Personally I think people are freaking out a bit too much. Many people on social media are envisioning a George Orwell 1984 future where the government micromanages everyone's spending. I don't believe anything of the sort will happen for several reasons.
The government already can access your earnings before you receive them, it's called tax and national insurance. They could pass laws forcing people to pay fines in the current system anyway.
The banknotes in your wallet are only worth as much as the government says so (that people claim to mistrust so much).
Governments are usually slow and incompetent, the idea they could successfully implement a cashless society in the next few years is far fetched. It could well happen over a much longer timescale (decades). Very few places currently refuse cash, the one's I have seen that do get named and shamed on social media and people take their business elsewhere. People were making claims about a cashless society by the year 2000 in 1993.
The Uk is issuing new King Charles banknotes, not exactly rushing in a cashless society. At the time of writing they won't be in circulation for another year.
I have personally witnessed people going mad about a cashless society on Facebook, only to see them paying by card in the pub. Most people go cashless by choice.
There are obvious alternatives to do transactions without the government knowing, gold, crypto, hiding money in foreign bank accounts, barter economy etc.
The people freaking out the most about cashless are usually the same people who were predicting North Korean police states and apocalyptic depopulation back in 2020 which of course never happened. Most are getting angry instead of actually discussing workable solutions.
The "George Orwell 1984 crowd" seem to be forgetting that there's a world of difference between the government knowing everything you do and successfully acting upon that information. CCTV coverage is everywhere and yet they won't prosecute let alone properly punish shoplifters. Even when it's a clearly identified and well known junkie doing it. The people who believe in the worse case scenarios ironically have more faith in the governments power than most peoples.
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