Letters/Dept. of Corrections
illustration/The Fuge
Cashless dystopia
At first I thought that the statement from the Better Than Cash Alliance, in which they spoke of “reducing poverty and driving inclusive growth,” was pretty funny [“Attack of the Plastic People,” Oct. 2017]. Unfortunately, it’s not. These folks are actually talking about the creation of an underclass completely excluded from the economic life of the society in which they live. Imagine the most horrific science-fiction scenario in which vast numbers of people live a desperate existence, forced to use black-market cash surrogates or barter for the most basic requirements of life. Just finding a place to live would involve being forced out of safe, clean neighborhoods and into filthy and grotesque ghettos. (That does sound a lot like gentrification, doesn’t It?) They would be at the mercy of predatory property owners, subsisting on food and services unacceptable to the privileged class. And there would be more than enough violence for the most egregious B movie. It stands to reason that that Privileged Class would be profiting from the misery that they’ve created.
Bob Giordano
Portland
Dept. of Corrections
In the sidebar to last month’s cover story [“A ‘Square’ Deal?”], we incorrectly described Leslie Oster as the “longtime proprietor” of Aurora Provisions. Oster was the general manager of Aurora for 16 years, but the owner of the café during that entire period was Marika Kuzma. We regret the error.