Calling it a tax belies the enormous benefit that the payment networks have for customers and merchants. The fact you can make a purchase from most of the merch

Calling it a tax belies the enormous benefit that the payment networks have for customers and merchants. The fact you can make a purchase from most of the merchants in the world, with a card issued from your local bank is an extraordinary convenience. I think a lot of the commentors here don’t know (or have forgotten) how tedious and slow international/online shopping or travel used to be when it came to money/payments. You don’t know slow and unreliable payments until you’ve had to mail somebody a cashiers check.