The thing about the cashless surveillance panopticon is that it still can't stop illegal drugs. Every prison is exactly that kind of surveillance society, and in every prison drugs are readily available. HSBC is one of the principle members of this privatised money system. It was found to be laundering money for international drug dealers, and got off with a slap on the wrist. Nobody working at the bank has been pros…
I don't mean to be pedantic, but that statement would definitely be improved with a link to a source
In praise of cash
81–90 of 369 posts
Re: In praise of cash
#82The thing about the cashless surveillance panopticon is that it still can't stop illegal drugs. Every prison is exactly that kind of surveillance society, and in every prison drugs are readily available. HSBC is one of the principle members of this privatised money system. It was found to be laundering money for international drug dealers, and got off with a slap on the wrist. Nobody working at the bank has been pros…
I don't mean to be pedantic, but that statement would definitely be improved with a link to a source
Plenty of examples from recent past, the more credible sources linked below, with drawbacks.
HSBA(ad-blocker blocker) https://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?toURL=https://www.for...
Wells Fargo/Wachovia http://www.businessinsider.com/how-wachovia-laundered-billio...
Bank Of America(Paywall) https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303292204577514...
No tin foil hat necessary for this one... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libor_scandal
Re: In praise of cash
#83The core concept to remember I think is that there are two ways to pay for things: * Ways that involve cash or cash equivalents * Ways where a purchase requires the permission of someone else Just think of the word authorization, which is a required element of essentially all non-cash transactions. It has the word authority embedded right in it. If you're OK with that concept, you are necessarily OK with the idea tha…
A cashless society would be an attempt to create a society that lacks basic economic freedom, but it would also fail. People will simply return to barter, and the use of whatever precious metals/stones/etc are hot that year.
I don't see this as a given. I for one would be more than happy to have a cashless society, and I would struggle to believe that I'm unique out of the ~7 billion there are of us.
Re: In praise of cash
#84I would never support getting rid of cash, it's a basic right to spend money without being tracked.
it's a basic right to spend money without being tracked. No it's not. I very much want there to be a way to spend money anonymously, but I can't frame that as a 'basic right'.
One could argue it's inherent in a right to privacy.
Re: In praise of cash
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
Only use a card with a chip. Problem solved
Chip transactions aren't processed in most gas terminals. It's not mandatory for gas terminals until 2020. https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/credit-cards/emv-credit-card...
Which is a real shame, the UK has had Chip and PIN for >10 years.
Re: In praise of cash
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
> it is still much more of a hassle to manage than credit or debit cards are I don't really get this. I use credit cards (almost entirely online), but I've never used a debit card. Not out of any deep-seated aversion, I just don't see the point.
The appeal is largely that credit cards let you spend money you don't have, and debit cards, by definition, don't. For people who have a hard time operating within their budget with credit cards, this is a huge difference.
Also there's no work I have to do later if I'm keeping my credit cards at zero balance. I don't have to worry about paying another bill.
Re: In praise of cash
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
A cashless society would be an attempt to create a society that lacks basic economic freedom, but it would also fail. People will simply return to barter, and the use of whatever precious metals/stones/etc are hot that year.
I don't see this as a given. I for one would be more than happy to have a cashless society, and I would struggle to believe that I'm unique out of the ~7 billion there are of us.
Doubtless you're part of a fairly large demographic... that's part of the problem which has no easy solution.
Re: In praise of cash
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
it's a basic right to spend money without being tracked. No it's not. I very much want there to be a way to spend money anonymously, but I can't frame that as a 'basic right'.
One could argue it's inherent in a right to privacy.
I'm just not sure you can construct a coherent argument around that though. Obviously a seller isn't obligated to accept cash; is there a suggestion that we should legally require sellers to do so?
Re: In praise of cash
#89A cashless society I will only ever come once human nature fundamentally changes. Say Canada gets rid of physical currency, the very next day people will use American money to buy things like drugs or stuff they don't want on their credit card like sex toys. Make a law against using other currencies and the market will just move underground. Even if every country eliminated paper money there will always be a way of exchanging high priced commodities, at which point the prevailing choice will become cash.
Re: In praise of cash
#90How can this article fail to mention Bitcoin?
My thoughts exactly. A blockchain is exactly the solution to a shared, secure, accurate public ledger without the need for a trusted third party like a bank (not that current blockchains are perfect, by any means)
"The cashless society – which more accurately should be called the bank-payments society" Due to this sentence I'm forced to believe the author has literally never heard of bitcoin, which seems impossible