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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

#71

Post by adamiscool8 »

surgical_fire wrote: post #53
elevatedastalt wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You will find out how easily you can wire money to someone in the EU if you decide to hold political opinions that are not in line with the ruling elite. The truckers in Canada for sure found out how "free" the digits of their bank accounts were. Russian oligarchs for sure found it out in 2022.

> if you decide to hold political opinions that are not in line with the ruling elite. Then don't. It's much easier to adhere to the status quo.

This is the milquetoast approach of most Canadians - a major factor in why Canada, in it's current state, is rather cooked.

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

#72

Post by wvenable »

A little context for Americans: Canada implemented chip and pin debit cards across the country in the 90s. Pretty much overnight, paying by check(cheque) disappeared and nearly all businesses took debit cards. So Canadians have been used to paying by card for decades now.

COVID put the nail in the coffin of any remaining cash-only businesses.

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

#73

Post by grotorea »

vundercind wrote: post #10
xvector wrote: post #2

10% is way higher than I thought. Probably Cash is cumbersome and annoying. I wish there was a digital anonymous replacement.

Nearly all of my cash use, by dollar count, is paying service folks (home repair stuff, cleaners) who prefer payment in cash to evade taxes. I very rarely use cash for any other reason, and it’s always tiny amounts when I do.

I wonder who will win when the people wanting government protection for cash will collide with the desire to avoid tax evasion by restricting cash.

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

#74

Post by throw0101b »

pasabagi wrote: post #32
CamperBob2 wrote: post #28

[flagged]

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 / parades are disruptive to traffic but if you've planned it and told people about it then they can plan around it. One can also go in, cause some trouble, and then disperse so that you get in the news but also do not piss of non-involved people.

But being disruptive so that you piss people off is a way to not get more people onto your side of your movement. It is a way to inhibit further involvement of the public towards your side.

A movement must be aware of how its actions are perceived by non-members of the movement. Just because you interpret things a certain way does not mean that the general public won't view you as a jackass:

> “It’s a sign of independence,” he said. “I look at it as a rebel sign. In the biker community, a lot of people have the Confederate flag because we’re rebels.”

> But to many, the flag is a racist symbol and a disturbing reminder of the U.S. Confederacy’s fight to preserve slavery. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau denounced their display at the Ottawa protest, saying his government wouldn’t give in to “racist flags.”

* https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/freedom-convoy-supporter-says-...

I don't know which "biker community" this guy is talking about, but as a motorcyclist I don't view the Confederate flag positively.

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

#75

Post by nick_ »

lupusreal wrote: post #64
Dig1t wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They were peacefully protesting, how were they criminals?

[flagged]

Sorry are you trying to imply that the way various levels of US governments responded to recent left-wing protests has some conspiratorial parallel to the way the Canadian federal government responded to a right wing protest?

The city of Ottawa's law enforcement officers were ordered to remove the protesters weeks before the federal government stepped in. The cops basically just didn't do their job. The emergency act was not invoked lightly.

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

#76

Post by basisword »

wvenable wrote: post #72

A little context for Americans: Canada implemented chip and pin debit cards across the country in the 90s. Pretty much overnight, paying by check(cheque) disappeared and nearly all businesses took debit cards. So Canadians have been used to paying by card for decades now. COVID put the nail in the coffin of any remaining cash-only businesses.

This is the case in a lot of countries too. I don't think I've used cash at all in 4-5 years and rarely in the last 10 years.

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

#77

Post by localfirst »

wvenable wrote: post #72

A little context for Americans: Canada implemented chip and pin debit cards across the country in the 90s. Pretty much overnight, paying by check(cheque) disappeared and nearly all businesses took debit cards. So Canadians have been used to paying by card for decades now. COVID put the nail in the coffin of any remaining cash-only businesses.

coincidentally during this time Canadian government has announced draconian ordinance to freeze bank accounts of citizens it deems unruly, destroy their credit history, call in loan payments.

Not only that new ordinances to stifle online speech it deems hateful retroactively meaning if you wrote nasty things about say Defense minister Sajjan that instructed special forces to rescue Afghan Sikhs during fall of Kabul leaving Canadians stranded, you could very well find yourself homeless in Canada.

Very scary and a big reason why Canadians young and old are creating US bank accounts and earning US dollars.

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

#78

Post by viknesh »

olalonde wrote: post #56
ryandrake wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smaller companies are more than able to comply with AML/KYC.

Complying is easy, doing it economically is another thing.

Sounds like a great opportunity for a startup to fix!

In the country I live, there is a standard AML/KYC service that allows customers (banks, utilities) to easily perform ID verification in a few minutes.

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

#79

Post by stavros »

porphyra wrote: post #65
stavros wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, you know, win on the germ front, lose on the independence front.

Somehow I don't agree that it is a good idea to succumb the entire population to a known disease vector and encumber society with the massive administration and physical costs of dealing with cash, just to spite a bogeyman that's "stealing your independence".

It's all fun and games and bogeymen until you get hit with capital controls and you're limited to 70 EUR/day cash withdrawals.

The happy path is great until it's not. You can think "it won't happen to me" all you want, but that doesn't mean it won't.

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

#80

Post by vundercind »

arresin wrote: post #54
vundercind wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nearly all of my cash use, by dollar count, is paying service folks (home repair stuff, cleaners) who prefer payment in cash to evade taxes. I very rarely use cash for any other reason, and it’s always tiny amounts when I do.

> paying service folks (home repair stuff, cleaners) who prefer payment in cash to evade taxes. And good on them!

Yeah I mean I accommodate them when I can for a reason. The ones who want that don’t have real payroll or anything like that going on, so are never exactly rolling in dough.
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