Hey Mistah, Spare Any Debit Cards?

Walking across Fleet Street, heading toward the parking garage, thinking about what I am going to do for dinner and how I can't just stop at some fast place because I have no cash on me, I am accosted by a lady asking me if I have any money, she's just trying to get something to eat. Sorry, I have no money whatsoever on me, which is the truth. (Full dislcosure: I did find a crumpled dollar bill in my wallet later on in the evening.) Half the time I'm asked, even if I wanted to give, I can't because I often have no cash on me, even less often is change because it quickly ends up in my change jar. I wonder, in this age of plastic plastic plastic, in the hurtling forth into a newer age of a cashless economy, how many people that once depended on the spare bucks and dimes from street strangers are now either starving, dead, or gainfully employed now that the handouts are fewer.