SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984
Sorry Amazon: Philadelphia bans cashless stores
This week, Philadelphia's mayor signed a bill that would ban cashless retail stores, according to The Morning Call. The move makes Philadelphia the first major city to require that brick-and-mortar retail stores accept cash. Besides Philadelphia, Massachusetts has required that retailers accept cash since 1978, according to CBS.
The law takes effect July 1, and it will not apply to stores like Costco that require a membership, nor will it apply to parking garages or lots, or to hotels or rental car companies that require a credit or debit card as security for future charges, according to the Wall Street Journal. Retailers caught refusing cash can be fined up to $2,000.
Amazon, whose new Amazon Go stores are cashless and queue-less, reportedly pushed back against the new law, asking for an exemption. According to the WSJ, Philadelphia lawmakers said that Amazon could work around the law under the exemption for stores that require a membership to shop there, but Amazon told the city that a Prime membership is not required to shop at Amazon Go stores, so its options are limited.
(Score: 2) by Pav on Wednesday March 13 2019, @02:53AM (4 children)
The credit card companies are just betting that enough responsible people have a disaster that will pull them into debt. Disallowed by health insurance, and the bill = savings + substantial debt? Economic disaster sees you unemployed for an inconveniently long time, and it's dig into credit or deny your kids crucial education/opportunity? It's a safe bet they'll take enough economic scalps of so-called "responsible" borrowers, and has made trillions on trillions.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday March 13 2019, @02:55PM (3 children)
I wouldn't call myself a "responsible borrower" using credit cards, because I don't use them for debt.
If I needed to borrow, odds are good my banker would give me a commercial loan on far better terms than a credit card.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by Pav on Friday March 15 2019, @01:02AM (2 children)
Why would your banker give you a commercial loan if conditions had become so dire that you'd need to consider such borrowing in the first place? This is exactly the blindness/denial they count on.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday March 15 2019, @02:08PM (1 child)
I wouldn't be seeking a loan unless I expected I could repay it.
I suppose in desperation, it is hard to know what I would do. Would I be driven to borrow money that I knew I could/would never repay? Who knows.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Pav on Saturday March 16 2019, @09:13AM
Simple recipe - some lead a blessed life and are losses for the banks, but a large portion face a financial challenge beyond their means at some point in their lives - and if the credit card is in your pocket the hook is set. Some will sacrifice their health, permanently downgrade their financial wellbeing etc... rather than take a chance by going into debt, but many gamble that they can find money in the medium term if they keep their health, earning capacity etc... For the banks, ideally you won't go bankrupt... but are far enough in debt that a large chunk of your disposable income will be theirs for a significant period.
This is harming us on a society-wide scale - wealth captures more wealth. We don't tax the wealthy like we used to, so the books are no longer balanced. Society now borrows the untaxed wealth and pays interest on it... either the government borrows (and prints), or else the private sector borrows instead. The alternative is societies getting poorer, and plenty of countries without borrowing capacity are in that camp. Already in most western countries the middle class have exhausted their borrowing capacity so they're falling into the lower class. China is even starting to get there.
No wonder these bankers want a credit card in every pocket... They need to set those hooks before rome burns.