An elegy for cash: the technology we might never replace:
Think about the last time you used cash. How much did you spend? What did you buy, and from whom? Was it a one-time thing, or was it something you buy regularly?
Was it legal?
If you'd rather keep all that to yourself, you're in luck. The person in the store (or on the street corner) may remember your face, but as long as you didn't reveal any identifying information, there is nothing that links you to the transaction.
This is a feature of physical cash that payment cards and apps do not have: freedom. Called "bearer instruments," banknotes and coins are presumed to be owned by whoever holds them. We can use them to transact with another person without a third party getting in the way. Companies cannot build advertising profiles or credit ratings out of our data, and governments cannot track our spending or our movements. And while a credit card can be declined and a check mislaid, handing over money works every time, instantly.
We shouldn't take this freedom for granted. Much of our commerce now happens online. It relies on banks and financial technology companies to serve as middlemen. Transactions are going digital in the physical world, too: electronic payment tools, from debit cards to Apple Pay to Alipay, are increasingly replacing cash. While notes and coins remain popular in many countries, including the US, Japan, and Germany, in others they are nearing obsolescence.
This trend has civil liberties groups worried. Without cash, there is "no chance for the kind of dignity-preserving privacy that undergirds an open society," writes Jerry Brito, executive director of Coin Center, a policy advocacy group based in Washington, DC. In a recent report, Brito contends that we must "develop and foster electronic cash" that is as private as physical cash and doesn't require permission to use.
The central question is who will develop and control the electronic payment systems of the future. Most of the existing ones, like Alipay, Zelle, PayPal, Venmo, and Kenya's M-Pesa, are run by private firms. Afraid of leaving payments solely in their hands, many governments are looking to develop some sort of electronic stand-in for notes and coins. Meanwhile, advocates of stateless, ownerless cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin say they're the only solution as surveillance-proof as cash—but can they be feasible at large scales?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 04 2020, @10:37AM (14 children)
The day before New Year's Eve (missed the rush), USD $75+ (had exact change), groceries, a big local supermarket, all the time.
As a young teenager I had a newspaper route. Collecting every week or two from the customers meant that I got used to having $100 or more in my pocket (although most of it went back to pay for the papers). ~50 years later I still feel a little odd if I don't have some "walking around" cash in my wallet.
Pro tip for anyone just discovering cash: A college GF demonstrated how easy it was to distract me and pick my wallet out of my back pocket. Since then the wallet goes in a front pocket, appearance be damned.
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Saturday January 04 2020, @12:31PM (8 children)
Who the hell keeps anything valuable in their back pocket? I thought that only happened in cartoons, where some dork then has it picked by the villain. And WTF has appearance got to do with it? The only thing I have in my back pocket is my dirty handkerchief : it has never been stolen.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 04 2020, @12:45PM (4 children)
That confused me, too. The shape of the front of a person's thighs is a lot less interesting to me than the curve of their ass.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 04 2020, @04:23PM (3 children)
Perhaps while looking at the curve of the ass, women look for the size of the wallet too.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Saturday January 04 2020, @04:27PM (1 child)
Which is why I carry my wallet in my front pocket, makes my ...
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 05 2020, @03:35PM
...ass look smaller.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 08 2020, @04:15AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 04 2020, @05:52PM (1 child)
I always keep my wallet in my back pocket. Never lost it, left it, or had it stolen in over 30 years.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Sunday January 05 2020, @03:06AM
I don't carry a wallet, and have not carried it in my back pocket for over 30 years as well without it being stolen. So that's two data points in support of the case.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Joe Desertrat on Saturday January 04 2020, @11:05PM
I switched my wallet to my front pocket long ago, and not because of fears of pick pocketing. I was on a long trip and had a fair amount of cash in my wallet. When I got out of my car and attempted to straighten up, I learned that a fat wallet in your rear pocket misaligns your spine or your hip or whatever got misaligned there and I was in quite a bit of pain for several days.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by gtomorrow on Saturday January 04 2020, @04:13PM (4 children)
I just found this phrase incredibly hard to fathom...
