The closure of yet another bank branch as I walk past it the other day was a sad one. It highlights a troubling shift toward a fully digital economy. While digital payments offer convenience, they also often carry challenges and issues not thought about.

There were 575 bank branch closures between 2017 and 2021 in Australia, and more than a third of ATMs in rural areas were removed. Things in my view will only get worse.

As cash use declines in Australia, consumers are increasingly dependent on electronic systems that fail in so many ways. During power outages people are leaving supermarkets full of abandoned groceries and shopping.

We are facing fees and charges with electronic payments and fees with the use of private, non-bank run ATM machines per transaction.

With less face to face customer service at a bank branch, we are being pushed onto call centres in places like India and robot style services online, with customer enquiries not dealt with.

I believe it is time people demanded action in this area before it is too late - but what are the answers to this problem?

There are no answers to this problem. With 93 seats, plus the help of the Greens and Teals, and control of the Senate, and no real opposition, the Albanese Socialist/Communist government can do as it pleases.

On top of that, As Ramesh Thakur writes, “no matter who they ( the people) vote for, the blob – the network of mighty quangocrats, technocrats, activist NGOs and unelected and unaccountable judges – always wins”.

“The old left-right divide is passé. The new divide is between the international technocratic elite in alliance with national elites, against the interests, values and policy preferences of national populations”.

This came to a head during the pandemic years. An elite class of technocrats networks seamlessly cross sovereign borders to advance their self-interest contrarily to the wishes of their electorates.

If you think it is bad now, wait till the blackouts start !

This is called progress and fortunately for older people like us, we progress faster towards the grave and will soon blackout. That will solve our problem!

I do not envy the younger generations:
by 2021, 22% of Australians aged 15-34 were clinically depressed compared with only 9% in 2009 and extrapolating from the graph, today it would be around 28% - not including the undiagnosed.

Look Nathan, our older generation suffered more from chemical toxins like asbestos, tobacco and lead - while younger generations suffer more from mental digital toxins. Sadly they hide behind screens and cannot appreciate and don't know how to handle the simple joys of physical human contact. Both governments and commercial corporations discourage it, because lacking physical contact increases the dependence on them.

George Orwell, having lived in a different era, believed that by 1984, people will drown their helplessness and isolation in a physical toxin: Victory Jin - he failed to foresee the advance of electronic gadgets other than the telescreen.

When a vile government like Albanese's gets reinstated, it can do whatever it wants to. Australians, particularly the young ones, deserve everything that is going to happen to them. As Yuyutsu seems to be saying, we old nuisances won't have to put up with it for much longer.

We should understand that it's difficult for some old folk to adjust to modern living. Modern technology brings benefits, which are not always easy to accept or understand. I know there are some here who can't accept the fact that spats and straw hats have had their day, and its time to move on.

Nathan's post is timely. I do internet banking banking regularly, but today - and who knows for how much longer - my financial institution has bombed out: it's not working. Go and find one of the branches they haven't closed down.

It's a good thing that I don't leave paying bills until the last minute.

Yuyutsu,

<<This is called progress and fortunately for older people like us, we progress faster towards the grave and will soon blackout. That will solve our problem!>>

That's great for some people, but it doesn't help others. Plus, for others like myself who care about future generations, we do want to see outcomes to some of these challenges. After all we do care. Probably too much in the eyes of some, but we do care.

ttbn,

<<When a vile government like Albanese's gets reinstated, it can do whatever it wants to. Australians, particularly the young ones, deserve everything that is going to happen to them.>>

They do have too much control there, I agree (Labor), but don't forget those young people who cannot vote. They need some way to pay for things and they need to learn how to save money in a meaningful way, plus if they want work and get a job and to teach responsibility.

Paul,

<<We should understand that it's difficult for some old folk to adjust to modern living.>>

Just what is modern living and why is it better?

"modern living" gave us pollution, the Woke & the fracturing of societies everywhere.

Dear Nathan,

If you care for future generations, then try to make them small in number.

