Print that receipt
It’s always fun, with the benefit of hindsight, to analyze predictions from the past about today. And it looks like the prediction of the “paperless office” was about as wrong as you can get. But, on the other hand, maybe the content of that prediction is not wrong, but only the timing! I’m sure we will reach that stage at some point, but it just will take its time. Technology can advance in leaps, but societal, cultural and economical change needs time to run its course.
I still do almost all of my accounting in paper format. But I’m getting more and more digital receipts etc. that I’m sure I’ll get to the point of not even bothering to print them anymore. Coincidentally, exactly while doing my accounting, I came across the line “think about the environment before you print” that gave me the idea for today’s strip …
Here in the Netherlands, we run into some strange things… The tax authority requires small businesses to file their taxes digitally, but they also still require you to keep a paper trail of all receipts et cetera in case you have an audit.
Fortunately in real life, the tax authority says they will accept digital expense receipts (and some other groups as well) during an audit, but they do acknowledge that this is breaking the law.
Almost 30 years ago, our office (a USAF Weather Squadron) asked our higher headquarters if we could go paperless. We were already storing all of our documents on 3.5″ hard floppies (with backups), so our commander thought we could do it. It would be a lot easier to maintain than the paper filing system (which had to follow intricate and exhaustive regulations — we needed a file clerk just to handle the files, even though our office had under twelve members).
The answer we got was that we could go paperless — provided we kept a full set of paper documents (properly filed) as backups.
CD
I’m a Librarian (in Livingston Parish, Louisiana) and when I was in Library School 20 years ago, we were being taught to prepare for paperless libraries. Um…… well……ain’t happened. Ok, we are a lot more paperless but by the amount of printing being done and new books coming in, it’s not happening anytime soon.
I recall years and years ago when the term “paperless” started showing up in conversations at our site (commercial aircraft manufacturer). My advice at the time was, “When we go paperless, buy stock in the paper supplier.” I’ve yet to see any reason to change that advice.
Well at least it’s a better idea than most of Chuck’s environmental efforts.
I knew a guy who worked for an agricultural firm in the ’60s. They fell for the “paperless office” hype, thinking they’d be able to get rid of their huge filing cabinet. They ended up getting 3 more huge filing cabinets for the computer’s paper.