Maybe it's me? Am I having an "OK, Boomer" moment? Is there really a generation of (I use the term loosely) people who are unfamiliar with CASH, looking at banknotes and coins like a rotary phone?
I'm also disturbed by the summary's question of "was it legal?" What a incredibly stupid question. Is anyone who doesn't use plastic to be considered some mafia member or drug dealer?
Cards are a convenience but CASH IS KING!
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Saturday January 04 2020, @09:17PM (3 children)
...until you do some online banking and see a detailed breakdown of your spending, and then cash does become king again.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 2) by gtomorrow on Sunday January 05 2020, @01:55AM
You're just confirming my statement...cash is, and always will be, king, no matter how much recent propaganda there is being spewed against it. A physical symbol of one's disposable liquidity, not some abstract concept favoring the entire banking industry.
(Score: 2) by dwilson on Sunday January 05 2020, @07:10PM (1 child)
...which, prior to my online banking portal adding that functionality, was a detailed breakdown that I had to create and maintain myself using GnuCash, hand-scribbled notes, a bit of effort and too much of my otherwise-free time. Unless I forgot to make the notes, in which case I was left with an imbalance and had to spend even more time and more effort to deduce where the hell I spent the money.
Yes, cash is king. Yes, privacy is important. No, I'm not happy with the level of tracking and intrusiveness that modern electronic payment systems entail. But the convenience is damned convenient.
Let's not make the Stallman mistake and play the all-or-nothing card, here. Modern society should have room for both ends of the cash-spectrum. Work to maintain all the options (because Choice is a Good Thing), and use whatever is appropriate at the time of transaction.
From the summery:
Those are good questions. Hopefully the next five to ten years brings some good answers.
- D
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Sunday January 05 2020, @11:34PM
YMMV. I use LO Calc myself and it does a good enough job for me. Don't need notes because I keep receipts unless the expense is too trivial to track. Again, YMMV, depends on where you place your spare time / perceived privacy balance.
It is, which is why I was such an enthusiastic EFTPOS user. Until I saw what the bank was doing without being asked; and if the bank was doing it, why the fsck was I giving that information to businesses which aren't supposed to be looking after my interests?
It would be nice to not have to "play the all-or-nothing card", pity there's such a big industry built around sucking up whatever personal information is available using whatever means possible.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Saturday January 04 2020, @10:51AM (2 children)
No problem. It was yesterday.
Slightly more than 20€.
Groceries, from a local supermarket belonging to a national chain.
Sure, I buy groceries regularly (although not always in the same shop).
Yes.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 06 2020, @08:17AM (1 child)
I'm pretty sure with the right timing you could get the exact same set of answers from a drug dealer.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday January 06 2020, @09:01AM
So you're saying that also drug dealers sometimes buy groceries? Am I supposed to be surprised?
Or do you want toimply that someone who buys groceries is likely to be a drug dealer? Well, that would be a vastly flawed logic.
If neither was your intention, then what did you want to imply?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday January 04 2020, @11:37AM (10 children)
I use cash frequently - will be fueling the vehicle up on the way home from work later today. The bank tracks money into my pocket, but not out. No one needs to know that I pigged out on Sonic Chili Cheese Coneys today. I pay cash, get my hot dogs, and enjoy. Don't even have to tell the wife about them, let alone corporate trackers at Sonic, Visa, or anyplace else. Just hot dogs, please, skip the reward card, skip the smart phone app, skip all that tracking, thank you.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 3, Touché) by maxwell demon on Saturday January 04 2020, @12:53PM (1 child)
Well, we now know. ;-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 04 2020, @03:11PM
(and it wasn’t said, but one might infer, such “...pigged out...” sessions are a regular thing for ole runny. Record added to database!:)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by looorg on Saturday January 04 2020, @01:23PM (4 children)
It was today, dinner for two, about $60, restaurant, something that happens quite often, legal.