Technology is not meant to provide us with a better life, but to compensate for human numbers and enable more people to survive on this planet simultaneously.

Bringing new babies into this overcrowded world does not do them any favour - why should they squeeze and push to enter all at once when they can space it out just the same?

The disembodied do not feel any pain or boredom, so whether they are reborn after a year or 100 years or 100,000 years makes no difference to them.

Still no electronic banking available from my financial institution this morning. Life without cash and somewhere to hand it over is going to be so much fun, not just for old people who don't count for anything in the 21st. Century, but also for the smart-arse youngsters. There technical gadgets don't work any differently from mine.

Hi Nathan,
Modern society as we know it centainly has advantages over those less developed in a physical sense. Meeting our material needs and wants, requires far less effort than once was the case, thanks to productivity advances. Technical development in areas such as health and food production, has been of great benefit to a minority of the world's population, there is no denying that.

As for our social development, that's an entirely different question. Unfortunately it has not kept pace with our physical development, in many areas of human behaviour we're still in the stone age, or worse. Aka, great advances in science, so what do we do, we produce weapons of mass destruction, just that we can kill millions of our own kind!

Dear Paul,

«Modern society as we know it centainly has advantages over those less developed in a physical sense.»

Correct, but we already have a modern society for over a century - we don't need an ultra-modern one.

«Meeting our material needs and wants, requires far less effort than once was the case»

Our needs were fully met by the 20th century, and often with only one breadwinner per family, and not too long work-hours either.
Our wants are a different story, they are emotionally-based and no amount of matter can satisfy our hunger for meaning and to avoid the feeling of emptiness.
Filling an empty stomach with material food makes sense,
but filling an emotional hole with material products is a false solution since no amount of matter is going to fill it.

Besides, making efforts is not always a bad thing!

«Technical development in areas such as health and food production, has been of great benefit to a minority of the world's population, there is no denying that.»

Health is an exception - relieving pain is so important. I do not deny that.

Food production? Only as long as lack of food, or lack of healthy nutritious food is a problem.
We are well beyond these times and even while there could be enough for everyone if we wanted, a large portion of technologically-enabled food produced today is unhealthy junk.

You said "such as": other than medicine I struggle to find other areas where the benefits of technical developments outweigh their ill-effects.

" I struggle to find other areas where the benefits of technical developments outweigh their ill-effects."

Says a man typing up his thoughts on a device that would have been considered magical a mere 50 years ago which not only allows him to disseminate his thoughts peoples all over the planet and to stay in instant touch wth relatives, loved-ones and acquaintances but also gives him almost instant access to the accumulated knowledge of all mankind.

But he thinks these benefits are outweighed by the detriments and will of coarse relinquish access to this device.

Dear Mhaze,

50 years ago?
That's 1975 - I was using punched cards at the time.

First I would write what I wanted to punch on 80-column chequered papers,
(because once a card is punched, the holes could not be back-spaced and unpunched, so on any error the card would have to go in the bin)
then take the time to carefully punch from that draft, using a very similar keyboard, as the empty cards shuffled by,
and then if there was too much to say, then the deck of cards would be quite heavy and cumbersome, and might not even fit into the computer's card-reader in one go, and yes, that would upset the operator.

That gave me the time to consider what, if any, I really wanted to tell the world and weed out the silly, impetuous and unworthy ideas.
Not much was left.
And it would also save my readers the trouble and waste of time,
So they can instead enjoy the real world outside and interact with live people (relatives, loved-ones and acquaintances).

allows him to disseminate his thoughts peoples all over the planet and to stay in instant touch
mhaze,
Yes, even bad thoughts & information hence the Woke ! Inventions are invariably misused, just look at explosives & chemicals etc. With the right mentality good outcomes are achieved. With poor mentality you get Woke & Socialism. Neither have so-far proven to be the answer.

Yuyutsu, Puched Cards ? 1975 ?
You must have been working in a museum !
I was working on computers in 1960 and punched cards
were thought old hat then.
Our input came from the data prep girls on magnetic tape.
Ahhh, the girls I remember them, I wonder how they all turned out !