Quote:
Originally Posted by whswhs
I'm note sure the train example works. I take the train from Riverside to San Diego once a month to meet with my gaming group down there. The fare is $7.50. Now, I pay half price because of my age, but even $15 wouldn't be much of an issue. I typically have around $100 in cash with me; but even if I carried much less, taking the train would be fairly easy to afford, much easier than a taxi.
|
Note that the example specified paying for travel to another city
and accommodation once you got there. You'd run out pretty quick if you had to pay for a place to stay as well. But sure, the intercity train you take is cheaper than what I'm used to seeing between different European cities, where the train ticket is about the same price as the taxi you take to the station.
That being said, I note that US-based forumites seem to assume cash is a lot more common in other modern countries than it actually is. In the US, it's theoretically possible to find stores that do not take credit or debit cards. I never see that here. Accordingly, I carry the Icelandic currency equivalent of $0 most of the time. If I do carry cash, for some odd reason, it's unlikely to be more than the equivalent of $30.
I know very few people who will have more than $50 on them during a typical day, because every single transaction uses a card. I've seen people ask their friends for cash money, because they needed to pay some weird person trying to sell art or provide service without paying taxes, but none of my friends or gaming group ever have more than a couple of bills worth no more than $50, usually more like $10 to $20.
Abroad, I may carry more cash, but I noticed that my friends who live in Denmark and the Netherlands almost
never have any cash, so it's not purely an Icelandic thing. More and more, you just don't use cash in modern European countries.
The only time I see anyone with $100 or more in cash is when someone is paying for goods and services under the table, because they are avoiding taxation or the goods are stolen, or when someone is buying drugs. So, it's more of a thing I see professionally than a part of daily life for people without skills like Streetwise.