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In praise of cash

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Re: In praise of cash

#241

Post by jdeibele »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #41
pdkl95 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> still much more of a hassle That's when everything works correctly. What about when the power goes out and the card reading device stops working? What about transaction denials due to bank mistakes (or predatory policies)? Having the option to pay with credit/etc is nice, but the failure modes can be nasty.

I've had the pleasure (?) of going on vacation without notifying the card company. Because a hotel was late with a correction to their charge, that showed the card in use at two places at once, so they shut it down. While I was on vacation. That got... uncomfortable. Fortunately, they only shut down my card. My wife's still worked, and we were able to proceed. It made for a more stressful vacation, though...

My wife had her wallet stolen in Florence while we were traveling. It turned out that some banks will give different numbers to each card and other banks (Bank of America) will give the same number.

We had to cancel the BofA card that I had.

Fortunately our CapitalOne card used different numbers and we were able to keep traveling without a lot of hassle. For our next trip, we're going to make sure there's no number overlap.

Re: In praise of cash

#242

Post by M_Grey »

dredmorbius wrote: post #179
pavel_lishin wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought detergent was used as a standard barter chip because it's easier to steal detergent than it is to steal cash.

It's not, of itself, incriminating. And if you can't sell it, you've still got clean clothes.

Plus, everyone with even the smallest amount of money, wants to be clean; it's an incredibly basic need. Alcohol will probably always been a good form of barter too.

Re: In praise of cash

#243

Post by skookumchuck »

otakucode wrote: post #212
CPLX wrote: post #9

The 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…

And don't forget that 'payment processing' is never free. In fact, it is never even a flat fee despite the fact that it does not actually cost anything more to transfer a larger number over a network than it does a smaller one. Yet people seem to have no problem handing over the majority of their economy to 'processed' payments which empower banks with the ability to do nothing less than levy taxes and exert the same…

There was a long period of "free banking" in this country where banks printed banknotes, not the government.

Re: In praise of cash

#244

Post by skookumchuck »

petre wrote: post #233
M_Grey wrote: post #78

Earlier 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.

People were using rice as cash in Japan back in the 8th century. Or arrowheads. Depends wether you want to eat or wage some war. AK-47 rifles would be the modern equivalent of arrowheads. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_currency

Tobacco leaves served as cash in the colonial American economy.

Re: In praise of cash

#245

Post by mikejmoffitt »

bjelkeman-again wrote: post #238
otakucode wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And don't forget that 'payment processing' is never free. In fact, it is never even a flat fee despite the fact that it does not actually cost anything more to transfer a larger number over a network than it does a smaller one. Yet people seem to have no problem handing over the majority of their economy to 'processed' payments which empower banks with the ability to do nothing less than levy taxes and exert the same…

Cash handling is not free either. Large amounts require security or increased risk.

Risk doesn't cost money in the way payment processing costs money.

Re: In praise of cash

#246

Post by dougmany »

rz2k wrote: post #240
giardini wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last year I tired of reconciling my credit card and checkbook accounts, so shifted to using cash only (I have credit cards if there's an emergency). So far I'm spending ~10% less each month. I'm more careful about purchases. I get and seek cash discounts. Best of all I don't need to do the reconciliation.

How do you ask for a cash discount?

There is a candy store near my house that has a bowl of mixed candy near the register. You can take a piece from the bowl if you pay in cash.

Re: In praise of cash

#247

Post by cortesoft »

iopq wrote: post #207
cortesoft wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might make it hard to prove the coins' source, but it would make proving money laundering easier.

Using a tumbler is not against the law. For one thing, you can't launder bitcoins because bitcoins are a commodity, not considered money.

Many money laundering techniques use a commodity in the process, that doesn't make it not money laundering.

Just because using a tumbler itself is not against the law, if you use it to hide the source of income, it is still money laundering.

You can't get around financial laws by using property instead of currency. "A payment made using virtual currency is subject to information reporting to the same extent as any other payment made in property."

https://www.irs.gov/uac/newsroom/irs-virtual-currency-guidan...

Re: In praise of cash

#248

Post by confounded »

alkonaut wrote: post #232

Couldn't a lot of the downsides with the credit card system be at least fixed somewhat by anonymization? E.g a card that generates new numbers for each transaction stops the store from tracking my purchasing habits. Similarly a store that doesn't record any more than the amount to the cc company limits what is recorded. I'm not saying this is in the interest of either retailers, banks or credit card companies - but i…

See masked cards from Abine[1].

[1]: https://abine.com

Re: In praise of cash

#249

Post by pjmorris »

rmorey wrote: post #90
PaulAJ wrote: post #40

How 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

Bitcoin is still an intermediary between the buyer and the seller.

Re: In praise of cash

#250

Post by M_Grey »

vkou wrote: post #237
M_Grey wrote: post #78

Earlier 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.

Unfortunately, the US Government does not accept tax payments in turnips, emeralds, pirate treasure, moonshine, or Eth. Until that changes, you will need to interface with the USD economy. The US government also expects your tax payment on an annual basis.

You can't pay in Bitcoin or gold either, yet both are incredibly popular.
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