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from the bills-have-serial-numbers-so-only-use-change dept.
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Many Austrians value their privacy and won't accept someone to keep track how many beers they drink. It may sound like a strange thing to enshrine in a country’s constitution: the right to pay cash. But a debate on whether to do just that has entered Austria’s election campaign, shining a light on the country’s love of cold, hard currency.
The Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP, EPP-affiliated) recently made the suggestion as part of its campaign for a parliamentary election in late September, for which it has a commanding poll lead. This led to other parties — though sceptical of the ÖVP’s proposal — vaunting their commitment to protecting cash, with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPÖ) demanding an end to fees levied at cashpoints.
And it is not hard to see why all major parties see protecting cash as a vote-winner.
“In Austria, attitudes change slowly,” an employee of Weinschenke, a burger restaurant in downtown Vienna, told AFP. The woman in her 30s, who only gave her name as Victoria, says she prefers to use cash because “you don’t leave a trace”.
Financial law expert Werner Doralt says Austrians put a high value on privacy and are wary of anything that could be used to keep tabs on them, such as card transactions. “If for example I go shopping, and it’s recorded exactly how much schnapps I’ve bought, that’s an invasion of my privacy,” he says.
A recent survey conducted by the ING bank in 13 European countries, Australia and the US, showed Austrians were the most resistant to the idea of giving up cash payments.
Just 10 percent of those surveyed in Austria said they could imagine doing without cash, compared to a European average of 22%. According to European Central Bank data compiled in 2017, cash accounted for 67% of money spent at points of sale in Austria, compared to just 27% in the Netherlands. Even in neighbouring Germany, another country known for its attachment to cash, the rate is only 55%.
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Thursday September 05 2019, @03:32PM (17 children)
If Austria obeys its constitution, that is a novel idea that other governments should look into.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by ikanreed on Thursday September 05 2019, @04:45PM (11 children)
No you dumb fuck. This isn't about respecting the idea of a constitution, it's about massively disrespecting it. This is a thing every dumbass country does which is take a transient political issue that has failed to be installed as law, and say "but what if we made it a constitutional amendment instead?"
Similar things from your home country:
"We can't get an enforcable flag burning law? What about a flag burning amendment instead"
"We can't get an equal pay for equal work law? What about an equal pay for equal work amendment instead"
"We can't make an enforceable prohibition law? How about a prohibition amendment?"
Just completely irrelevant to the structure of government or human rights, i.e. things constitutions should concern themselves with, but obsessed over by some psychos. This is one of those things
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 05 2019, @04:55PM (2 children)
In other words, democracy is bad.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ikanreed on Thursday September 05 2019, @05:05PM
I'm not sure that follows. Unstructured ad hoc democracy done without respect for a structure of governance that it falls within has some big old pitfalls though. It's not like I think this would be a bad law if passed. I just think it's a dumbfuck escalation tactic of a far right party to create a wedge issue.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Thursday September 05 2019, @11:27PM
Psychos are bad. Democracy is just neutral - it let them exist and manifest themselves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 05 2019, @05:01PM (5 children)
These are all examples of why constitutions tend to have a process for self modification.
I am guessing you don't like any of those laws/amendments, and that is fine.
How do you feel about this one:
https://teddeutch.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=399461 [house.gov]
where they are looking to fix Citizen's United (where it was ruled campaign finance laws abridge the first amendment) by... making an amendment that says campaign finance is something that can be legislated, without regard for the first. Most people I talk to say that CU was a terrible ruling, but I explained that it had terrible consequences, but it was the right (legal) ruling. Amending the constitution is the right way to handle this issue.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Thursday September 05 2019, @05:09PM (4 children)
If it defines how a government, an election, or whatever operates. Or define what a right is intended to protect. Great! That's not a problem. That doesn't bother me in the slightest.
I like all but about 2 of the post-bill of rights amendments. I think most of them were basically addressing that kind of question. I don't mind there being constitutional amendments. I mind dumbfuck movements thinking that an amendment is "Exactly like a law but more powerful"
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Thursday September 05 2019, @05:40PM (3 children)
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday September 05 2019, @11:30PM
No, totally, as long as what they are doing doesn't hurt anyone else, they are free to put in their constitution any garbage or clever things they want.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 06 2019, @12:29AM
And Britain has Boris Johnson and prorogation. Such a lawless nation!
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 06 2019, @01:03AM
"Many" European countries lack a written constitution?
The only one I can think of is the UK. Which are the others?
Any country which has had a revolution or become independent since about the Napoleonic Wars should have one; it was standard practice since then.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 05 2019, @11:00PM (1 child)
I don't see the issue with this. In an age of mass surveillance, privacy is more important than ever. It's usually more difficult to change a constitution, so if they can enshrine the right to use cash (which protects privacy & anonymity) in their constitution, I say go for it. This issue is not irrelevant to human rights.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Thursday September 05 2019, @11:02PM
Fair enough.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 05 2019, @05:19PM (4 children)
In the future Brussels commands that all payments must be tracked. What will happen? Clue: The Austrian constitution will have to be changed again. Because Austria won't have the balls that the UK does to regain its sovereignty.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday September 05 2019, @09:19PM (3 children)
If Brussels commands that all payments must be tracked Austria will have had a hand in making that decision because they are an EU member.
The UK is not regaining sovereignty with Brexit. The clue is in how Rupert Murdoch spent tens of millions of his own money to help push Brexit along. Do you think he did that out of concern for the ordinary Briton?
The other clue is in how the pro-Brexit crew lied and lied during the campaign, and now cannot even agree on what they meant by Brexit.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 05 2019, @11:00PM (1 child)
They will not. Not the government of Austria, sure as hell not the Austrian people. It will be a committee of appointed people in Brussels, which may or may not contain Austrians.
(Score: 4, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Friday September 06 2019, @01:57AM
That is not how the EU works, despite what Fox News tells you.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Friday September 06 2019, @03:03AM
No, I think he runs a content-hungry media empire and had a pretty shrewd idea how much content he could create with never-ending stories from both sides. He probably made those millions back multiple times over just accepting ads from pro- and anti- brexit groups. He may be an evil immoral arsehole, but he is a long way from stupid.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.