4 ms·

Bakers and taxis are inherently different - no one gets stuck in a location they don't want to be because of a lack of wholewheat. I'm not saying peopl are ok

Bakers and taxis are inherently different - no one gets stuck in a location they don't want to be because of a lack of wholewheat. I'm not saying peopl are ok with changing it after the fact: I'm saying the government should do what government is supposed to do and serve its citizens, in this case forcing taxi companies to accept credit cards. Market/self regulation generally trends to work in two ways: the well off get to crow about how government regulation isn't needed, and the less fortunate don't get to use that service because they're never the prime market for business, but they don't have a soap box so the other side keeps barking on about how good it all is.

SilasX 9y ago
>Bakers and taxis are inherently different - no one gets stuck in a location they don't want to be because of a lack of wholewheat. And no one gets stuck in an unfamiliar area while low on blood sugar? >I'm not saying peopl are ok with changing it after the fact Yes, you were! You brought it up specifically in the context of cabbies who refused CC after taking on a fare with signs and machine saying they could pay that way. If your point was just that "being able to pay with CC is nice so it should be mandated", then you shouldn't have pointed to the after-the-fact case as a danger. >I'm saying the government should do what government is supposed to do and serve its citizens, in this case forcing taxi companies to accept credit cards. And you're failing to ground it in any way that doesn't generalize to forcing arbitrary merchants to accept arbitrary payments, while focusing the majority of your rhetoric on grandstanding about "hey, I just think governments should help the people" instead of a concrete justification for how this helps the people, or any recognition of any downside of such a mandate (which you were able to see in the case of bakers and CCs). >Market/self regulation generally trends to work in two ways: the well off get to crow about how government regulation isn't needed, and the less fortunate don't get to use that service because they're never the prime market for business, but they don't have a soap box so the other side keeps barking on about how good it all is. Again, you're assuming your policy helps the poor and anyone who opposes it just doesn't understand it, instead of actually elaborating on the substantive mechanisms. Tomorrow you'll be right back lecturing us that credit card acceptance hurts the poor because merchants have to distribute the fees over all customers, including the poor unbanked who can't get one, and I'm just too privileged to see that. How about confining your remarks to the pros and cons of various policies without dragging motives and demagoguery into it?
- stephenr 9y ago
  > And no one gets stuck in an unfamiliar area while low on blood sugar? You can carry a sandwich a lot easier than you can carry a car. > Yes, you were! You brought it up specifically in the context of cabbies who refused CC after taking on a fare with signs and machine saying they could pay that way. No, I'm not. If it read that way I apologise, but that was not my intent. My point was that if they are required to take credit cards by law then any "oh sorry our machine isn't working" becomes a free taxi ride. Or heck, even a law to say they must make it clear the payments they accept. My main focus was on America's obsession with deregulation/lack of regulation, and inevitable shit storms when companies take advantage of that environment, leading Americans to claim that the service in question can never be good/work/etc, because their one attempt at it failed. Healthcare. Banking. Mobile phones & networks. Electoral systems. etc. > And you're failing to ground it in any way that doesn't generalise to forcing arbitrary merchants to accept arbitrary payments Taxi's aren't arbitrary merchants. They're a specialised service that is both time and location sensitive, and given that futurama style tubes to every block/street aren't in existence and public transport like buses, trams and trains don't go to every block/street, they are effectively a privatised part of public transport that is meant to be accessible everyone. > how this helps the people You need me to explain to you, how making sure taxis can be paid by common methods besides cash, helps people? > or any recognition of any downside of such a mandate (which you were able to see in the case of bakers and CCs). Of course there are downsides for the vendor, credit card transactions require infrastructure that cash doesn't, and cost money for every transaction. Thats irrelevant - the point is that a vital service should be available to those who don't have cash on them. > Again, you're assuming your policy helps the poor and anyone who opposes it just doesn't understand it, instead of actually elaborating on the substantive mechanisms. Tomorrow you'll be right back lecturing us that credit card acceptance hurts the poor because merchants have to distribute the fees over all customers, including the poor unbanked who can't get one, and I'm just too privileged to see that. How about you stop pretending you know what the fuck I believe in, or what I will say tomorrow. Look through my comment history and tell me where I've said credit cards are a bad thing? Oh wait. You can't because you're just talking shit. Fuck off.
  - sctb 9y ago

