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Uncut Currency

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201–210 of 421 posts

Re: Uncut Currency

#201
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's instagram. Slight tangent: the YouTube comments used to be famous for being a vile cesspit. Then Google changed something, and now they are full of positivity. Often too full.

>Often too full. Eh. Yeah. I posted a comment on a urban design video questioning the cost they gave for car ownership and the fact that they did not value the extra time it takes to use transit. Bam. Comment removed. Apparently the channel is able to moderate comments that don't fit their mentality

It may have been the channel owner, or more likely it may have been YouTube itself.

There have been a few discussions over at level1techs where people thought they thought the channel was moderating them for some strange reason, only to turn out it’s YouTube: https://forum.level1techs.com/t/l1t-youtube-shadowban-shadow...

More than once I’ve made a comment, went to edit a spelling mistake, and got an error on save because my completely unobjectionable comment was removed 10 seconds after posting.

YouTube has a horrible comment automation wordfilter/AI that will silently steamroll comments in a way that makes Reddit and 4chan mods seem rational. The channel owners don’t even see the comments (and last I checked, they don’t show up in your comment history either)

YouTube comments are vapid, in part because anything high effort/quality is likely to get deleted.

Re: Uncut Currency

#202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I’m really worried about what exactly? The places where cash are feasible to be used - in person transactions - aren’t the places where I would worry about government funding out what I’m doing. Yes I know about regressive states and tracking women who might be pregnant to “protect the unborn”.

Denial is a common coping mechanism about the ever growing corporate surveillance state and all the ways its power may (and thus eventually will) be wielded to further economically disenfranchise most people.

So yes big corp is going to go out of its way to make it harder for people to give it money?

Re: Uncut Currency

#203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are very few places in the US that up charge for credit card transactions I actually see it quite often here in the Twin Cities at small stores, bars, restaurants. A 1~3% discount for cash. > The merchant gets all except for a 2% fee when you don’t use cash. Cash handling also has cost - theft both from employees and outside actors - too. I've asked quite a few merchants that take both whether they have a pre…

> I actually see it quite often here in the Twin Cities at small stores, bars, restaurants. A 1~3% discount for cash. For reference, I have a card that gives me 3 points back for all restaurants and another card that gives me 2 points back for all other purchases. Doing the simplest thing possible and transferring those points to Delta for flights nets me 1.3% for each point meaning I will at least get 2.6% back on g…

Those points don't come from nowhere, they come from the business you're buying from. For local businesses, I'd rather I keep 1% and the business keeps 2%, than Visa takes 3% from the business and gives me 1.5% back.

Re: Uncut Currency

#204
post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rely on what that couldn't be better served by $1 coins?

What in the world would a $1 coin be better than a bill for? Making a blackjack to ease the handover of $1 bills?

Coins last much longer in circulation than bills, a coin can last decades while a bill only lasts a few years so some estimates put the yearly savings at 500-700 million a year in printing, paper, etc costs saved. It's worked just fine in other places they just had the courage to phase out printing of paper bills to force the issue. People would adapt quickly given no option but the soft handed approach basically guarantees people won't encounter the new coins regularly.

Re: Uncut Currency

#205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I actually see it quite often here in the Twin Cities at small stores, bars, restaurants. A 1~3% discount for cash. For reference, I have a card that gives me 3 points back for all restaurants and another card that gives me 2 points back for all other purchases. Doing the simplest thing possible and transferring those points to Delta for flights nets me 1.3% for each point meaning I will at least get 2.6% back on g…

[flagged]

https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/credit-cards/credit-cards...

People spend more money and tip higher when they use credit cards than cash….

Re: Uncut Currency

#206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm shocked someone would pay $500 for an erroneously cut $1 bill.

Just because it's listed at $500, doesn't mean someone will pay that.

You underestimate what people pay for. I fall into the same trap though.

Re: Uncut Currency

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rely on what that couldn't be better served by $1 coins?

Three problems: 1. Switching costs. There are a ton of vending machines and other automated stuff that takes dollar bills but not coins. You can say “oh they’d switch”, and maybe, but they don’t want to because it’s expense and complexity for little/no benefit. 2. Critical mass. Similar problem: nobody will invest in supporting dollar coins as long as their customers don’t use dollar coins. Customers won’t use them b…

With that mindset, you’re not going to accomplish anything at all. The same stagnation occurs with the switch from imperial units to metric.

If modernising things is so scary you better not do it, other people will force the change on you, for better or worse, but you’re out of the loop.

Re: Uncut Currency

#208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I actually see it quite often here in the Twin Cities at small stores, bars, restaurants. A 1~3% discount for cash. For reference, I have a card that gives me 3 points back for all restaurants and another card that gives me 2 points back for all other purchases. Doing the simplest thing possible and transferring those points to Delta for flights nets me 1.3% for each point meaning I will at least get 2.6% back on g…

Those points don't come from nowhere, they come from the business you're buying from. For local businesses, I'd rather I keep 1% and the business keeps 2%, than Visa takes 3% from the business and gives me 1.5% back.

And people spend more when using credit cards than paying cash…

https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/credit-cards/credit-cards...

Re: Uncut Currency

#209
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US has last partially defaulted on its currency in 1971, surely a change of the design is possible too.

> surely a change of the design is possible too It's changed plenty of times [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_d...

The printed design has remained the same but the form factor has been pretty static for the last century or so. Things like bill readers are a big reason for that once they appeared it became a lot harder to swap around bill shapes.

Re: Uncut Currency

#210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's way easier (for some people) to go to the ATM once a month and then have a physical pile of money you're using, ams physically see how much you're spending and adjust habits. A digital card that looks the same all month when you pull it out of your wallet has no such quality and is a basically scam on certain kinds of people to get them to spend more money.

When you use a debit card, the amount is immediately deducted from your checking account and you can check to see how much you have left by logging into your account.

That's true, but totally dismissive of what works and doesn't work for some people. A number in some app (that I annoyingly have to 2fa into) which I have to check on a debit card balance isn't at all helpful if you don't actually check it. For the obsessive smartphone app checker, I'm sure it works, but ask all your (close) friends what their current credit card balance is. I bet no one is closer than $100 and some probably aren't even within $500.

By the time the card fails a transaction and is getting denied because the card, I'm already at the whatever store and have to give up the purchase in a hugely embarrassing way. A physical bit of cash that you have in your wallet and at home is, well, physically present and simply feels light when you're running low. A debit or credit card with a number in some app does not do that.

2fa is a large blocker here, and while it's understandable from a security practice (so I'm not any to turn that off), it's enough friction to not be convenient, and that's assuming you configure the banking app on your phone because you're not scared of attacks to your phone SMS (which you should be).

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