A Saturday Wall Street Journal piece headlined “New York Restaurant Loses Its Appetite for Cash” previewed the death of actual money:

At the Greenwich Village restaurant Commerce, cash is off the menu.

In the latest encroachment of credit and debit cards onto the greenback’s turf, the high-end New York City restaurant said goodbye to dollars and cents this week. The message to diners: Tip in cash if you wish, but otherwise, your money is no good here.

The Journal report featured this explanation of the Rich People’s Policy:

“If you don’t have a credit card, you can use a debit card,” said the restaurant’s co-owner, Tony Zazula. “If you don’t have a debit card, you probably don’t have a checking account. And if you don’t have a checking account, you probably shouldn’t be eating at Commerce to begin with.”

Regrettable as that statement was, the most distressing assertion in the Journal piece might be this:

Mr. Zazula, a veteran Manhattan restaurateur with an M.B.A. from Cornell University, decided the move was right for Commerce several months ago while on an American Airlines flight. “The flight attendants weren’t accepting cash for any of the food,” he recalls. “Suddenly, it struck me how unnecessary cash was.”

How unnecessary cash is? Hey, how about 10 p.m. at Walgreens when someone is buying two candy bars with a debit card and trying to get $20 cash back?

I’m not on this earth long enough to outlive all the debitcardniks ahead of me in line at my local retailers.

C’mon, people. Carry some walking-around money.