Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Physical cash is dying–and you don't need to be a conspiracist to worry

prospectmagazine.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

401–410 of 498 posts

Re: Physical cash is dying–and you don't need to be a conspiracist to worry

#401

Post by multjoy »

pzo wrote: post #344
seszett wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - you take that cash immediately to a vending machine or supermarket auto-checkout that takes notes. The machine scans all notes it ingests and can match them to timings and purchase details. I can tell you they don't do that, at least for the systems I know in Europe. And for manual systems obviously the cashier doesn't record serials and match them to transactions.

How about money counting machines? Medium and bigger shops probably have those and if not they probably at least every few days bring cash to bank to deposit on their account. Remember supposedly most printers were printing some semi invisible serial codes - for tracking whistleblowers and leaks. Probably cannot easily prove that ATM or money counter machines manufactures are not doing something similar.

Money counting machines do it by weight. They're certainly not scanning and recording the serial numbers.

Re: Physical cash is dying–and you don't need to be a conspiracist to worry

#402

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

madsbuch wrote: post #241
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand. I was raised overseas, and am intimately familiar with non-US cultures. I love Scandinavian socialism, but I have also watched as US-style capitalism has permeated even the most resistant societies. The Internet, and the platform it provides for social contagion, are probably responsible for that. Additionally, it is easy to have socialism, with a relatively heterogeneous population, but nations like th…

I am curious, what do you mean with US-style capitalism? Denmark, and EU by extension, is far from perfect. But I do see less oligarchy-leaning tendencies in the EU vs. the US. and I don't see that this is currently changing, quite the opposite. My immediate understanding of US capitalism would be an oligarchic type of capitalism where regulation favour those with wealth already.

Basically, the "Greed is Good" school of capitalism. It's a fundamental personal attitude, as opposed to corporate position, or governmental ideology.

Very self-centered, self-absorbed, make sure that everyone else knows you're rich. You are only considered "successful," if you can display certain wealth tells.

That tends to breed certain behaviors; regardless of the society.

Re: Physical cash is dying–and you don't need to be a conspiracist to worry

#403

Post by gruez »

multjoy wrote: post #400
Espressosaurus wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

0.3% vs. 3-4%

Square will do you 1.75%, no contract, no fees and now you don't even need a physical reader as you can do contactless payment on your phone. You can get it lower with other providers if you negotiate right. Nobody is paying 4% for any cardholder-present transactions.

>Square will do you 1.75%, no contract, no fees

Where? A quick search on their website shows 2.6%: https://squareup.com/us/en/pricing#rates

Re: Physical cash is dying–and you don't need to be a conspiracist to worry

#404

Post by hnbear »

ghaff wrote: post #13
jason-phillips wrote: post #2

I live an hour or so outside of Austin and people still primarily write checks as that's the only acceptable payment method, along with cash. My new wife said, "Wait, why not just use Stripe? I'll tell them." I had to explain to her that one does not simply pull forward a society thirty years into the future. There is an incredible amount of cultural inertia to overcome. So I carry a lot of cash out here.

I use very little cash in MA. But checks are still pretty much the default for a lot of people doing various services for me. I can just leave a check for someone like my housekeeper. I could presumably make arrangements to pay in a different form (including cash) but why bother? And, in many cases, it's my bank actually "writing" the check and delivering it. I'd change if it became an aberration or weird to do but i…

In CT I use Venmo and Zelle to pay just about everyone. Cleaner, yard guy, electrician, plumber, handyman, etc

Everyone takes Zelle or Venmo.

Re: Physical cash is dying–and you don't need to be a conspiracist to worry

#405

Post by xadhominemx »

hackstack wrote: post #398
dr_dshiv wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems kind of like a scam, though, credit card rewards. I don’t know enough about it, I generally don’t like participating in those sorts of things. Do you have a ref on the 95%?

