4 ms·

Kind of weird to see people so proud of never using cash. It’s fine to prefer a card but to stop people from using cash altogether scares me. And of course the

Kind of weird to see people so proud of never using cash. It’s fine to prefer a card but to stop people from using cash altogether scares me. And of course the argument here is that criminals use cash which is pretty hilarious.

kbrannigan 4y ago
Look at the comments on this post. If you prefer cash you must be a criminal. An ex girlfriend made me feel bad for paying cash at a restaurant, because people would think we're drug dealers. A legal, government backed way to pay for good and services. Is culturally frowned upon or discouraged. What a world
- Towaway69 4y ago
  It's the same wierd argument why they got rid of 500€ note - only criminals use them for drug deals. As if the drug trade slowed because they banned the note. No, the trade will continue as long as there are buyers and stuff for humans to trade.
  - jeltz 4y ago
    Assuming the claims is correct: Why should the government waste money on having a bill which is almost only used to make drug deals easier? Better to just remove it out of circulation. Yes, it will not stop drug trade, but why should the government actively help facilitate it?
    - Towaway69 4y ago
      And if the claim isn't true? Did anyone in government actually verify it? Did the drug trade stop? If the claim is true, shouldn't the 100€ note also be taken out circulation? In fact, all notes? Where does one draw the line? Perhaps money is the root of all evil. Be it digital or plastic or paper. Drug cartels actually also use stolen artworks as currency. Which would now make an interesting study to see whether art crime actually increased since the 500€ went out of circulation ;)
jeroenhd 4y ago
Cash brings an inherent risk to the business that digital payments don't. There's no getting robbed at 10PM while bringing the day's revenue to the bank if the transfers are all digital, there's no emptying the cash registers when you can get a hundred or so euros at most. Insurance companies certainly don't lower their prices if you decide to keep a few thousand euros in the registers all day. In supermarkets here, the cash in the registers need to be counted every so often to make sure nobody is stealing from the company (because that has happened and will always happen). This burden and the cost of labour associated with it also generally disappears when customers pay digitally only. Don't get me wrong, though I myself pay almost exclusively digitally these days, I'm definitely anti digital-only payments. An internet or power outage could take out the ability to pay for anything for hours or days if society goes full-digital. However, the fact that cash has many downsides to the business owners is often forgotten in these discussions. I can imagine a future in which the risk of paying by cash is compounded by higher prices. Payment by card is already free (well, the 25 cents transaction fee is worked into the product price) but I can see the reverse happening, like a ±€2 charge for every payment for making the business run the risk of getting robbed or losing money. Kind of like how postage stamps are getting more and more expensive because nobody ever mails anything any more and the postal service needs to earn its costs back. I bet many people will very quickly lose interest in keeping cash around when the additional cost of businesses accepting cash hits them in their wallets.

kbrannigan 4y ago

Look at the comments on this post. If you prefer cash you must be a criminal. An ex girlfriend made me feel bad for paying cash at a restaurant, because people would think we're drug dealers. A legal, government backed way to pay for good and services. Is culturally frowned upon or discouraged. What a world

Towaway69 4y ago
It's the same wierd argument why they got rid of 500€ note - only criminals use them for drug deals. As if the drug trade slowed because they banned the note. No, the trade will continue as long as there are buyers and stuff for humans to trade.
- jeltz 4y ago
  Assuming the claims is correct: Why should the government waste money on having a bill which is almost only used to make drug deals easier? Better to just remove it out of circulation. Yes, it will not stop drug trade, but why should the government actively help facilitate it?
  - Towaway69 4y ago
    And if the claim isn't true? Did anyone in government actually verify it? Did the drug trade stop? If the claim is true, shouldn't the 100€ note also be taken out circulation? In fact, all notes? Where does one draw the line? Perhaps money is the root of all evil. Be it digital or plastic or paper. Drug cartels actually also use stolen artworks as currency. Which would now make an interesting study to see whether art crime actually increased since the 500€ went out of circulation ;)

jeroenhd 4y ago

Cash brings an inherent risk to the business that digital payments don't. There's no getting robbed at 10PM while bringing the day's revenue to the bank if the transfers are all digital, there's no emptying the cash registers when you can get a hundred or so euros at most. Insurance companies certainly don't lower their prices if you decide to keep a few thousand euros in the registers all day. In supermarkets here, the cash in the registers need to be counted every so often to make sure nobody is stealing from the company (because that has happened and will always happen). This burden and the cost of labour associated with it also generally disappears when customers pay digitally only. Don't get me wrong, though I myself pay almost exclusively digitally these days, I'm definitely anti digital-only payments. An internet or power outage could take out the ability to pay for anything for hours or days if society goes full-digital. However, the fact that cash has many downsides to the business owners is often forgotten in these discussions. I can imagine a future in which the risk of paying by cash is compounded by higher prices. Payment by card is already free (well, the 25 cents transaction fee is worked into the product price) but I can see the reverse happening, like a ±€2 charge for every payment for making the business run the risk of getting robbed or losing money. Kind of like how postage stamps are getting more and more expensive because nobody ever mails anything any more and the postal service needs to earn its costs back. I bet many people will very quickly lose interest in keeping cash around when the additional cost of businesses accepting cash hits them in their wallets.