I don't really care for or like it when this idea gets vented that cash is now somehow only for illegal transactions. I don't see why I should keep my money at the bank either since that gives me 0 or negative interest on the "spending money" (even savings accounts are not really that great). They don't need to know what I spend my money on, they want to but it's not the same. I'm not getting anything from that transaction or knowledge. Not to mention Cash doesn't break down, all the other "digital" payment systems goes up and down from time to time at the most inconvenient times.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by mcgrew on Saturday January 04 2020, @04:04PM (3 children)
That's an excellent point. When the tornadoes hit here in 2006 there was no power for a week for many places, and I had no cash and needed cat food. There were lots of places doing cash-only business, and I found a place with an old fashioned credit card reader that used carbon paper, no electricity needed, so the cats didn't starve. Now? The cats would probably go hungry.
Impeach Donald Palpatine and his sidekick Elon Vader
(Score: 3, Funny) by fustakrakich on Saturday January 04 2020, @05:34PM
The cats would probably go hungry.
Or you'll wake up missing a couple of toes...
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by driverless on Sunday January 05 2020, @03:08AM
Wouldn't the tornadoes have created plenty of ready-made cat food wherever they hit?
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Sunday January 05 2020, @01:32PM
Let the cats outside, and they won't go hungry. the local population of birds and rodents will take a hit, though; domestic cats are excellent hunters.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Saturday January 04 2020, @04:00PM (2 children)
We often use cash at restaurants, especially for the tip. If you put the tip on a card the government gets a cut.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 04 2020, @04:26PM
The government will assume a tip of 18% if not putting it on a card. I guess that means for good and shitty service both it is better to tip in cash if at all possible.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Sunday January 05 2020, @03:12AM
Ah yes, that is one place where cash can be useful. Always carry a roll of Polish zloty to allow you to tip for really shitty service.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 04 2020, @12:08PM
Cabbie's machine was down but cash worked just fine. The time before that was taking the bus. Pass or exact change only. Girl Guide cookies are cash only. All legal.
One other consideration people seem to overlook is that competition from cash helps keep banking and card transaction costs down. Without something else for people to fall back on, financial institutions would raise prices and there would be no recourse.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 04 2020, @12:52PM (1 child)
One of the primary uses of money, in whatever form, is as a medium of exchange. You exchange the money for actual goods or services. Keeps us from falling back on direct barter.
The Achilles heel of electronic transactions is that's it's electronic -- when there's no electricity or battery power, there's no transaction. When people are in a crisis situation, such as a hurricane or being in California, there is a high probability that if you don't have physical cash you won't be making transactions because there will be no electricity. That's when the mobs start stealing everything and things go downhill from there...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Bot on Saturday January 04 2020, @01:07PM
In truth money for some times has been reengineered to maximise the amount of control, not the amount of exchanged goods.
Think about value added tax. The very act of using money in a transaction gets somebody money. Doesnt matter that it is on the added value only or whatever, the money that gets removed cannot be used for exchanging goods anymore.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Bot on Saturday January 04 2020, @01:00PM (1 child)
If I pay cash no profiling is done on me and I don't force the seller to pay 1% or more to the banks for having the privilege of selling my data.
It offsets the risks, especially if you don't look like the proper victim for a mugger.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Sunday January 05 2020, @11:36AM
What risks do you have in mind about cash? I consider the risk of carrying cards or a smart phone greater than that of carrying cash. If a mugger emptied my pockets of cash I'd "only" be about $25 worse off. If however I dropped a card or left it somewhere I could be fleeced of $100's or even more That's because it is quite likely I would not even notice until my next monthly statement as I use different cards for differnent purposes. Notifying the bank of a card loss after a month is not good enough for them. Obvioulsy the loss of a smartphone would cost more than $25 too.
TBH I do not even know offhand which bank cards are in my wallet and which ones I leave at home - I have about 20 in total.
In fact I carry cash, cards and phone, but the cash is the least concern.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Mojibake Tengu on Saturday January 04 2020, @01:12PM
If a person you trade with in cash becomes a machine with advanced sensorics, instead of a human, she can remember you well in every physical detail accessible to her sensors.
Is that not obvious enough to someone?
In the upcoming age of cyberpunk, the only freedom remaining for naive people (and by naive, I mean those, who can't code themselves) is the freedom to stay stupid.
Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.
