Sweden was never a "utopia".
Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia
181–190 of 628 posts
Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia
#182Racism! Stong word, but this is what the Swedish cashless society is: indirect racism. Those at the margins of society are excluded from participating in society because they don't have Swedish bank accounts or Swedish credit cards. Many clubs and pubs require that to enter. Indirectly, this means that non-Swedish (non-white) people don't get into the club. Not direct racism, but indirect (the outcome is the same, no…
What's stopping non-white immigrants (presumably residents of Sweden staying there for a nontrivial time) from getting a Swedish bank account? If there are significant barriers to that then the "getting into a club issue" is a trifle compared to the broader participation in society. E.g. how are they getting paid for their work if almost no legal employers will pay salaries in cash?
Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia
#183No mention about the privacy implications of having every transaction tracked? We're already at a point where pretty much every transaction is tracked and a cashless society makes being tracked a requirement to function in society. Is privacy even a topic of discussion with governments looking to go cashless? I still try and pay with cash wherever possible, but many offline/physical stores often require a phone numbe…
It’s not a requirement. You don’t have to tell them.
Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia
#184Why does there need to be a separate government issued digital currency? Presumably all of the private accounts that people are currently using are measured in Kr already, and the banks already operate at fractional reserve so the actual paper doesn't exist. As an American, I make about one cash purchase a year, but that doesn't mean that I'm not spending US Dollars. It seems to me that calling digital money "e-krona…
I want to be able to move my swedish currecy around without relying on visa/MasterCard and preferably not even banks.
One solution is simply charging cards like public transit cards instead of using credit cards which are connected to an account.
That’s where a cryptocurrency is needed.
Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia
#185Racism! Stong word, but this is what the Swedish cashless society is: indirect racism. Those at the margins of society are excluded from participating in society because they don't have Swedish bank accounts or Swedish credit cards. Many clubs and pubs require that to enter. Indirectly, this means that non-Swedish (non-white) people don't get into the club. Not direct racism, but indirect (the outcome is the same, no…
Not necessarily aimed at white people, but also security-conscious people as well. I am white, and feel excluded due to not having Swish at many events where everyone is "swish me this swish me that", and all go high horse "cash not accepted".
Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia
#186Racism! Stong word, but this is what the Swedish cashless society is: indirect racism. Those at the margins of society are excluded from participating in society because they don't have Swedish bank accounts or Swedish credit cards. Many clubs and pubs require that to enter. Indirectly, this means that non-Swedish (non-white) people don't get into the club. Not direct racism, but indirect (the outcome is the same, no…
What's stopping non-white immigrants (presumably residents of Sweden staying there for a nontrivial time) from getting a Swedish bank account? If there are significant barriers to that then the "getting into a club issue" is a trifle compared to the broader participation in society. E.g. how are they getting paid for their work if almost no legal employers will pay salaries in cash?
I think it may be a misconception from someone from e.g the US where there is a threshold for getting a bank account.
Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia
#187Why couldn't you send your friends crypto currency?
For the vast majority of people it would be a major inconvenience, requiring non-trivial time and effort to set up everything required to receive the equivalent of, say, $10 in crypto converted to the local currency in their bank account, which is the only place when it starts being usable money to them.
Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia
#188Racism! Stong word, but this is what the Swedish cashless society is: indirect racism. Those at the margins of society are excluded from participating in society because they don't have Swedish bank accounts or Swedish credit cards. Many clubs and pubs require that to enter. Indirectly, this means that non-Swedish (non-white) people don't get into the club. Not direct racism, but indirect (the outcome is the same, no…
What's stopping non-white immigrants (presumably residents of Sweden staying there for a nontrivial time) from getting a Swedish bank account? If there are significant barriers to that then the "getting into a club issue" is a trifle compared to the broader participation in society. E.g. how are they getting paid for their work if almost no legal employers will pay salaries in cash?
There is many borders, not just getting into Sweden, one of them is getting bank account, the other is getting a BankID, the third border is getting Swish, for example. For each, there is criteria and different requirements, and costs.
For me, I refuse to run non-free software on my computing devices, Swish is a non-free proprietary spy-ware. Just because of this decision, I am excluded and made feel like an outcast at social events where money is involved - such as splitting a bill at restaurant. Yet Im white, so I can politely tell my white friends to suck my dick if they refuse the cash I hand them. For an non-white immigrant, telling other people to suck it is not so easy.
Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia
#189The article makes Sweden into something it is not. First, Swedes are not as eager to adapt new technologies as it may seem from the text. Case in point, NFC is just arriving in the country and in one of the main grocery shops, that has its own bank as well, you can only use store cards this way. A small subset of cards are also still swipe-only. In all honesty, Poland seems like a better example of this as it is effe…
NFC terminals are growing at the same rate as NFC cards, but cards have a pretty long lifespan so my old debit card which is ~5 years old is still chip and pin, while my new credit card from the same bank is both chip+NFC.
I’m not going to go through the hassle (a few clicks) of replacing my card just to get NFC. The same goes for retailers, terminals get NFC on the next replacement.
Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia
#190No mention about the privacy implications of having every transaction tracked? We're already at a point where pretty much every transaction is tracked and a cashless society makes being tracked a requirement to function in society. Is privacy even a topic of discussion with governments looking to go cashless? I still try and pay with cash wherever possible, but many offline/physical stores often require a phone numbe…
Few actually require that information. Just say no thanks, and they continue without it.