases with cash in a typical week, and while use of cash is shrinking, older adults are slow to accept this. "Prior to the COVID-19 epidemic, about one-third of Americans under the age of 50 made no purchases in a typical week using cash," Nikolov says. "The same number is only a fifth among Americans above the age of 50. Furthermore, the slow adjustment to electronic or mobile forms of payments among older adults will likely have some implications for consumption and consumer expenditures."