(Score: 2, Troll) by SomeGuy on Saturday January 04 2020, @02:46PM (2 children)
Yep. I'm getting ready to trek to our beloved Mart of Wal right now. I have my shopping list securely written on a piece of paper, where I know golden brown sacks of shit in India won't be picking over single character trying to aggregate or monetize me even more. I have some good old American cash ready, I know I won't spend more than what I have, because that is how it works. I'll even make a point not to use one of those awful self checkouts because when something goes wrong, I'm not as likely to beat a cashier to pieces and throw each piece in to a fire. I don' t need any stenkin tracking card just to get some fake "sale" price, although I don't doubt they will eventually implement airline-nazi-quality facial recognition. I'm all for having more payment options available to me, but I'm not going to buy some toy Apple iPhone just because you want me to use your uppity Apple PayPayPay, or something like that.
The only gripe I have about cash is that phrase "In God We Trust" religitards insist be printed on it. There is no such thing as god, and only retards seriously believe in that shit. Just got to take it one shithead at a time.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 04 2020, @03:20PM (1 child)
Using the MoW and gubbmit dollars means you are already sunk.
Midnight swapmeet, off the interstate - for beans and taters and such - is the only way to go.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 04 2020, @07:51PM
counterfeit jew bucks.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 04 2020, @03:26PM
only cash. except where the computer needs a new shot of steam and it can only be bought via electricity ...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 04 2020, @03:29PM
How much did you spend? $480.00
What did you buy, and from whom? An ounce of weed from my local collective.
Was it a one-time thing, or was it something you buy regularly? Regular.
Was it legal? Medically and recreationally legal, but still a federal offence.
Cash only because banks still won't do business with weed dealers because of federal laws, even though it's legal in Cali.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 04 2020, @03:38PM
Never going to happen. Anonymous transactions was and will never be the intent of replacing cash. The entire point of going electronic was for tracking/tagging/taxing each transaction.
Bartering wasn’t even anonymous, although it was much more subjective about value, with even more reliance on trust between parties.
When people started making profit from simply speculation/trade between different currencies, the populace lost any control over preserving privacy in society.
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Saturday January 04 2020, @03:47PM (1 child)
Think about the last time you used cash.
Today.
How much did you spend?
$85
What did you buy, and from whom?
A half ounce of killer Widowmaker and a half gram of shatter. For my wife from the recreational dispensary. I get tested so I unfortunately can't partake.... :(
Was it a one-time thing, or was it something you buy regularly?
Regular, man, regular
Was it legal?
Hell yeah. Cheap, legal and plentiful.
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 04 2020, @04:14PM
$85 for 1/2 oz of killer weed is crap weed. The ~$450/oz stuff gets you high before you can exhale. The good stuff is at the medical weed dispensary's.
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Saturday January 04 2020, @03:49PM (4 children)
Yesterday I dropped about 400 pounds of crap steel and received $20 and change in cash from the gruff gentleman at the counter.
Shortly thereafter I exchanged a portion of the bearer instruments for emacerated bovine flesh (lightly burned) in a heat treated ground grass seed carrier and carbonated caffeine sugar water. (Burgers and pop at the Speedway.)
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Saturday January 04 2020, @04:11PM (1 child)
I've heard of people cooking in heat treat ovens. Works fine, but you can get chromium contamination.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Sunday January 05 2020, @02:56AM
As long as the burger is good. :)
(Score: 2) by Muad'Dave on Monday January 06 2020, @01:37PM (1 child)
Wow. Scrap steel here in the RVA is more like $0.02/lb.
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Monday January 06 2020, @04:27PM
$5.50 per hundred pounds this week. That felt high, but I'm not one to inspect the oral faculties of complimentary equines.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday January 04 2020, @03:59PM
Here in Springfield there are at least four places that only take cash; Felber's tavern on 15th, the D&J Cafe on Laurel, the Lucky Lady Laundromat (they will wash, dry, and fold your clothes for a buck a pound), and the pot dispensary on Adam. In fact, every single pot dispensary in every one of the 11 states where it is legal will only take cash.
Several other places will only take cash or a debit card, because of the fees.
