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I'd rather we be in a situation where we have to make sure businesses pay their taxes, then a situation where we can't pay in cash. Right now, the payment indu
by lykr0n 6y ago
I'd rather we be in a situation where we have to make sure businesses pay their taxes, then a situation where we can't pay in cash.
Right now, the payment industry is very consolidated and Visa/Mastercard have a monopoly on transaction processing. It's expensive, and a privacy nightmare. Maybe when there is a government sponsored option that doesn't sell your information to anyone who wants it it'll be fine, but until then- No.
There's also the big reason that there is large parts of our population that don't have access to the regular banking system for one reason or another. Once you get black marks on your banking record and get kicked out, it will be very hard to get back in.
- toomuchtodo 6y agoThe Fed’s Instant Payment network is due to be live in 2023 or 2024 (with supposedly minimal costs compared to credit transactions). It would behoove the EFF to lean on the Fed to roll that out alongside this legislation ("here's the problem, here's the solution"). Getting the unbanked and underbanked is a similar policy issue: support the post office operating as a bank with reasonable fees, as is done in other countries. What’s it cost to maintain deposit accounts at scale for Americans unbanked? Roughly $5MM-$10MM a year in administration expenses. This is a rounding error in the federal budget.