SilasX 9y ago

>Bakers and taxis are inherently different - no one gets stuck in a location they don't want to be because of a lack of wholewheat. And no one gets stuck in an unfamiliar area while low on blood sugar? >I'm not saying peopl are ok with changing it after the fact Yes, you were! You brought it up specifically in the context of cabbies who refused CC after taking on a fare with signs and machine saying they could pay that way. If your point was just that "being able to pay with CC is nice so it should be mandated", then you shouldn't have pointed to the after-the-fact case as a danger. >I'm saying the government should do what government is supposed to do and serve its citizens, in this case forcing taxi companies to accept credit cards. And you're failing to ground it in any way that doesn't generalize to forcing arbitrary merchants to accept arbitrary payments, while focusing the majority of your rhetoric on grandstanding about "hey, I just think governments should help the people" instead of a concrete justification for how this helps the people, or any recognition of any downside of such a mandate (which you were able to see in the case of bakers and CCs). >Market/self regulation generally trends to work in two ways: the well off get to crow about how government regulation isn't needed, and the less fortunate don't get to use that service because they're never the prime market for business, but they don't have a soap box so the other side keeps barking on about how good it all is. Again, you're assuming your policy helps the poor and anyone who opposes it just doesn't understand it, instead of actually elaborating on the substantive mechanisms. Tomorrow you'll be right back lecturing us that credit card acceptance hurts the poor because merchants have to distribute the fees over all customers, including the poor unbanked who can't get one, and I'm just too privileged to see that. How about confining your remarks to the pros and cons of various policies without dragging motives and demagoguery into it?

stephenr 9y ago
> And no one gets stuck in an unfamiliar area while low on blood sugar? You can carry a sandwich a lot easier than you can carry a car. > Yes, you were! You brought it up specifically in the context of cabbies who refused CC after taking on a fare with signs and machine saying they could pay that way. No, I'm not. If it read that way I apologise, but that was not my intent. My point was that if they are required to take credit cards by law then any "oh sorry our machine isn't working" becomes a free taxi ride. Or heck, even a law to say they must make it clear the payments they accept. My main focus was on America's obsession with deregulation/lack of regulation, and inevitable shit storms when companies take advantage of that environment, leading Americans to claim that the service in question can never be good/work/etc, because their one attempt at it failed. Healthcare. Banking. Mobile phones & networks. Electoral systems. etc. > And you're failing to ground it in any way that doesn't generalise to forcing arbitrary merchants to accept arbitrary payments Taxi's aren't arbitrary merchants. They're a specialised service that is both time and location sensitive, and given that futurama style tubes to every block/street aren't in existence and public transport like buses, trams and trains don't go to every block/street, they are effectively a privatised part of public transport that is meant to be accessible everyone. > how this helps the people You need me to explain to you, how making sure taxis can be paid by common methods besides cash, helps people? > or any recognition of any downside of such a mandate (which you were able to see in the case of bakers and CCs). Of course there are downsides for the vendor, credit card transactions require infrastructure that cash doesn't, and cost money for every transaction. Thats irrelevant - the point is that a vital service should be available to those who don't have cash on them. > Again, you're assuming your policy helps the poor and anyone who opposes it just doesn't understand it, instead of actually elaborating on the substantive mechanisms. Tomorrow you'll be right back lecturing us that credit card acceptance hurts the poor because merchants have to distribute the fees over all customers, including the poor unbanked who can't get one, and I'm just too privileged to see that. How about you stop pretending you know what the fuck I believe in, or what I will say tomorrow. Look through my comment history and tell me where I've said credit cards are a bad thing? Oh wait. You can't because you're just talking shit. Fuck off.
- sctb 9y ago