Impeach Donald Palpatine and his sidekick Elon Vader
(Score: 5, Insightful) by rleigh on Saturday January 04 2020, @04:05PM (3 children)
I pay for pretty much everything in cash, so use it nearly every day. So far today, about £21 for some groceries and a newspaper this morning at the local co-op, followed by about £5 for a coffee and cake in a local coffee shop around the corner from my flat.
I could have paid for it all by card, of course, but in my experience it's actually slower and more prone to failure. Quite a few times, the internet has been unavailable for half the day in the coffee shop, and both their point of sale system (some tablet-based online thing) and their card payment system have been taken out. Every time, I've been able to give them the cash there and then, and other customers have had to run down the street to the nearest cashpoint. That's why cash wins out. It's not dependent upon a centralised authority to conduct a transaction, or to allow or deny it. Cash permits autonomy, while card payments subject your business to others and relies upon complex and expensive infrastructure to be in operation 24/7.
I find it a bit sad that so many of my generation, and nearly all of the next, appear to value the apparent convenience of card-only payments without any real thought as to the numerous downsides the elimination of cash would bring.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by rleigh on Saturday January 04 2020, @10:33PM (2 children)
One other thing I forgot to mention: controlling your budget.
When you casually swipe your card to pay for everything, there's no real limit on your spending. It's easy to overspend if you're not careful.
When I get cash, I'll withdraw a certain amount, say £50, and that's my planned spending for the week. Because the money is right there, in my wallet, and once it's spent it's gone, it puts a brake on you spending what you haven't got in hand. That's my budget for food shopping, drinks and food while at work, commuting etc. It's not a hard limit, I can always get more out if needed, but that also needs effort and so psychologically it forces you to manage what you spend within the limits you set. Were I to only pay with a card, I think I'd become less disciplined about spending, and of course the world's businesses are eager to make that as effortless and thoughtless as possible with contactless payments and such. That's not in your interest.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 05 2020, @11:54PM (1 child)
What bank are you using that offers you unlimited credit? Even more, no limit on what you can draw in a single day?
Asking for a friend, see, he needs about $1B 'til next week's paycheck.
(Score: 2) by rleigh on Monday January 06 2020, @06:56AM
It's not unlimited, that's just silly. But the bank sets the limits quite high. I think it used to be £500 per day from cashpoints (i.e. £3500/week) and even higher than that for purchases. Since that's more than what gets paid in per month, it's not imposing any practical limit upon what can be used for day to day spending. It's enough that if the card was stolen the account could be cleaned out completely.
On the credit point, it's interesting that you mention that. I have zero debt of any sort. I'm of the mindset that you shouldn't spent what you don't have, and that if you need to purchase anything, then you should save for it up front. I don't have a credit card or an overdraft. And part of the reason for that is being careful about how I spend, and being reliant upon cash is part of that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 04 2020, @07:57PM (1 child)
technologyreview.com: where one can write a whole story about a cash replacement for the future, focusing largely on privacy, and somehow fail to mention Monero. maybe you're just a bunch of establishment whores acting like you give a shit?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 06 2020, @05:47AM
That was my first thought as well.
Yes, see Ripple/XRP [coinspeaker.com] :
and the Lightning Network [coinspeaker.com] :
(Score: 4, Informative) by darkfeline on Saturday January 04 2020, @08:53PM (1 child)
> there is nothing that links you to the transaction
Take out a bill. See that serial number on it? Did you take that out of an ATM? Sure, it may not be scanned everywhere *yet*, but tracking down where bills are going is an easy task for machine learning.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 04 2020, @09:05PM
There is also the https://www.wheresgeorge.com/ [wheresgeorge.com] site where people mark individual US currency bills and report each bill (via serial number) when they receive it. It's more scattershot, of course, but every bit of data helps the Machine.
(Score: 4, Informative) by pdfernhout on Saturday January 04 2020, @09:56PM (3 children)
https://hbr.org/2014/06/the-hidden-costs-of-cash [hbr.org]
"The use of cash involves several social costs to individuals — especially the poor — as well as business and the government.
