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Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

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Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

#611

Post by qxzw »

dmitriy_ko wrote: post #219
kristofferR wrote: post #97

I'm a Norwegian who went to a Swedish music festival last summer. I couldn't pay for a lot of things there, since the booths only accepted Swish (the only relevant Swedish mobile payment solution, it's a de facto monopoly). I couldn't sign up and use Swish on my phone, since it only accepts Swedish bank accounts. I couldn't borrow money from my Swedish friends either, since they didn't have cash (and it mostly wasn't…

That reminds me of Futurama episode where Bender finds a phone booth: "Now I don't need to carry my phone with me all the time!" Progress is sometimes a regress in disguise.

In Dune[0], they had Butlerian Jihad[1], revolution against an AI of the sorts. Hopefully in real world they'll outlaw nuclear weapons.

[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(novel)

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butlerian_Jihad

Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

#612

Post by sandos »

tensor wrote: post #387
bamboozled wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best payment experience I’ve had is cash. I pay for what I need and when I leave the festival I can still use my “credits” hassle free anywhere I like.

The best payment experience I've had is a credit card. It's harder to get robbed, I can pay everywhere with just a tap, I never need to remember to take out cash, tips are computed for me at my request, when I travel to many other countries I don't even need to get local currency, conversion happens automatically, and I'm not stuck with unused local currency when I leave.

Credit cards was how this all started in Sweden. Cash usage has been going down since the late 1990s, and the Swish thing is fairly new, we still use credit cards mostly, but swish is popular for smaller establishments or temporary events and such. You cant transfer money to your friends using a CC, but swish solves that. Its basically a national, private owned, Paypal, and that is the problem. Everybody uses it. My fiancee works at a school cafeteria, and Swish is the only accepted payment method. Not even credit cards work there.

Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

#613

Post by theshrike79 »

thomasz wrote: post #523
beefield wrote: post #471

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why the fuck are you bothering me with this? Handling cash is a hassle in many ways: 1. It's slow. Obviously it is not slow in the best case when the customer throws in the exact change, but it is _really_ slow in the probably more typical case when the drunkard is at the counter and starts to dig into the pockets and find out if he has enough coins or when the seventh customer in the row wants to pay his ten cent…

It's only slow because you are not used to paying with cash. Most payments are done with cash here, and the few people paying with cards cause small but noticeable delays. Counting cash is usually faster than handling a card reader, entering the PIN and whatnot. The odd drunkard or elderly customer is comparable to the odd technical problem, which usually takes longer to resolve.

How is that faster than slapping my contactless card to the side of the card reader? 1 second and back to my wallet it goes.

Or if I'm feeling extra tech-y, I can do that with my watch or phone.

Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

#614

Post by fybe »

cf498 wrote: post #383

I was really shocked when i experienced the same issue in the Netherlands. I went there for a conference and only had to go straight to Amsterdam central, to science park and to my hotel in almere central. I had to exit Amsterdam central station by scanning in the QR code of my paper ticket. The alarm at that station was ringing constantly because of all the foreign tourists who had no idea what to do. Outside I had…

Had a similar experience while on holiday. Should have done research as I found out 90% of card readers only accept Maestro cards and reject Visa.

What a shit show

Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

#615

Post by simonh »

gsich wrote: post #561
simonh wrote: post #531

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The notch is for the camera and face scanner. Nothing to do with speakers. Ditching the front facing camera might get you half an hour or so battery life I suppose.

But it spans the entirety of the speaker. If it's only the front camera and sensors the notch could be way smaller.

It does and they do take advantage of the notch with the speaker (why wouldn't they?), but that's not the reason for the notch to exist.

Apple discussed this in interviews after the X came out. They realized they needed somewhere for the camera and face scanner, so decided since they needed a notch anyway they would take full advantage by adding in those sensors and features that could make best use of it. The proximity sensor and speakers could have worked without a notch, but work better with it. These considerations, together with aesthetics related to balancing the size of the notch and the screen areas either side, were the driving factors.

Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

#616

Post by robben1234 »

As strong as I hate dealing with cash, it can't be dismissed in current society. In many places you don't want to use card as it's sketchy, in many places you don't want to have a log in your bank account (like going to a bar midday on a Tuesday).

Not to mention a classic meaning of cash, or just money: you get things for it. If you are getting robbed one thing is to give $40 because that's all you had in the wallet and completely other getting robbed for all money in your account. That's just one scenario.

I'm not sure I would want to live in a society without cash.

Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

#617

Post by Jommi »

joosters wrote: post #266
eigenvector wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can have a very similar experience in China. So many things are now paid for by mobile wallets such as WeChat Pay that do not support foreign accounts. It's great for locals and for the government that - in an authoritarian country - gets unfettered access to all that personalized spending data. For tourists, not so much.

WeChat payments work fine with foreign cards...

No it doesn't. Not in mainland China. Who told you this?

Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

#618

Post by Jommi »

thomasz wrote: post #523
beefield wrote: post #471

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why the fuck are you bothering me with this? Handling cash is a hassle in many ways: 1. It's slow. Obviously it is not slow in the best case when the customer throws in the exact change, but it is _really_ slow in the probably more typical case when the drunkard is at the counter and starts to dig into the pockets and find out if he has enough coins or when the seventh customer in the row wants to pay his ten cent…

It's only slow because you are not used to paying with cash. Most payments are done with cash here, and the few people paying with cards cause small but noticeable delays. Counting cash is usually faster than handling a card reader, entering the PIN and whatnot. The odd drunkard or elderly customer is comparable to the odd technical problem, which usually takes longer to resolve.

Where on earth do you live where things are this backwards?

Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

#619

Post by d21d3q »

CPLX wrote: post #14

A society without cash is a society in which every person has no choice but to get the permission of someone they don’t know and will never meet each and every time they seek to obtain food, water, shelter, or transportation, and that permission can be revoked instantly, silently, and invisibly at any time.

Whar happens in case of war, when data centers are destroyed or just access to internet is limited? Can you imagine massive desire to switch back to cash/gold/stones?

Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

#620

Post by NateEag »

mr_toad wrote: post #331
WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #235

My problem with cashless and just about everything electronic tech is: What happens when the network/power fails? What's the goto alternative? No one seems to point that out? It should not stop progress but it's important to make contingency plans in case of mass failure. I wonder if salt as money will be fashionable again? :)

If we ever have some sort of apocalypse, I’m guessing that the popular barter commodities will reflect society’s vices: cigarettes, alcohol, coffee, sugar and porn.

Since most porn is produced and consumed digitally (I assume - it's not something I pay attention to), in an apocalypse I doubt it would be a viable commodity. Any apocalypse worth its salt takes down the grid.

Prostitution would likely increase, though.

I'll add salt to your list as well.

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