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Over the last 150 years, technological innovations and entrepreneurship have propelled the country from severe poverty to being one of the richest in Europe.
The Swedish case is even more special due to the pervasive role of banks in the payment and identification infrastructure. Banks created the widely used payment app Swish, and also issue the electronic ID needed to access public services like the tax authority and benefits for illness, disability and unemployment.
Consequently, if you are not a bank customer, you can’t access these public services.
During the pandemic, fears of contamination made handling physical money seem like a health hazard.
“I hate cash. It’s dirty,” as one Swedish tech entrepreneur put it.
All of these factors combined have led to a modern Swedish society where digital money is good and cash is associated with crime and dirt. For people who still depend on cash payments, this stigma adds to their sense of being left out.
In Sweden, as in many other countries, a fully cashless economy feels inevitable in the coming years. But as we have found, people who rely on cash due to poverty are left without the means to manage independently or even to pay their bills.
This is not just a practical issue, but an emotional one. There is a sense of loneliness, of loss of community and human connection in the digital economy.
As one of our interviewees said, “It’s not just cashlessness. I feel that human beings have disappeared. We live like robots; click here, click that. Digitization has made people lonely.”
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Sweden is a nearly cashless society. Here’s how it affects people who are left out (2024, December 18)
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