Electronic payment mechanisms reduce friction, making it easy to spend money you wouldn’t otherwise, and lack adequate protections against inadvertent spending.

Electronic payment mechanisms reduce friction, making it easy to spend money you wouldn’t otherwise, and lack adequate protections against inadvertent spending. This is why many vendors are happy to eat the 3-5% credit cards and online payment systems take — they make more overall. Guess where that’s coming from. Easy to blame the parent. Could have give their child cash instead of a debit card. But that’s like the transportation industry building a highway with a massive hole in the middle of it and blaming drivers for driving into it.