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Cash only in Berlin

thecritic.co.uk

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Re: Cash only in Berlin

#41

Post by Febra33 »

ttepasse wrote: post #39
Febra33 wrote: post #11

The author of this article seems to make some very obscure points here. First and foremost: "You have to work pretty hard to find a bar serving traditional Germanic beverages and food." What does the author define as "Germanic" beverages and food? As a german that has lived for some time in Berlin I'm quite sure that there are more than enough places to grab "Germanic" beverages and food at. They just don't stand out…

The Critic is a slightly upmarket alt-right publication for establishing more culture war content and contrarianism in the British media landscape. Co-Founded by a strategist of the „European Research Group“, that far right Brexit group in the Tories, and funded by conservative millionaire donors as part of what some describe as pundit welfare strategy - financing enough weird cranks and their media projects to influ…

I could definitely feel the propagandistic nature of this piece of "journalism".

Re: Cash only in Berlin

#42

Post by Towaway69 »

kbrannigan wrote: post #35
cammikebrown wrote: post #7

Kind of weird to see people so proud of never using cash. It’s fine to prefer a card but to stop people from using cash altogether scares me. And of course the argument here is that criminals use cash which is pretty hilarious.

Look at the comments on this post. If you prefer cash you must be a criminal. An ex girlfriend made me feel bad for paying cash at a restaurant, because people would think we're drug dealers. A legal, government backed way to pay for good and services. Is culturally frowned upon or discouraged. What a world

It's the same wierd argument why they got rid of 500€ note - only criminals use them for drug deals.

As if the drug trade slowed because they banned the note. No, the trade will continue as long as there are buyers and stuff for humans to trade.

Re: Cash only in Berlin

#43

Post by Xylakant »

w-m wrote: post #6

There is probably a majority support for keeping cash as a privacy-friendly method of paying in Germany, as an addition to card-paying. But at least in my little bubble in Berlin, everybody hates the cash-only places. When I go to lunch with my colleagues, we might be hitting one of the restaurants that are cash-only, and every time at least one person of the group won't have any cash on them, and have to borrow some…

Back in the days when I first moved to Berlin, my landlord commented on a motorbike dealer with the words “we didn’t buy there, they were too friendly.” That’s Berlin.

Re: Cash only in Berlin

#44

Post by itsyaboi »

Febra33 wrote: post #11

The author of this article seems to make some very obscure points here. First and foremost: "You have to work pretty hard to find a bar serving traditional Germanic beverages and food." What does the author define as "Germanic" beverages and food? As a german that has lived for some time in Berlin I'm quite sure that there are more than enough places to grab "Germanic" beverages and food at. They just don't stand out…

What a weak interpretation.

> The author of this article seems to make some very obscure points here. First and foremost: "You have to work pretty hard to find a bar serving traditional Germanic beverages and food." What does the author define as "Germanic" beverages and food? As a german that has lived for some time in Berlin I'm quite sure that there are more than enough places to grab "Germanic" beverages and food at. They just don't stand out much. [EDIT: For those who don't know, Germanic doesn't mean German. Germanic means something different]

You yourself admit that these places "don't stand out much". Does this not support the authors point that he had to work hard to find these places?

> I also like to mention that many places prefer cash only in Germany for tax evasion reasons, not because of some made-up "grassroots pushback" against the big, scary globalism of.. foreign restaurants. (???)

Private payment processors (like MasterCard and Visa) can for any and no reason refuse their services. Ridiculing and dismissing the author's concern by pulling out the "big scary globalism" straw man is disingenuous.

> Another obscure point is that "eager-looking under 18s try to get in [beer breweries], only to be politely turned away without any fracas." which is again, a very stupid point to make, since you are allowed to buy beer at 16 in Germany already.

18 and older for beverages over 1.2% ABV (which is most beers).

