For every step forward, someone falls behind. In finance, it’s evident innovation has a real human cost. Steve Parker, Founder, Bird as part of the Finance and Utilities focus, explains.
“There really is no such thing as ‘the future’, singular. There are only multiple, unforeseeable futures, which will never lose their capacity to take us by surprise.”
Niall Ferguson, The Ascent of Money
Technology has always changed our relationship with money, and each new innovation creates a new challenge. Coins meant you didn’t have to barter with grain, paper meant you didn’t need to lug metal around. Central banks stabilized value, and telegraphic transfers sped up payments. All of a sudden money could be used to pay someone you weren’t directly in front of, instantly. With each move forward inevitably, people get left behind. If you could balance your chequebook but couldn’t make sense of an ATM, life got a little harder when cash became king. Credit cards increased people’s spending power but came with …