Well I honestly don't know if Greeks are lazier than most other people so I won't comment on that.

I give you that the information where the financial aid to Greece went is not something being highlighted by media. At least not here. That information you have to go look for yourself mostly.
Never forget that the only one the EU works for is The Market. Business, finance, exports/imports, trade whatever you want to call it.

If only, then the UK would be united in staying in it. The EU works for itself, it's become a self sustaining bureaucracy, it's no longer motivated towards anything other than making sure it is involved in everything it can be.

That's certainly the trend though I wouldn't say we're there yet. That's what tends to happen if a organisation not firmly grounded in the public gets enough power.

A good reminder is that they just stopped printingthe 500 euros bills this week and I canbet you that if Euro still exists in 5 years, the 200€ bill will disappear too and they could even dare to supress the 100€ one because "virtual" money is the way to go.... I'm going to steal some copper cables: that's one thing those greedy banks won't have :o)

My end response because we're going full circle and I like to say it in real life: "We live on the same planet but not in the same world'

Too few people that can afford to carry around that sum in cash to make it viable I suppose. ;)

They've been saying Sweden will soon be the first country without any cash for years. I still don't see that happening anytime soon. It would be a huge security risk for any country to name just one reason.

It could come sooner than expected with the generalization of smartphone-app payments for micro-transactions or with the RFID, technology is growing fast. My main concern wouldn't be security as the current systems are already full of loopholes but the biggest threat is that with the generalization of virtual money in everyday life, you're likely to get hugely screwed when shit happens to the banks like in Cyprus and Greece. Money on bank account is not yours and lots of people tend to forget that.

Also, it raises the concern of the ties between the political world and the bank system. In a fictionalized world where paper money wouldn't exist, being some sort of outcast for whatever reasons would lead to some severe prejudices as you wouldn't be able to buy anything unless some sort of commodity exchange system exists. I guess North Korea would love to be the first country to have 100% virtual money :o)

It's cash as backup. No sovereign country would dare risk their whole economy being made non existent just by some electronic sabotage.
As it is now yes countries can be severely hurt by electronic sabotage BUT there is always cash as a backup to keep their society functioning.
It would be insane for sovereign states to even think about getting rid of cash altogether.

In a world without cash the barter system will be king.

They stopped printing the 500 euro note because it was not something anyone carried around in their wallet, and was just something people used for laundering large amounts of money. It's nothing to do with business, or the desire to move us to other notes / currencies.

There are suggestions from some people that this was a bad idea as the EU was making a fair bit of cash from it, but I have to favour the moral vote on this one. There was no need for a 500 euro note.

I would have considered the "moral" point of view valid if it weren't for a global tendency over the years to go "the cashless way": promoting mobile and internet payments, reducing the number of ATM's, reducing the amount you can withdraw per "period" and per withdrawal, reducing the variety of bills and so on in order to keep your money on an account which can subjected to negative interest rates (actually, with the fees and the 0% rate, we are near that point).

Some cashless articles:
Former US Treasury Secretary wants to kill the 100$ bill (geez, I guess the 100€ bill is next):
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/02/16/its-time-to-kill-the-100-bill/
Denmark, Sweden and Norway go hand-in-hands:
http://paymentweek.com/2015-12-23-denmark-pushes-forward-with-cashless-payments-9215/
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/27/business/international/in-sweden-a-cash-free-future-nears.html?_r=1
http://www.ibtimes.com/norways-biggest-bank-calls-country-stop-using-cash-2276140

A pro-cash article:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-11/here-real-reason-why-authorities-want-ban-high-denomination-bank-notes

And a bit of personal poetry because it's nearly midnight and i wanna sleep ^o^

[i]"First they came for the 500€ bill, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a criminal.

Then they came for the 200€ bill, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not an entrepreneur.

Then they came for the 100€ bill, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not rich.

Then they came for my purse — and there was no cash left in it."[/i]

Well, time to go to bed I think #TeamConspiracy2016 :FEAR: :o))))

Well anyway, I might have sounded a bit too harsh or rude and if I managed to offend you in the end then I sincerely apologize, it definitely was not my intention.

No offense taken at all, you'll really have to piss me off personally to get me angry and as I post on these forums in a very casual way, you'll have to try much harder than that ;o)

Deus EX got into that conclusion and it's team of development way before the muslims, or Orwell....

Man, I wish it WAS 1989..this would just be prophetic then