Jul 12, 2022 3 min read

In recent years there’s been much fretting by certain groups of citizens in the United States about the loss of individual freedoms. This reached an apex, of course, during COVID lockdowns and mask mandates. So now I’m curious as to where the full throated blowback is over the blatant loss of freedom where our commerce is concerned. I’m referring to the recent announcement that Kennywood Park, Sandcastle and others will be following the lead of PNC Park and Heinz Field in going completely cashless. How is it that we just have to accept that these institutions, or anyone doing business for that matter, can simply refuse to accept the coin of the realm in exchange for goods and services? Every denomination of American currency is stamped with the quote “legal tender for all debts public and private.”

The answer is simple really: It’s a cash grab. Now when you purchase something at one of these places you don’t pay X-number of dollars. You pay X-number of dollars plus whatever interest or fees is being charged to your credit or debit card.

Defenders of the policy will point out that cash can be traded for some type of card that may be used at whatever venue you’re attending, but consider this scenario: You take your family to Kennywood, you put $100 into the cash machine and then after spending $75, one of your children gets sick and you have to leave. Are you supposed to stand in line with a sick child at some customer service center to get a refund or have you now just made a $25 donation to whatever faceless corporation is now running Kennywood?

I don’t expect our legislators either state or federal to address this situation. When do they ever do anything to make their constituents – remember us? – less inconvenienced?

The fact is, unless I’m misinterpreting it, no one has to do anything because it’s already settled in Title 31 of the U.S. Code 5103: “United States coins and currency (including Federal Reserve notes and notes of Federal Reserve Banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes and dues.”

The argument that this grew out of the pandemic to stem the spread of germs through the touching of money would have a lot more legitimacy if people weren’t already touching all of the key pads to input their pin numbers.

This is a trend that must stop. By the way, my wife recently renewed her driver’s license and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania won’t accept cash payments either. I guess they don’t trust the treasury department.

Joe Manning

Washington