The article is very superficial about cost. It's not just about money, it's about freedom and democracy. 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.
> when you are riding the happy path. You've mistyped "when you submit to the correct groupthink."
It's that of course. But also: when there is not an outage, when your situation has a well known good solution, and so on.
> when you are riding the happy path. You've mistyped "when you submit to the correct groupthink."
It doesn't have to be that dramatic. Sure, abolishing cash is problematic from a civil rights perspective, but a simple thing like a payment major processor having a two-day outage would be disastrous in a cash-less society. Many proponents of abolishing cash seem to think that one can avoid outages by simply requiring that payment processors aren't allowed to have outages. Unfortunately, outages tend to happen even…
Indeed. Or even just economic crashes. If you have cashless society, the average human cannot easily remove it from the banking system in case the gov pulls out a Greek plan.
This also happens above the HN tax bracket too. It's only the professional class that seems to follow the rules like this.
In US, maybe. One thing i love about Europe is that people here tend to really follow law to the letter, and actually know it. And consult with lawyers in any case that seems in doubt. When vast majority of people are like that, it's no longer "boot licking", it's for everyone's benefit. It's only stupid when everyone else but you ignores the law.
Haha. Where are you living? :)
(I am in Romania, still EU)
In China, even though the gov said that it is illegal to refuse using the cash. Most of the small shops stop receiving that. They do not have enough cash to give change. As for me, the only problem is that when your phone is dead, you can barely purchase anything. So I always carry a credit card. I do have some cash at home for emergencies. But it was already locked there for several years. The only reason when you n…
>But that's the point: people will not be able to buy a loaf of bread if they don't meet with the system's approval. ... Seriously, your argument is that privacy violations will cause people to starve? not the fact that there is a currency monopoly and you can't issue your own currency and start your own regional economy from scratch if the currency is concentrated in the hands of rich people and hence cannot be used…
Were you able before to issue your own currency and start your own regional economy from scratch? Where and when?
Local alternative currency systems[0] have existed for a long time in many cities. They're small and fringe, but they exist. Amsterdam, for example, has NOPPES[1]. But these systems are not threatened by electronic payment systems.
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…
Bitcoin solves this
I wish it did, but it doesn't. Bitcoin is way too volatile and unreliable for serious use, and is mostly used as a questionable investment tool these days. And it's not compatible with the payment systems the rest of the world uses.
This also happens above the HN tax bracket too. It's only the professional class that seems to follow the rules like this.
In US, maybe. One thing i love about Europe is that people here tend to really follow law to the letter, and actually know it. And consult with lawyers in any case that seems in doubt. When vast majority of people are like that, it's no longer "boot licking", it's for everyone's benefit. It's only stupid when everyone else but you ignores the law.
That depends on the laws we're talking about. There is such a thing as a conscientious objector which you seem to not be familiar with, see Aaron Schwartz for a prime example.
In the US checks (cheques) are used mostly for significant transactions, because it acts as a contract. As a consumer you can easily get away with using electronic or credit/debit transactions for almost everything. However, some transactions over $5-10k are worth using checks. If you get a car loan, you don't need a check, but if you pay "cash" then a check is most likely preferred by you and the dealer. For house d…
> I'm sure there's a grandma out there using checks at the grocery store Someone living in San Francisco excitedly! told me just 1-3 years ago that they could now use some 'photograph your check' feature on their mobile - not 100% sure where the checks were used, but said person was not used to using checks where they came from.. sounds kinda widespread.
I still pay my rent every month per check, and only per check (the landlord insists, I don't mind). I also do occasionally receive checks for very insignificant amounts of money in the mail, e.g. few cents back from insurance or stuff like that. That's always a bit funny.