201–210 of 294 posts
A cashless society, like everything with computer, information control or centralize power, is fine when you are riding the happy path.
As soon as you are not inline with society, or that slthe system itself become no more adapted to it's context, it's a nightmare.
My biggest fear is not cashless society, it's humanless payment processing. If you think losing access to your Google account for unspecified terms violations is bad, what about a payment processing computer malfunctioning? A few years ago my debit card refused checkout at a supermarket. After the cashier rebooted the card reader machine, it ate a hundred bucks from my account without confirming the purchase. When I…
Living in Asia I've seen: - People's account getting skimmed without much recourse - Bank/Wallet service being unavailable/down for hours - Money being debited into a black whole when transferring or paying, taking days or weeks to be refunded. Resulted in people being stranded, not being able to go home, not able to go to work, not being able to afford groceries, meal, medecine, rent... Absolute nightmare, removing…
Just my two cents to point out that this is in no way specific to a region or specific bank/government. This is a widespread problem when we let government/banks have control over our lives and means of survival.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I am always amazed at how often people in the US mention cheques. Banking in the US is like going back in time 20 years. Even when I flew through Dallas and LAX during the height of COVID I had to hand my credit card over for someone to swipe, then pickup a pen that thousands of others had touched to sign a piece of paper. I've been tapping to pay exclusively for years and forgot about all that ancient stuff.
I assume you're using a foreign credit card? I haven't signed for a credit card transaction in close to decade.
I've seen stores stay open in a power outage with clever uses of extension cords running out to vehicles, enough to power the cash register and a few led lights. These stores were able to easily sell groceries (before they perished) and non-perishable items via cash.
This twitter thread might be a bit extreme, but it raises interesting points ( https://twitter.com/punk6529/status/1494444624630403083?lang... ). Basically, if you are not allowed to spend money (transact) then you are really not able to exercise your other rights. And if everything was cashless there is an actual risk of Gov or BigBank having the power to stop you transacting completely. It has happened in 1st world…
> I'd love to go cashless then go cashless & don't encroach nor impose your wishes on others
Our current society has too high a fraction of pro-jackboot types in it for that to be a tractable solution.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Outside the US, "accidental US Persons" may not be able to have a bank account. These are people who are not US citizens and have no real ties to the US, but are nevertheless considered to be US Persons by the US, which means they are required to file taxes. The US has no way to enforce that directly of course, but it can require banks who want to do business with the US (which is every bank in the world) to report o…
This kind of abusive extraterritorial law is exactly why the USA needs dissolved / divided into smaller countries. The sooner the better. The only reason I don't advocate for it constantly is that Russia and China are far more dangerous. But I think the future state of the world needs to be one where country size is limited by international law to assure there's always somewhere for individuals to escape to (nearly i…
This twitter thread might be a bit extreme, but it raises interesting points ( https://twitter.com/punk6529/status/1494444624630403083?lang... ). Basically, if you are not allowed to spend money (transact) then you are really not able to exercise your other rights. And if everything was cashless there is an actual risk of Gov or BigBank having the power to stop you transacting completely. It has happened in 1st world…
I'd raise the opposite point: for every reaction there is counterreaction. Going cashless will inevitably become a major boost for crypto and will greatly help detach crypto from fiat, becoming a major facilitator of illicit transactions of all kinds, to the point that people will stop seeing breaking the law as anything objectionable, destroying the very notion of law and order. People should be permitted to do less…
This is already the case in the tax brackets that are too far down there for most of HN to have any familiarity with.
People there don't just think "oh it's the law, better blindly lick the boot" when they encounter a legal requirement. They think "what's the fine, what's the enforcement mechanism, is this a serious law or just a suggestion I can skirt as long as I am reasonable?".
If you never leave the "good school district" you bought into you'd never know.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd raise the opposite point: for every reaction there is counterreaction. Going cashless will inevitably become a major boost for crypto and will greatly help detach crypto from fiat, becoming a major facilitator of illicit transactions of all kinds, to the point that people will stop seeing breaking the law as anything objectionable, destroying the very notion of law and order. People should be permitted to do less…
>to the point that people will stop seeing breaking the law as anything objectionable, destroying the very notion of law and order. This is already the case in the tax brackets that are too far down there for most of HN to have any familiarity with. People there don't just think "oh it's the law, better blindly lick the boot" when they encounter a legal requirement. They think "what's the fine, what's the enforcement…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is the perfect moment to mention ISO 8601 and RFC 3339.
I started using 8601 without even thinking about it for one simple reason. Alphabetical sorting just works with YYYYmmdd So for example, log20220804.txt https://xkcd.com/1179/ At the very least, use four digit years, not 22 for 2022. > ISO 8601 was published on 06/05/88 and most recently amended on 12/01/04.
This twitter thread might be a bit extreme, but it raises interesting points ( https://twitter.com/punk6529/status/1494444624630403083?lang... ). Basically, if you are not allowed to spend money (transact) then you are really not able to exercise your other rights. And if everything was cashless there is an actual risk of Gov or BigBank having the power to stop you transacting completely. It has happened in 1st world…
No, it wasn't an emergency, it was a bunch of angry truckers, outdoors.
Cutting off banking to some of those who supported them with a donation was a direct political threat to everyone, a highly authoritarian response.