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Canada 'sleepwalking' into cashless society, consumer advocates warn

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Re: Canada 'sleepwalking' into cashless society, consumer advocates warn

#241

Post by s1artibartfast »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #240
gruez wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's possible to be against the protesters and/or think that they're unacceptably annoying, without trying to compare your plight to innocent civilians who were killed/raped by enemy soldiers.

Exactly. There's a force continuum at play. Truckers take over the city and make life a living hell for thousands of innocent residents? Lock their bank accounts and starve them out, and (ideally) prosecute the perpetrators alongside anyone who donated to them. Soldiers raping and killing civilians? Blow them to kingdom come if possible (it's a war, after all). Otherwise, identify them, convene a tribunal after the w…

Still hugely disproportionate.

If someone is non-violent protesting in a location they arent allowed to be, the appropriate response it to arrest and move them, not lock their bank accounts and starve their families.

Re: Canada 'sleepwalking' into cashless society, consumer advocates warn

#242

Post by JacobThreeThree »

sbarre wrote: post #95
lupusreal wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Can you cite an example of where Canadian protests by "lefties" took over a major public road for weeks on end, and disrupted the lives of thousands of citizens, harassing them, depriving them of sleep, preventing their ability to get to/from their homes and businesses? I can tell you're already very convinced of who was right and wrong in this and you're trying to make this a left vs right thing, but there are limit…

Here's one where the protesters blockaded rail lines for months causing layoffs and many millions in lost revenue.

Why didn't the government shut down these protestors bank accounts?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/via-rail-layoffs-1.5468617

Re: Canada 'sleepwalking' into cashless society, consumer advocates warn

#243

Post by nick_ »

1over137 wrote: post #215
nick_ wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can tell when people have absolutely no idea what they're talking about when they think downtown cores are where rich people live.

Outside the USA, including Canada, downtown cores are where (many, but not all) rich people live.

I live in Toronto and have been to Ottawa many times, as well as tons of other Canadian and American cities. Downtown cores have some middle class folks in them, usually in somewhat luxurious condo buildings. But in no way does the interpretation of "where all the rich Canadians live" being downtown Ottawa make any sense.

Re: Canada 'sleepwalking' into cashless society, consumer advocates warn

#244

Post by hypeatei »

I see a lot of people saying that cash increases freedom because the government / banks / card companies can't instantly shut off access. But, if you're being targeted and don't already have massive cash reserves, you're not going to be able to pull out cash from your account anyway.

If the authorities want you sanctioned and oppressed, they will use a method that transcends any specific technology or tangible item: the justice system.

Re: Canada 'sleepwalking' into cashless society, consumer advocates warn

#245

Post by nick_ »

adamiscool8 wrote: post #195
nick_ wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Respectfully, it is insane to not recognize the discrete similarities listed, and moreover, how many genocides have their roots in purported "public health measures".

I feel you are exemplifying the typical conspiratorial thinking patterns. You might as well have asked me to concede based on the fact that there are technically similarities between vaccine mandates and the Yellow Badge. I mean you must be insane not to recognize how they're basically the same thing, right? /s

Re: Canada 'sleepwalking' into cashless society, consumer advocates warn

#246

Post by Dig1t »

sbarre wrote: post #95
lupusreal wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Can you cite an example of where Canadian protests by "lefties" took over a major public road for weeks on end, and disrupted the lives of thousands of citizens, harassing them, depriving them of sleep, preventing their ability to get to/from their homes and businesses? I can tell you're already very convinced of who was right and wrong in this and you're trying to make this a left vs right thing, but there are limit…

"COVID-denying racists."

Have you seen videos or pictures of the protestors? They were all different races, there wasn't an ounce of "racism" anywhere in there.

Re: Canada 'sleepwalking' into cashless society, consumer advocates warn

#247

Post by JSDevOps »

anttiharju wrote: post #125
janice1999 wrote: post #6

Governments really need to break the Visa and Mastercard Duopoly. Not mentioned in this article, but certainly related, was the Canadian governments unprecedented step to freeze hundreds of bank accounts of protestors during COVID protests using their Emergencies Act. While I couldn't be more politically removed from the protestors, using a legislative power envisioned for war like conditions to personally ruin prote…

You may be interested in reading about digital euro https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/digital_euro/html/index.en.ht... Although it's nothing concrete yet afaik

Or the digital pound.

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/the-digital-pound

Re: Canada 'sleepwalking' into cashless society, consumer advocates warn

#248

Post by KTallguy »

frellus wrote: post #31

Same is happening aggressively in Japan. It's quite sad.

There are a lot of cashless options but many places still only take cash. There’s a bakery in building that opened right when COVID started and they’re strictly cash only. Whenever friends and relatives visit they’re always stunned.

Re: Canada 'sleepwalking' into cashless society, consumer advocates warn

#249

Post by wenc »

matthewdgreen wrote: post #109
mattmanser wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's fees for handling cash as well. They're just less obvious. In the old days, those armoured vans used to have to go to stores every single day at peak times (Xmas, etc.). Plus you've got to pay for bags of change to be delivered. You've got to pay for a safe, insurance for your safe, plus a hard limit that safe is allowed to hold. If you're going to go over you need to request an on demand pickup from the cash…

I worked in a smaller, independent guitar store for a few years in the 90s. We received enough cash and checks that once a day someone would have to walk over to the “night deposit” slot and toss a bag in. Our cash handling cost was equal to my salary for the 30 minutes it took me to make that walk, plus the risk that I would get mugged ($0 lost over a few years.) Often the owner would rake out enough to cover his sp…

> Credit cards, on the other hand, can easily run you 30% on a $5 transaction here in the US, due to the unjustifiable fixed + percentage structure. Maybe it’s a little better in Canada.

Are you sure it's 30%? Credit card fees are usually in the order of 3% + minimum fixed charge. Stripe is 2.9% + 30 cents.

There are some extra charges for manually entered cards, international cards, etc. but even if you max that out it's still only 11.2%, not 30%.

https://stripe.com/pricing

Re: Canada 'sleepwalking' into cashless society, consumer advocates warn

#250

Post by pasabagi »

throw0101b wrote: post #74
pasabagi wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's often pretty hard to do public protest without breaking some kind of law, even if you do everything you're supposed to. I'm not a fan of the truckers (the loud horns were totally infuriating) but the fundamental problem was that the police didn't want to move them on, not that they were breaking the law.

> It's often pretty hard to do public protest without breaking some kind of law, even if you do everything you're supposed to. All movements start small, and if you want to have your movement be a success it involves bringing more and more people over to your point of view / side. One can be disruptive in that you hold a rally or march to raise awareness, and be seen (in numbers) by folks on the street. Marches / par…

I don't know: as I understood it, the trucker thing was basically about showing that they occupy a strategic position in the Canadian economy. It's like the old rail strike idea: it doesn't matter if everybody hates you, if the trains aren't running, then the government has to make a deal, otherwise the economy collapses.

I don't think they actually did hold that strategic position (if the police had, you know, done their jobs, they wouldn't be blocking the roads for long), but if you know that the police won't do that (because they always baby right wing protestors) it makes some sense. And that was a lot of the rhetoric from the truckers about themselves: I guess we'd just come out of the pandemic with all these sudden realizations about essential workers, which definitely included truckers, and there's often (but probably not in the trucker's case) a connection between being 'essential' and 'occupying a strategically advantageous position'.

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