3 ms·
Maybe the near monopoly of the payment network is the coercion?
by edoceo 8y ago
Maybe the near monopoly of the payment network is the coercion?
- eeZah7Ux 8y ago"either use Swish or go without food/water/travel/etc" is coercion by any definition
- o-o- 8y agoFood is payed with VISA och Mastercard. Water is payed through the online banking service. Travel with VISA/Mastercard (even local buses accept credit cards). "Etc" is also payed with VISA or Mastercard. Swish is a mere conveniency for transferring money without having to log onto your online banking service. I use it once a month tops.
- fouc 8y agoWhat happens if you don't have visa/mastercard or even a bank account?
- icebraining 8y agoWhat happens if you don't have cash? Answer: you get cash, because most shops won't barter. Same thing here.
- petre 8y agoWhat jappens when the electricity is out? In a Katrina or Maria (hurricanes) scenario.
- jandrese 8y agoI think not having a bank account is unthinkable in a place like Sweden. Thanks to the strong social safety net and extremely restrictive immigration policy they don't have abject poor. At worst you're lower middle class and can get a bank account. It does seem to be a bad deal for tourists however. I'm surprised that companies are apparently so quick to ditch traditional credit cards.
- ptr 8y agoBut companies aren’t ditching credit cards, we’re just using “contact less”/Apple Pay/etc. more. When Swish is used by a company (I’ve only seen a couple), they’re either super-cheap or gimmicky.
- dane-pgp 8y agoSome people would say that consumers are free to avoid vendors that don't accept cash, but in practice this "freedom" is actually a huge cost, in terms of time and mental overhead and lack of choice. The danger is that society as a whole ends up making sub-optimal decisions because each person is (selfishly / rationally) choosing to avoid these extra costs. Powerful entities (even those falling short of absolute monopolies) probably get away with a lot more societal harm than they would if we were more aware of this "coercion of convenience".