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Swedes turn against cashlessness

theguardian.com

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Re: Swedes turn against cashlessness

#291

Post by stale2002 »

freedomben wrote: post #257
stale2002 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It isn't even the Keynsian model! People misinterprete it to this basterdized version a lot though. The real Keynsian model is that we should spend more in bad times and LESS in good times to even out business cycles. People always forget that second part... It was NEVER about spending for the sake of spending or wasting money on things that we don't need to help the "economy". People misinterpret it to the point whe…

Interesting, I'll definitely look into this further. If you have any links I'd appreciate it, but no worries if you don't have them handy (I can google).

My recommendation is to read the literature from Keynes himself.

It was always about business cycles, IE SAVE money in good times, so it can be spent in bad times.

Re: Swedes turn against cashlessness

#292

Post by greggarious »

henrikschroder wrote: post #266
nearmuse wrote: post #180

Looks like most people in this comments section are afraid to pass for a luddite if they don't support cashless transactions. But the argument about centralized system watching every payment you make is still valid. Why are people so eager to jump off something and irreversibly lose its good properties (anonymity, decentralization and reliability in case of analogue money) and that just for the sake of minor comfort?…

The best feature of cash is that it allows you to make anonymous purchases, and to make illegal purchases. "But I have nothing to hide! I don't want to buy illegal stuff!" Not right now, maybe. But who decides what's illegal and what's not? A cashless society is one more step towards turn-key fascism, which is why it has to be opposed. Also worth noting is that the chairman of the central bank of Sweden basically tol…

You can have valid reasons to want to hide legal purchases. Alcohol is a legal drug, but how will you feel when your credit card company sells your purchase history to some analytics firm that deems you high risk for health issues, sells that data to your insurer, and your rates go up?

When I go to a bar or a McDonalds I pay cash for this reason.

Re: Swedes turn against cashlessness

#293

Post by greggarious »

reaperducer wrote: post #209
mistermann wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People must still use cash to buy drugs, sex, and that sort of thing no?

Not necessarily. Not even in Nevada. If you go to a legal brothel in Nevada, it doesn't show up on your credit card with the brothel's name. It shows up as some bland innocuous looking generic company name like "ARB, Inc."

That might help hide from a prying spouse, but I assume the data brokers know what "ARB, Inc." means...

Re: Swedes turn against cashlessness

#294

Post by moogly »

INTPenis wrote: post #187
imartin2k wrote: post #153

I live in Sweden. No one I know uses cash. I haven't had the need for nor used cash for years. Even if headlines often are overblown, this feels particularly misleading, as it implies that there would be some bigger trend. Considering that many people only read headlines, I'd support a movement for becoming more accurate even with headlines. "In Sweden, some worry about the cashless society" would be way more apt.

You're missing the point though. We know Sweden is cashless, I live there too and the article isn't about Sweden becoming cashless. It's about an opposing opinion to the cashless trend that we're already used to. You might not know anyone who shares the opinion but I do, several of them. Personally I share the opinion on an ideological level but practically I'm just too lazy to make a real change in my life. I have f…

> Personally I share the opinion on an ideological level but practically I'm just too lazy to make a real change in my life.

I 100% share this sentiment. The only times I use cash is when I travel to the US.

Re: Swedes turn against cashlessness

#295

Post by alphaalpha101 »

lainga wrote: post #245
drexlspivey wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would it be free? Shouldn't you pay for the service?

Why shouldn't it be free? Would you accept an inescapable 0.3% tax on everything you bought?

I pay an inescapable 15% goods and services tax on everything I buy. So yes.

Re: Swedes turn against cashlessness

#296

Post by einhverfr »

imartin2k wrote: post #227
einhverfr wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just moved from Sweden. I used cash frequently, but not in large quantities. Cashlessness is helpful in some cases, but a burden in others. It is true you can get by without cash in Sweden but you cannot get by without a card, reasonably. But many of the corner markets have minimum payments by card, and so often having smallish money in cash is a very good thing. Additionally the farmer markets in the town squares…

Hehe I did the opposite, moved from Cash-obsessed Germany to cashfree Sweden. Whenever I travel back to Germany (or other countries), I take a special, big wallet with me, knowing that I have to put some bills inside.

Interesting how much money, despite our view of it as numbers, is deeply tied to culture.

Re: Swedes turn against cashlessness

#298

Post by zodiac »

mrb wrote: post #157
kojeovo wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Transactions still have to be approved by the network. ATM it's pretty slow. And many coins have one pool with majority of the hash rate --> not so decentralized

« ATM it's pretty slow » For most cases you don't have to wait for a confirmation. Accepting a typical non-RBF 0-conf transaction is safer than accepting a credit card payment, because it is trivial to reverse a CC charge, but difficult to suppress a 0-conf transaction sitting in the mempool of thousands of Bitcoin nodes. « many coins have one pool with majority » It is not the case for most popular coins: BTC, ETH,…

That's because rejecting RBF transactions without making it part of consensus is not incentive compatible

Re: Swedes turn against cashlessness

#299

Post by Thiez »

greggarious wrote: post #292
henrikschroder wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best feature of cash is that it allows you to make anonymous purchases, and to make illegal purchases. "But I have nothing to hide! I don't want to buy illegal stuff!" Not right now, maybe. But who decides what's illegal and what's not? A cashless society is one more step towards turn-key fascism, which is why it has to be opposed. Also worth noting is that the chairman of the central bank of Sweden basically tol…

You can have valid reasons to want to hide legal purchases. Alcohol is a legal drug, but how will you feel when your credit card company sells your purchase history to some analytics firm that deems you high risk for health issues, sells that data to your insurer, and your rates go up? When I go to a bar or a McDonalds I pay cash for this reason.

> how will you feel when your credit card company sells your purchase history to some analytics firm that deems you high risk for health issues, sells that data to your insurer, and your rates go up?

I feel confused that you have this very accurate description of a problem ("companies sell your personal data") and your solution is "we must hide from the companies" instead of "we must enact laws to restrict dealing in personal data".

Re: Swedes turn against cashlessness

#300

Post by Redklao »

dang wrote: post #200
Redklao wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean your fellow Finns that are the largest group of immigrants and that have been overrepresented in crime statistics?

Please don't respond to a comment that breaks the site guidelines by breaking them yourself. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

My comment does not break any guideline. Your comment, however, does.
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