Thumb-Print Economics

In a long, thoughtful look into the computerized future, Simon Ramo, vice chairman of Thompson Ramo Wooldridge Inc., which is paid to think such thoughts, recently offered a vision of shopping as it may be in the next few decades. "Financial and accounting operations will be revolutionized by electronic information networks. Personal checks, and even currency and coin, will be delegated to a few rural areas or museums. When you buy a necktie or a house, your thumb print in front of the little machine will identify you, subtract from your account and put it into the seller's account, all through electrical signals and not by today's funny little pieces of paper with written or printed hieroglyphics. The data will be assembled according"to rules, the government will take its cut in taxes, and all accounts will be kept straight by the pervasive electronics information system of the future."

It was a vision to delight nearly every harassed taxpayer and housewife—except those whose domestic economy often depends on the calculation that a check cashed at 4 p.m. Friday will not reach the bank before the following Wednesday.