Modules and Wholes

According to the accountancy KPMG, New Zealand is on its way to becoming a cashless society. They note that last year 741 million EFTPOS (debit card) transactions were conducted in New Zealand with a total value of $41.3 billion. "This represents a transaction being made by every man, woman and child in New Zealand once every two days."

That's wonderful, expect when things aren't working. On Monday, major parts of New Zealand experienced a network outage, which brought down the EFTPOS system with it. People used to carrying hardly any cash were stranded, as stores can to process debit payments manually. I had to teach a store clerk how to use an old style carbon receipt manual slide imprinter (I knew how it operated, though I don't know what the contraption is actually called.)

As comment on the crisis, the newspaper had a cartoon of a customer asking a sales clerk, "er, do you accept New Zealand currency?" The virtual economy has made tourists of us all.