> Then he quotes a person of supposedly Eritrean descent saying “But the people coming now, they don’t learn German and they don’t want to work.” which sounds pretty much like your average alt-right talking point, that has been disproven over and over again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_fallacy

Re: Cash only in Berlin

#45

Post by [deleted] »

Febra33 wrote: post #11

The author of this article seems to make some very obscure points here. First and foremost: "You have to work pretty hard to find a bar serving traditional Germanic beverages and food." What does the author define as "Germanic" beverages and food? As a german that has lived for some time in Berlin I'm quite sure that there are more than enough places to grab "Germanic" beverages and food at. They just don't stand out…

[deleted]

Re: Cash only in Berlin

#46

Post by pfoof »

nibbleshifter wrote: post #8
KingOfCoders wrote: post #3

Often this is for tax evasion. There has been a discussion for over a decade now with ever new proposals from the IRS to halt cash only tax evasion in shops and restaurants. Recently a famous cook was sentenced to years in prison as he took $5M from the cash register over several years. One criminal organization alone sold cash register software that lead to an estimated $500M in tax losses.

In Germany its a cultural thing. People just prefer the option of privacy.

There are (or were) places in Berlin that accept Bitcoin.

Re: Cash only in Berlin

#47

Post by jeltz »

sneak wrote: post #30
xeromal wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of businesses here in LA stopped accepting cash due to COVID and never resumed cash payments. Kind of a bummer.

It's pretty straightforward to make oneself a right nuisance at these sorts of places when service/food has already been rendered: just leave your cards at home. I've yet to find a retail place that wouldn't take cash payment after I'd already eaten. Usually one of the staff just puts it on their card.

Sounds like a good way to get banned. Yes, it will work a couple of times but do not except to be able to visit a place more than once or twice.

Re: Cash only in Berlin

#48

Post by MisterBastahrd »

vikingerik wrote: post #27
Febra33 wrote: post #11

The author of this article seems to make some very obscure points here. First and foremost: "You have to work pretty hard to find a bar serving traditional Germanic beverages and food." What does the author define as "Germanic" beverages and food? As a german that has lived for some time in Berlin I'm quite sure that there are more than enough places to grab "Germanic" beverages and food at. They just don't stand out…

What Americans think is German is often mostly the Bavarian stereotypes. Pretzels, sausage, lederhosen, Oktoberfest. It's common for Americans to be surprised when they find Berlin or Frankfurt isn't full of that stuff. The same happens in reverse: some Europeans think America is the land of cowboys and guns and fireworks, but that's really more like just Texas, and when they go to New York they're surprised by seein…

The article was written by a Londoner for a British audience. The man literally served in the British armed forces and didn't emigrate to the US until the 2010s. Not sure what America has to do with any of this.

Re: Cash only in Berlin

#49

Post by lxgr »

flohofwoe wrote: post #13
nibbleshifter wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Germany its a cultural thing. People just prefer the option of privacy.

Then people should be free to use cash, but there's no need to lock out people who prefer card payment (I also prefer cash, but mainly because I'm old-fashioned). But if a restaurant has a sign in the door "no card payment due to technical problems" for years, it's probably neither a technical nor a cultural/ideological issue ;)

I've seen terminals "temporarily broken" for many months in Berlin.

Taxi drivers are supposedly notorious for having terminals (which are mandatory, as far as I know) that often break – and mysteriously start working again once you reveal that you do not have any cash on you as a passenger.

Re: Cash only in Berlin

#50

Post by lxgr »

jobs_throwaway wrote: post #25
numlock86 wrote: post #10

If a merchant, especially in Germany, asks for cash, it's for tax evasion. It's as simple as that. And no, I don't care about your anecdotes how that is not true for your particular case. A small number of exceptions exist of course.

Any evidence behind that wild claim?

Just look closely at your next few receipts. Chances are pretty high that some of them will say something like "Testrechnung" (test invoice) or "Keine Rechnung!" (not a receipt). That's the restaurant preparing to not report that income to the tax authorities.

Many European countries have made certified/financial cash registers mandatory to combat this, but I believe in Germany they are still optional.

The issue is so widespread, I remember hearing that the tax authorities fully expect some industries to only report parts of their income and have made peace with that fact. Mandatory reporting would apparently disrupt the economy too much...

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