Is It Time To Remove The Zeros?, 19 AUGUST

 Is It Time To Remove The Zeros?

Economic  2024/08/18  

There is an economic principle in the free market economy, capitalism, or whatever you call it, to treat the defect or distortion in the economic structure as a result of the shock.

That is, accepting the financial, economic and social effects of this measure in the hope of improving the economic reality.

In order to clarify this principle and analyze its effects as a means of spreading economic culture, we will address the issue of deleting zeros from the currency in order to reduce its effects on the size of the monetary mass and the value of money.

The more difficult and complex the solutions to reduce the dollar exchange rate between the official and parallel rates become, the more calls for the necessity of deleting zeros increase, believing that it is one of the solutions.

Here, if the decision is made to remove zeros, this means treating the defect with the shock effect, but we must first present the most prominent advantages and disadvantages of removing zeros and compare them to reach an optimal solution and a sound decision.

This is the best way to spread the culture of discrimination among the public, rather than addressing specialists because they are aware of the optimal solution.

 One of the most prominent advantages of removing zeros is reducing the size of the monetary mass, not its value (simply the number of banknotes used in circulation).

This advantage results in the ease of carrying cash amounts and protecting them from theft or damage.

As for the disadvantages, deleting zeros will create countless social problems that we can do without at this stage due to the inability to convince the public to accept the decrease in the size of the monetary mass while acknowledging that the real value of the money is not affected.

The issue is related to the mind and the memory’s preservation of large amounts, and then the solution of commercial and personal contracts and agreements creates disagreements and an inability to reach an understanding.

From the above analysis, it is clear that the procedure of deleting zeros is not appropriate at the present time. However, with the use of electronic payment operations, the environment will be mature and acceptable for the idea of ​​implementing the decision to delete zeros, and the process will be automatic without the citizen feeling it. But is it time to issue the decision?

We see that it is too early due to the recent introduction of electronic payment technology in commercial, market, official and private transactions.

 The experience is still limited to absorbing such a transformation, and when the percentage of acceptance and use of electronic payment tools reaches 90 percent of citizens, then the decision to delete zeros can be implemented easily and smoothly. It takes time to spread the culture of electronic payment, and it is required to intensify media and advertising campaigns to focus it in the citizen's memory and accept it.

In such a case, the concerned authorities should reduce the costs of using electronic payment and impose strict control over fraud and manipulation, and then expand and diversify electronic payment companies throughout the country.

Those concerned should start with state institutions in using electronic payment for all transactions, and then the culture of electronic payment will expand.    https://alsabaah.iq/101197-.html