--- title: Five Best Ideas: What We Would Lose In a Cashless Society description: What's at risk in a move to a cashless society, how to restore our faith in experts, and more. canonical: https://time.com/4689942/what-we-would-lose-in-a-cashless-society/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-03T17:00:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:59:01.644Z article:section: Ideas og:title: What We Would Lose In a Cashless Society og:description: And four more of today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4689942/what-we-would-lose-in-a-cashless-society/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What We Would Lose In a Cashless Society twitter:description: And four more of today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # What We Would Lose In a Cashless Society by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Mar 3, 2017 5:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Mar 3, 2017 5:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**This is what we risk in a move to a cashless society.**](https://aeon.co/essays/if-plastic-replaces-cash-much-that-is-good-will-be-lost) By Brett Scott in _Aeon_ **2\.** [**Our nation has lost its trust in experts. Here’s how to restore it.**](https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/restoring-trust-in-experts-by-minouche-shafik-2017-03) By Minouche Shafik at _Project Syndicate_ **3\.** [**A WhatsApp-inspired tool is putting doctors at the fingertips of the rural poor.**](https://www.techinasia.com/docsapp-chat) By Kylee McIntyre in _Tech in Asia_ **4\.** [**To strengthen our economy we need education equality. Find out where to start.**](https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2017/03/02/educational-equality-and-excellence-will-drive-a-stronger-economy/) By Arne Duncan at the _Brookings Institution_ **5\.** [**Could solar trains finally push that alternative energy source to the next level?**](https://howwegettonext.com/solar-trains-could-help-us-rethink-energy-7ae4c008f021#.wit3ekj6h) By Ian Steadman at _How We Get to Next_  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4689942/what-we-would-lose-in-a-cashless-society/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4689942/what-we-would-lose-in-a-cashless-society/"},"headline":"What We Would Lose In a Cashless Society","datePublished":"2017-03-03T17:00:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:59:01.644Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4689942/what-we-would-lose-in-a-cashless-society/","keywords":["Five Best Ideas","Innovation","whatsapp","Trains","solar"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/five-best-ideas/","name":"Five Best Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4689942/what-we-would-lose-in-a-cashless-society/","name":"What We Would Lose In a Cashless Society"}}]}] ```