• The key unknown here is how fast average people become comfortable with PCS, lose their anxiety about electronic transmission and storage of data and overcome the feeling that if something isn’t written on paper and saved in a drawer it isn’t real.
• The usual assumption is that computer literacy is age- and income-related and that it will take a long time before older and less affluent (or at least less educated) people get comfortable with electronic payments and paperless transactions. But we could be in for some surprises as governments move quickly to electronic benefit payments, which mainly affect older and less affluent groups.