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Yup, point remains. It’s an externality masquerading as a luxury. It’s also arguably regressive, since the beneficiaries of those rewards tend to be overwhelmi
by bhupy 6y ago
Yup, point remains. It’s an externality masquerading as a luxury.
It’s also arguably regressive, since the beneficiaries of those rewards tend to be overwhelmingly rich, while the inflated prices are paid for by everybody else.
- rvnx 6y agoIt seems like a cashback card then
- bhupy 6y agoYup, point remains. Cash back cards maintain the same characteristics. Traditional cash back cards are arguably less regressive since it isn’t just the wealthy that have cash back cards. In theory, a broader set of people are beneficiaries of a system that a broad set of consumers pay into via higher prices. AmEx cards OTOH are expensive enough to process that there still exists a broad set of merchants who refuse to process them. For those that do process them, it’s harder to say to what degree the costs are passed on to all buyers. And unlike cashback cards, Amex rewards beneficiaries heavily skew rich.