The End of Paper Banking is Nigh

By Alicia Dorr in Miscellaneous on Jun 28, 2007 5:30PM

For years, we wrote checks like it was our job. Then direct deposit came into our little world, like so many others, and, along with increased use of debit and credit, the people who actually had a job that depended on people writing checks are starting to get the boot.

The federal government is cutting over 1,700 jobs in Chicago and elsewhere as it centralizes its check-processing operations. There has been a drastic decline in paper transactions, and the feds say it is likely to continue.

Aside from the time our friend said, "Bank statements are a thing of the past for me now with online banking," prompting us to turn red and ask who was paying him, we never thought too much about it. We used checks for everything for a time, because we felt insecure about our imaginary money floating in the air. And we wrote, "for sensual massage" on the memo line on nearly every one.

Apparently we've become complacent, because now we think of checks as more of a hassle than anything else. There's probably some horrifying way to view all of this, like pondering the premise of the movie "The Net," but, really, we don't want to make the effort. We just feel bad for the workers getting laid off.

Image via hardocp.com.