What is the cost of a cashless society?
thewalrus.ca
What is the cost of a cashless society?
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Re: What is the cost of a cashless society?
#2According to the article, the main problem of a financial police state where you cannot so much as buy a loaf of bread without permission and surveillance from the payment system, is that not everyone is included.
Re: What is the cost of a cashless society?
#3According to the article, the main problem of a financial police state where you cannot so much as buy a loaf of bread without permission and surveillance from the payment system, is that not everyone is included.
Shoplift? No big deal. Have the theoretical potential to avoid even 1 penny in taxes? The only option is a financial panopticon that tracks the flow of all money!
Re: What is the cost of a cashless society?
#4According to the article, the main problem of a financial police state where you cannot so much as buy a loaf of bread without permission and surveillance from the payment system, is that not everyone is included.
It does seem to be a more clear and present danger to health and wellbeing for a chunk of society than the usual HN paranoia about loss of some imagined supreme personal autonomy and the government stopping you from buying what you want.
Re: What is the cost of a cashless society?
#5According to the article, the main problem of a financial police state where you cannot so much as buy a loaf of bread without permission and surveillance from the payment system, is that not everyone is included.
If you give me the choice between being able to buy a loaf of bread and having my payments private I'm feeding myself ten times out of ten.
I'm not saying that privacy isn't important but I don't think it is the main problem compared to people being unable to use currency.
Re: What is the cost of a cashless society?
#6According to the article, the main problem of a financial police state where you cannot so much as buy a loaf of bread without permission and surveillance from the payment system, is that not everyone is included.
If you give me the choice between being able to buy a loaf of bread and having my payments private I'm feeding myself ten times out of ten. I'm not saying that privacy isn't important but I don't think it is the main problem compared to people being unable to use currency.
If you give me the choice between a government that tries to force me to cede my autonomy and my privacy in order to buy a loaf of bread or go hungry, I'm sharpening my pitchfork and lighting my torch ten times out of ten.
Re: What is the cost of a cashless society?
#7This morning, I had a very new looking 10,000 yen bill at the conbini auto-register that wouldn't go into the register. Looked at it, didn't seem to be folded or missing a corner, which often causes bill insertion into machines to fail. Tried again, wouldn't go in. Had to use another bill.
If only we went cashless and installed the app, I wouldn't have to deal with bill and coin recognition failing anymore! What a wonderful, convenient world!
Just kidding. There'd be all the familiar glitches, errors, holdups and overreaches of excessive bureaucracy + automation and the malice and incompetence behind it.
Edit: decided to look up "Malice and Incompetence" to see if anyone else has struck on the idea that Hanlon's razor is a heuristic which overfits us towards thinking malice and incompetence are mutually exclusive. Giving credit to this blogger for coining this word "malcompetence: incompetence magnified by malevolent intent."
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/07/malice_incompet...
Re: What is the cost of a cashless society?
#8According to the article, the main problem of a financial police state where you cannot so much as buy a loaf of bread without permission and surveillance from the payment system, is that not everyone is included.
If you give me the choice between being able to buy a loaf of bread and having my payments private I'm feeding myself ten times out of ten. I'm not saying that privacy isn't important but I don't think it is the main problem compared to people being unable to use currency.
I'd feed myself nine times and eat leftovers on the tenth.
Privacy isn't the most important thing in the world but it's shortsighted to just throw it out the window. You don't need it 'til you need it.
It's okay to be friends with people who can't keep a secret but you need to have at least one friend who can.
Re: What is the cost of a cashless society?
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you give me the choice between being able to buy a loaf of bread and having my payments private I'm feeding myself ten times out of ten. I'm not saying that privacy isn't important but I don't think it is the main problem compared to people being unable to use currency.
If you give me the choice between a government that tries to force me to cede my autonomy and my privacy in order to buy a loaf of bread or go hungry, I'm sharpening my pitchfork and lighting my torch ten times out of ten.
Governments don't even have to get involved, we are heading in the direction fo functional cashlessness by the influence of corporations and the market alone. Hope you like incinerating fat cats to doom music, my friend.
Re: What is the cost of a cashless society?
#10Another thing to consider in that credit and debit card processing fees, which in the US are substantial, especially for small merchants that can't use large volume to negotiate a discount. This amounts to a ~3% hidden "tax" on all transactions, the bulk of which goes to one of four enormous corporations.