Economics: Media Articles

Chapter 7 Media Article

There is a new commercial on television, where a marathon runner has a lot of time to spare in the marathon, so he stops at a local convenience store to pick up a snack. Even though he has extra time, he does not have all the time in the world, so he uses his new Mastercard. This Mastercard no longer means you have to “swipe or give your card to a cashier.” Instead you can just scan your card if you’re in a hurry, rather than dealing with swiping the card and signing a receipt, depending on which location you go to.

In relation to chapter 7

This new money will go under the 6 criteria that we have learned about in this chapter.

1. Durable – Rather than having bills that wear away, this plastic shinny card will last for at least a decade (from what I’ve seen from my parents).
2. Portable – This card can be taken anywhere, it does not take up a lot of space, as compared to 30 bills stacked together.
3. Divisibility – The card holds how much you have in your bank account, so it is easily divisible. If your purchase comes up to $20.49, the transaction will take out exactly $20.49. You will not have to deal with change if you gave the cashier $20.50 and receive $0.01 in return.
4. Recognizable and readily accepted - The website cites that this card “accepted at over 23 million locations worldwide”. Although I have yet to seen one of these new credit cards to be accepted in the lower mainland.
5. Not Easily Copied – To ensure safety the card has the “same information as that on the magnetic strip of your card.” So to copy the card would be difficult to do and even nearly impossible to do so. However, the same possibilities of someone finding out your credit card number along with a PIN are still at risk. A purchase of over $25 does require a signature and a PIN is required to access your debit account.
6. Face value greater than actual value – The value of the card is worth probably a couple of dollars, but the amount that you do keep in your account will probably be at least 10 times as much as the value of the card.

posted by Meghan @ 11:23 AM