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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: 3, Interesting) by bobthecimmerian on Tuesday March 12 2019, @10:58AM (5 children)
For small business, at least - food trucks with a single owner operator, single person house cleaning services, single person landscaping services, owner operated plumbing service - cutting corners this way is often the only way to stay open. I live in Pennsylvania and the wife of my self-employed friend has an autoimmune disorder. His family health insurance is $40,000 per year, plus he has a deductible. Of course he prefers cash payment for his services and doesn't report 100% of his actual income to the state and federal government. His choices are "cheat on taxes" or "go out of business and hope Medicaid will cover the medicines his wife needs to stay alive". And he still reports income and pays taxes, he just keeps as much as he can off the books.
That's a lot different from companies or politicians or celebrities evading tax. And frankly I don't care about benefit cheats, average American food stamp (SNAP) benefits for a family of four is $465 per month - big fucking deal, close a few tax loopholes that the cheats use and you could write a check to every family in the country for that amount each month. My dad worked full time and paid taxes from age 17 to 62 and then got laid off, and was forced to collect SNAP benefits for a year before he found another job. Shit happens.
(Score: 4, Informative) by isostatic on Tuesday March 12 2019, @11:32AM (2 children)
His family health insurance is $40,000 per year
What is wrong with your country?
To spend $40k (£30k) in health care in the UK you'd have to have two earners each paying £75k in tax, or earning about £180k each in tax.
If it's one earner it's £150k in tax or about £350k a year ($460k)
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 12 2019, @12:12PM
It's America. They fuck ya. It's like in India where you have a cast system, except in America it's like that with health. If you are born sick or just get bad luck, then you better die fast as otherwise it's a painful death with no health insurance. Like a 3rd world country.
(Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Wednesday March 13 2019, @04:15PM
What's wrong with my country? Plenty. If you're bored you can go to the Pennsylvania health insurance exchanges to buy private family insurance. You can get the same $40k numbers he's actually paying.
I'll be even more angry if true socialized medicine doesn't hit within the next five years. The situation has been untenable for a long time, I just think the inertia of anti-socialism propaganda is finally getting overcome by sheer frustration.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 12 2019, @11:56AM (1 child)
There are apparently about 80 million families in the US, so 80e6*465*12 ~ $450 billion per year.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/183659/number-of-families-in-the-us/ [statista.com]
(Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Tuesday March 12 2019, @03:46PM
Which is peanuts when you consider that national wealth is in the 50 trillion range.