Let’s just take 95% as a true figure … first of all the 5% you don’t get back is a straight up loss. The rewards you get at the end of the month are fine (eg cash back) but you’ve missed out on earning interest on the money you “get back”

Card network fees (the part credit card users don't get back) are about the same for the European payment systems. For card users on net there is essentially no difference.

The interest argument of course is nonsense because the opportunity cost ia outweighed ~50x by the interest benefit you receive from the entire purchase going on credit vs just the 2% interchange.

Re: Physical cash is dying–and you don't need to be a conspiracist to worry

#406

Post by amelius »

el-salvador wrote: post #381
amelius wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, if you're living in a street with lots of criminal activity and money laundry operations, maybe you think differently about it.

This has happened to me while living and travelling in the Northern Triangle of Central America in the 2010s which at that time were the unsafest not-at-war countries of the world. Depending on the time of the day and location I just ran errands with only the smallest amount of cash needed and an old phone. And sometimes I kept an emergency $1 bill to pay the bus in my socks . If I was robbed, the most they could get…

Yes this is one way it shows. Another is that there can be shops in your street that have no apparent viable business, but they exist only for the laundering. They are run by poor people. Every once in a while the real criminal (boss) shows up. It can cause all sorts of problems in good neighborhoods. Without cash, these problems would not exist.

Re: Physical cash is dying–and you don't need to be a conspiracist to worry

#407

Post by alkonaut »

ACS_Solver wrote: post #325
alkonaut wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a real concern, but even if I keep cash for use in an emergency, stores and banks would also need to be prepared to handle cash in an emergency and I doubt they are today (since no one uses cash). Telling people they need to use a less convenient payment method only to keep it alive for an emergency also seems doomed to fail. The correct solution is probably to force banks and critical stores to always accept…

> That’s another one of those US-isms that blow peoples minds: that dollar bills of any age are legal tender. That's not so impressive when the National Bank of Sweden for instance is legally obliged to exchange any banknotes it issued for current ones, regardless of their age. You can theoretically get current money in exchange for a 17th century obligation or certificate issued by the bank, though even early 20th c…

They do, but it's a hassle and means people are reluctant to keep money in their mattresses (which might be a good thing). It's unfortunate when it comes to resilience however. Realizing after the big two-week-blackout that the 10x SEK500 bills you stuffed away for this emergency are invalid and would need to be posted to the central bank before you can eat, is not a good experience.

Re: Physical cash is dying–and you don't need to be a conspiracist to worry

#408

Post by dpkirchner »

yaky wrote: post #113

The other day, I paid cash at the local Chinese-American place, and the owner said "thank you for using cash, it helps small businesses", which took me by surprise. So I asked how much card processors charge, and she went on a bit of a rant, listing processing fees for everything from regular debit cards* charging 3-4% to rewards credit cards being around 7% to special international or world credit cards charging som…

This is the first I'm hearing of double digit rates -- what cards are those? I'd definitely like to avoid them.

Re: Physical cash is dying–and you don't need to be a conspiracist to worry

#409

Post by tastyfreeze »

kuchenbecker wrote: post #363
CSMastermind wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would argue the root cause of this phenomenon is inflation and the first step we should take is to make the dollar a stable unit of measure not to consciously allow its value to fall.

Deflation is worse than inflation, and it's hard to hit a single number, so central banks aim for low, stable inflation. 1-2% inflation isn't very perceptible vs 0 but avoids deflation.

Please explain why deflation is worse.

Re: Physical cash is dying–and you don't need to be a conspiracist to worry

#410

Post by multjoy »

gruez wrote: post #403
multjoy wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Square will do you 1.75%, no contract, no fees and now you don't even need a physical reader as you can do contactless payment on your phone. You can get it lower with other providers if you negotiate right. Nobody is paying 4% for any cardholder-present transactions.

>Square will do you 1.75%, no contract, no fees Where? A quick search on their website shows 2.6%: https://squareup.com/us/en/pricing#rates

Everywhere, apparently, other than the US. You should fix your banking system.
Post reply on HN