For individuals, cash usage imposes a regressive tax with the highest impact on the unbanked. By FDIC estimates, 8.2% of U.S. households are unbanked and 20.1% of U.S. households are underbanked. The unbanked pay four times more in fees to access their money than those with bank accounts, and they pay $4 higher fees per month for cash access on average than those with formal financial services. Examples of such fees are those charged for payday lending, buy-here-pay-here auto loans, and check cashing. The unbanked have a five times higher risk of paying cash access fees on payroll and EBT cards. Poorer consumers have to spend far more time getting cash. On average, Americans spend twenty-eight minutes a month travelling to get cash, but that time isn’t evenly distributed. People who don’t use a bank spend about five minutes longer getting to the place where they can get cash, and unemployed people spent nearly nine minutes more.
For businesses, paper money has to be managed: it must be stored, guarded, and accounted for. It can be difficult to transport and is inherently insecure. U.S. retail businesses lose about $40 billion annually because of the theft of cash alone. This cost is also disproportionately borne by mom-and-pops, many of which operate in poor neighborhoods and rural areas. These cash-dependent small businesses cannot afford sophisticated security and cash transportation services."
And see also: "New Research from IHL Group Shows Retailers’ Cash-handling Costs Range from 4.7% to 15.3%, Depending on Retail Segment"
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180130005244/en/New-Research-IHL-Group-Shows-Retailers%E2%80%99-Cash-handling [businesswire.com]
"IHL’s new research report, Cash Multipliers - How reducing the costs of cash handling can enable retail sales and profit growth, was conducted across hundreds of retailers in North America in 13 different retail and hospitality segments. Retailers were interviewed on the cost to open cash drawers, close drawers, perform change requests, pickups due to large bills and outright theft of cash on the front end. In the back of store, measurements on the costs associated with counting drawers, making deposits, contracting with cash-in-transit companies and associated bank fees were tracked. “Although the percentage of cash transactions has been reduced over the years, the processes for handling cash have largely remained the same,” added Buzek. “Most often, retailers task the most expensive employees in the store to count and transport cash, which means these employees are not available for other, more profitable customer-facing transactions.” "
Just posting that for context and not to disagree with the many insightful comment here on privacy and such. The cost of handling cash an issue to address for those who want cash transactions.
The biggest challenge of the 21st century: the irony of technologies of abundance used by scarcity-minded people.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 04 2020, @10:58PM
About a week ago, $5 tip to hotel housekeeping, legal.
All the Christmas shopping and travel was on a rewards credit card.
Some things (anonymous, legal) you just can't use cash for in which case I buy a prepaid card for cash and use that.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 05 2020, @03:52PM
> cash usage imposes a regressive tax with the highest impact on the unbanked
That quote is abusing language. It's not a regressive tax; it's that corporations can and do charge more to the unbanked; it's "just" corporations screwing the poor. And then the part about taking more time than for persons who have online banking - yes, no shit it takes more minutes to go to a cheque casher than to go to an ATM. How many minutes were spent doing online banking by the unbanked? Zero? Why not count the online bankers' online banking time against them?
> task the most expensive employees in the store to count and transport cash
Versus tasking the enormously expensive contractors to design implement and maintain card system hardware and software? Hmmm.
(Score: 2) by DavePolaschek on Sunday January 05 2020, @04:44PM
I spent a few years "unbanked" because I was tired of paying the bastards fees.
Turns out, if you take your paycheck to the bank that issued it, they have to cash it for you. With all the mergers and such between banks, that’s tougher (because your company might bank out of state), but at the time (1980s), it wasn’t that bad. I was working hourly anyhow, and once every second Friday would take a long lunch, ride the bus downtown (cheaper than paying parking) with three-six other guys who were also hourly, and we would all cash our paychecks at the bank and have lunch together at one of the downtown restaurants, rather than brown-bagging it in the lunchroom.
Hassle for us? Not really. It was a team-building thing before they called it team-building. For our boss? Perhaps. Once he figured out what was up, he got used to having most of his department disappear for a couple hours every Friday afternoon. Don’t think he liked it, but he learned to set deadlines for "first thing Monday morning" rather than "last thing Friday," and everyone was reasonably happy. We all knew that if there was a big deadline, we’d be in on Saturday or Sunday anyhow, so taking a couple hours for a break on Friday was nice.