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More phones, few banks, instability are transforming Somalia to cashless society

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Re: More phones, few banks, instability are transforming Somalia to cashless society

#21

Post by contingencies »

Pamar wrote: post #20
frik wrote: post #4

Cash is freedom. No one spies on what you do with your cash money. Hopefully this electronic-only-money utopia won't get traction. We can see already with the encryption trojan programs that ask for Bitcoins/altcoins to decrypt your data - something like that wouldn't be reasonable and work on a large scale with cash.

This was the point of "New Yen" in William Gibson's Neuromancer, in fact. The only remaining real-cash currency, used mostly for illegal trade but still very much sought after because was not traceable by anyone (and had incredibly favourable exchange rates with electronic money)

The Danish Kroner is basically that way already.

Re: More phones, few banks, instability are transforming Somalia to cashless society

#22

Post by ksec »

frik wrote: post #4

Cash is freedom. No one spies on what you do with your cash money. Hopefully this electronic-only-money utopia won't get traction. We can see already with the encryption trojan programs that ask for Bitcoins/altcoins to decrypt your data - something like that wouldn't be reasonable and work on a large scale with cash.

For those who don't know, there are countries that allows government or companies to take away money from your bank account without your consent if they prove you own them money. I know this may sounds strange and you will properly be thinking that is fine, but there are variety of reasons why you don't want that.

Re: More phones, few banks, instability are transforming Somalia to cashless society

#24

Post by Htsthbjig »

frik wrote: post #4

Cash is freedom. No one spies on what you do with your cash money. Hopefully this electronic-only-money utopia won't get traction. We can see already with the encryption trojan programs that ask for Bitcoins/altcoins to decrypt your data - something like that wouldn't be reasonable and work on a large scale with cash.

Well, for me electronic cash should be the future.

Something with the anonymity of cash and the easiness, portability of electronic transactions.

Well, in fact cash is traceable, it has serial numbers on it, and you could trace it easily, some entities do it.

Physical gold and silver is much better, you could not trace it when you melt it.

Re: More phones, few banks, instability are transforming Somalia to cashless society

#25

Post by plesner »

contingencies wrote: post #21
Pamar wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was the point of "New Yen" in William Gibson's Neuromancer, in fact. The only remaining real-cash currency, used mostly for illegal trade but still very much sought after because was not traceable by anyone (and had incredibly favourable exchange rates with electronic money)

The Danish Kroner is basically that way already.

That's just not true. People pay by cash all the time in Denmark. I happened to read this in line at a Danish supermarket and people were paying with cash as much as with cards while I was paying attention.

Re: More phones, few banks, instability are transforming Somalia to cashless society

#26

Post by Pamar »

plesner wrote: post #25
contingencies wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Danish Kroner is basically that way already.

That's just not true. People pay by cash all the time in Denmark. I happened to read this in line at a Danish supermarket and people were paying with cash as much as with cards while I was paying attention.

Visited Denmark twice in 2015 and I can testify that using cash was perfectly normal.

Re: More phones, few banks, instability are transforming Somalia to cashless society

#27

Post by notthegov »

superuser2 wrote: post #14
narrator wrote: post #12

The legal medical marijuana people in California have to do everything with cash because they can't get bank accounts[1]. This is a sly way for the federal government to drive industries out of business that they don't like, even if they are legal on the state level. They are doing this explicitly with Operation Chokepoint.[2] 1. http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/16/medical-marij... 2. https://en.wikipedia.…

>legal medical marijuana There is no such thing as legal medical marijuana. The repealing of a state statute doesn't make something "legal" when it is still prohibited by federal statute, as marijuana is. It's simply a federal offense that this administration chooses not to prosecute vigorously.

This is not true. Just because modern scholars pretend it is, doesn't make it so.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_theory

Re: More phones, few banks, instability are transforming Somalia to cashless society

#28

Post by crusso »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #13
Symbiote wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“People are doing business without any fear of losing cash to militants or conmen,” Aden said. “The country’s telecommunications sector has undergone a rapid rise, fueled by intense competition amongst the numerous telecommunication firms that dominate the country.” Cash is freedom to be robbed, so I don't think that will convince anyone in Somalia. I checked my bank statement this morning. I withdrew DKK 300 ($45) o…

Indeed. The problem with some hardcore libertarians, among others, is that they want "freedom" to be #1 on Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and become confused or angry when others disagree. If you want people to want freedom--and you should!--you need to start by guaranteeing their basic physical safety and survival. "Live Free or Die" makes for a catchy bumper sticker, but if what you offer is the "freedom" to watch yo…

Your analysis indicates that you're stuck on the dimension of individuality vs collectivism whereby libertarian solutions would somehow be inferior to socialist ones.

The real problems in Somalia lie along dimensions of corruption and violence. The biggest gains that they could make as a society would be to reduce the value of corruption and violence as a means to an end. Possibly that reduction comes in the form of free markets that create a vibrant economy that their people become incentivized to protect. Possibly, some more socialist democratic processes could take hold that appeals to their cultural tendencies to help one another. Probably some mixture of those forces could help to create a new Somalian society.

Re: More phones, few banks, instability are transforming Somalia to cashless society

#29

Post by crusso »

cup wrote: post #18

I know the minister for Telecommunications in Somalia. I asked him to do an AMA on hackernews but there was no interest.

Why don't you try to proxy it by setting up an interview with him. Come to HN with the story of "I'm going to interview the Minister of Telecom in Somalia: What should I ask him?"

Collect the questions and then later post the full interview somewhere that you can then reference in another post to HN.

Re: More phones, few banks, instability are transforming Somalia to cashless society

#30

Post by mschuster91 »

Osiris wrote: post #17
superuser2 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>legal medical marijuana There is no such thing as legal medical marijuana. The repealing of a state statute doesn't make something "legal" when it is still prohibited by federal statute, as marijuana is. It's simply a federal offense that this administration chooses not to prosecute vigorously.

Some states do have laws that explicitly allow and/or regular marijuana for medicinal or recreational use. For example, I live in Colorado where a constitutional amendment was passed that required law makers to pass laws to setup regulations for the production, wholesale, and retail sale of the drug. The part about the federal law is still true but as far as I know, law enforcement in Colorado is not required nor can…

> The part about the federal law is still true but as far as I know, law enforcement in Colorado is not required nor can be forced to enforce federal law.

But the FBI can very well decide to prosecute federal crimes in states, even if the "crime" is legal under state law.

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