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In our cashless society, we need to take digital jail seriously

thehub.ca

171–180 of 849 posts

Re: In our cashless society, we need to take digital jail seriously

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No COVID was the last push. Germs and all that.

I would be greatly surprised if cash were a vector for COVID.

> The CDC said people generally don’t get COVID-19 from touching surfaces. People generally get COVID-19 from direct contact with someone who is infected or through airborne transmission.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/more/science-and-r...

Re: In our cashless society, we need to take digital jail seriously

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some developed societies don't actually make it legal to rob you as long as you wear a police uniform.

I'm not fully understanding your point. Are you saying that we shouldn't have saner laws in Canada because a country somewhere else struggles with corruption?

No, I'm saying civil asset forfeiture on the basis that "cash kinda sus" (to borrow an expression) doesn't seem to be practiced elsewhere in the developed world to the extent that it's done in the US.

Re: In our cashless society, we need to take digital jail seriously

#173
post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No, that battle is lost. Cashless is easier and more convenient. Incorrect, the battle is partly won in several U.S. cities (including NYC & SF) which passed laws to mandate acceptance of cash. However, cash-acceptance laws were mostly motivated by the unbanked, who are now being used to justify the introduction of nation-state CBDCs. China's CBDC is two-tier and preserves retail bank competition. People close to t…

> the battle is partly won in several U.S. cities (including NYC & SF) which passed laws to mandate acceptance of cash In SF, despite the laws, many businesses openly had a no-cash policy once the pandemic started. "Sorry, Credit Cards Only. Touching money might transmit Covid" is too easy of an argument, even though it's essentially a non-concern now. And I haven't seen businesses go back to accepting cash as lockdo…

Whole Foods created a dedicated checkout lane for cash during the pandemic, in some stores surrounded by a 6-foot plexiglass walls. It was usually the fastest line. Now they are back to all registers accepting cash.

> Will be interesting to see if SF authorities actually start trying to enforce this law or not.

Great opportunity for a city journalist to assemble a news story. Collect footage to document their experiences across a diverse range of SF stores which do and don't accept cash.

If "peer" stores accept cash, have good traffic and happy customers, then cashless competitors may reconsider their stance.

Re: In our cashless society, we need to take digital jail seriously

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Driving is also easier and more convenient than walking but it would be absurd to suggest that everyone should have a car available for them to drive as a constitutional human rights. Another counter point is that cash is arguably easier and more convenient in some aspects for some people.

Owning a car is a constitutional right as owning other stuff. It’s called property right.

[deleted]

Re: In our cashless society, we need to take digital jail seriously

#175

The simple answer is to reject the cashless society. In the medium to long term it's simply incompatible with any reasonable definition of freedom. Surveillance is bad enough, but a system that allows governments to arbitrarily "turn off" thousands or millions of people at the push of a button is too powerful to not be abused. Even the mere existence of such a system has a chilling effect. Which I suspect is precisel…

The simple answer is to reject the cashless society. Agreed. Recently, I came across a coffee shop and a bakery that proudly displayed "We are cashless. No cash accepted." signs. Not accepting cash is a method of discrimination. It keeps people without bank accounts out of your establishment. The overwhelming number of people without bank accounts are minorities and immigrants. That's why in some cities it is illegal…

You don't need a bank account to use cards to pay for things.

You also don't need to use an attempt at humor about fat people to add authority to your argument.

Re: In our cashless society, we need to take digital jail seriously

#176
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as bitcoin exists, the battle is not lost.

Any dreams of Bitcoin replacing cash died years ago.

More specifically the dream of bitcoin replacing cash died in 2017 when changes were made to the protocol. Bitcoin became cost prohibitive to use for small transactions (less than several hundred dollars) and the addition of a feature called 'replace by fee' meant that small transactions weren't immediately reasonably trustworthy and you would have to wait for one or more confirmations on the blockchain.

Re: In our cashless society, we need to take digital jail seriously

#177
post #57

I agree that this needs to be taken very seriously. However, the author overstates his case significantly when he writes: > Doing this to someone—a small business owner in BC, a public servant in Winnipeg, a student in Halifax—who made a small donation to support the convoy is a clear abuse of power. However: > The RCMP, banking sector and federal government said Monday that account-freezing powers bestowed under the…

The banks contacted the government to seek advice on what to with these funds before the Emergency Act. They have these funds they know belong to multiple individuals, including the account holder, and don't know what to do with them. Just because 100,000 people dumped money into your account for cause doesn't mean it belongs to you personally. No individual protestors accounts have been frozen. If you donated to thi…

> Just because 100,000 people dumped money into your account for cause doesn't mean it belongs to you personally.

This is the first time I've seen someone make this completely true point about the banking system.

It's not right or just, but money in the bank is not your money. It is your bank's money, and they may or may not allow you to transact it at any given time. Your recourse's are few and extremely expensive.

If anything positive comes out of this, I hope it's more folks realize this.

Re: In our cashless society, we need to take digital jail seriously

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is called war and it isn't the police doing it then, it is the military.

The people out number the military by nearly 300-1. If you think a million soldiers are going to occupy the USA without resorting to obscene levels of violence (such that money is not your concern) you're a bit mistaken.

Plenty of people are going to side with whatever the army does, and it'll be a capital offense to interfere with them.

Re: In our cashless society, we need to take digital jail seriously

#179

The simple answer is to reject the cashless society. In the medium to long term it's simply incompatible with any reasonable definition of freedom. Surveillance is bad enough, but a system that allows governments to arbitrarily "turn off" thousands or millions of people at the push of a button is too powerful to not be abused. Even the mere existence of such a system has a chilling effect. Which I suspect is precisel…

Massachusetts passed a law I believe in 1978 requiring the acceptance of cash by all retailers.

Re: In our cashless society, we need to take digital jail seriously

#180

The simple answer is to reject the cashless society. In the medium to long term it's simply incompatible with any reasonable definition of freedom. Surveillance is bad enough, but a system that allows governments to arbitrarily "turn off" thousands or millions of people at the push of a button is too powerful to not be abused. Even the mere existence of such a system has a chilling effect. Which I suspect is precisel…

The simple answer is to reject the cashless society. Agreed. Recently, I came across a coffee shop and a bakery that proudly displayed "We are cashless. No cash accepted." signs. Not accepting cash is a method of discrimination. It keeps people without bank accounts out of your establishment. The overwhelming number of people without bank accounts are minorities and immigrants. That's why in some cities it is illegal…

Small business do not go cashless to save money, nor raaccciiismm

They go cashless because it eliminates the threat of robbery. Them proudly having signs everywhere saying they were cashless is to announce to the would be theif there is no cash payday here..

Most businesses that do that have a history of robbery.

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