What if money expired?
Every banknote has an expiry date. Keep it in a drawer and it loses value each month. After a year, it’s just paper.
The wage has a date on it, so it gets spent quickly.
Day 1
Cash machines print a date under the amount. A wage paid on Monday is already worth a little less by Friday. Shops print the date on receipts, next to the price.
People paid yesterday go shopping today. The queue at the supermarket is longer than the queue at the bank.
Year 1
Saving becomes a race against the calendar. Money has to be spent, invested or given away before the year is up. Rent gets paid early, and repairs people put off for years finally happen in November.
The people who suffer are those who can’t spend fast: a parent on leave, someone in hospital, anyone whose big bill isn’t due yet.
Year 10
Kids check the date on money the way they check the date on milk. Birthday money comes with a plan for spending it. A shoebox full of cash is something grandparents tell stories about.
The last week of the year is always chaotic, as people rush to spend what they have left.
Who wins
- Shops and tradespeopleMoney that loses value if you keep it ends up in their tills.
- People with bills due soonWages and rent finally run on the same calendar.
Who loses
- SaversA year of being careful ends with a smaller number.
- People who can’t get to the shopsThe date doesn’t wait for a hospital stay.
- Cash under the mattressOne day it’s money, the next it’s paper.
- Anyone paid lateEvery day of delay is a small pay cut.
A town can make its own notes lose value, and Wörgl did. Doing it to a whole country’s wages, rents and pensions would be a much harder law, and Wörgl’s experiment lasted only about a year before it was stopped.
Would you live here?
More what-ifs
