Science Fiction and the Banking System

I've been involved in the banking and investing systems of our country a lot over the last few weeks.  It occurred to me that several science fiction writers, those who bothered to have an economic system in their futures, envisioned systems quite like what we have today, but none of them went as far as reality has gone.

Many stories contained credit systems whereby ordinary folks carried only a card, which they used to pay for everything, from a pack of gum to an airplane ticket, to a hover-car, to a home.  Several predicted a future where everyone got a basic living from the government, and could earn more by doing jobs only humans could do - creative tasks, etc.  (Tea-partiers, take note!)  Of course, that supposed that all non-creative tasks would be done by machines.  The plots usually revolved around individuals who were not in the system, for some reason or another, and couldn't get food or shelter.

These people were uniformly capable and ingenious, and managed to bring the economic system down, while living in the cracks - thereby causing worldwide society to collapse.  They usually wound up in positions of power in the new order.  Humanity was naturally better off as a result, too.

The reality is that we have banking and investing systems today which allow us to do everything via the internet.  In the stories, terminals were placed in businesses, street corners, etc. and allowed the citizens to transact their business or purchase goods there.  No one thought we could do everything from the computer in our home, or on the street or other public place.  Wi-Fi was not a concept in most of these stories.

If we take this to the extreme, we have Asimov's universe of the "Pebble in the Sky" group of stories.  In them, he envisioned a future where habitable planets were so plentiful that people could each inhabit one of their own; and became so isolated, communicating via his version of video chat, that they became unable to be together at all; remaining isolated from childhood until death.  Note that he failed to describe how new children came about!

I'm waiting for machines to take over all the mundane business of everyday living, so that I can sit back and enjoy the fruits of their labors.