4 ms·

Refusing cash was never about COVID or the environment, it's about keeping homeless people out.

pengaru 3y ago
They were definitely already pushing cashless pre-COVID, but COVID green-lighted a lot more of it in the name of flattening the curve by being "contactless". The same rationale was being used to push the QR codes and deprecating paper menus. COVID-19 is a master class of "never let a good crisis go to waste". BTW it wasn't strictly about keeping homeless out, it's also to prevent theft of the register by staff. This is definitely not a one-dimensional issue. But I do think the discrimination against the homeless facet is all the cities need to outright ban the practice for their licensed public-serving businesses.
- JCharante 3y ago
  Staff would also prefer not counting cash and having to be responsible. My first job in high school was at Dunkin and I hated having to count $2000 worth of coins and bills at the end of my shift. I'd gladly break a $50 or $100 bill for people so that it'd be easier to count at the end of the day. One day my drawer was $100 short and thankfully the manager believed me. Protocol is for each staff to have their own drawers and swap them in/out but in practice everybody shares drawers making accountability more like whomever the manager dislikes that week. Homeless people should just buy a prepaid debit card and top it up at supermarkets. Cash has no place in a modern society.
  - DiscourseFan 3y ago
    >Cash has no place in a modern society. Cash is an anonymous form of payment, it is secure and untraceable. Anyone can get it and it is not associated with anyone in particular. It doesn't just have a place in modern society, as long as we live in a money system, to protect the privacy of citizens it is necessary that we use cash.
    - JCharante 3y ago
      If you still want privacy you can one-time use prepaid cards.
      - Grimburger 3y ago
        Which come with a large fee compared to the value they hold.
  - CaptainZapp 3y ago
    Poor people who need to rely on pre paid debit cards, which charge for every transaction, including topping the card up. It's expensive to be poor and the vultures are even more on you ripping you off. Obligatory addition: https://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/ https://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/
    - JCharante 3y ago
      I know there are activation fees but I didn't know there are per-transaction fees. A system like Bangkok's Rabbit cards would be better (no fees beyond the fee for getting a card) or Japan's SUICA cards. They are transportation cards that also get accepted at convenience stores and some restaurants and you can top them up at any train stop.
  - Grimburger 3y ago
    > Cash has no place in a modern society. In my country your worthiness to get a homeloan goes down for even a few dollars worth of lotteries tickets on your bank statement. Same with alcohol or cigarettes.
    - throwawayadvsec 3y ago
      it makes sense though
  - southernplaces7 3y ago
    So because of some bullshit, trifling adolescent inconveniences you had with cash, you now neatly enclose yourself off into a categorical belief that cash "has no place" in society. Never mind how the prepaid cards you speak of only encourage more parasitic fees and costs to the most basic aspects of living for poor people, or how the fundamental privacy of paying for daily things without having all your choices registered and judged by cold, remote, closed systems is something to applaud. But none of those matter details right? The important thing for how the world should work is your own little bubble of personal comfort. A rather disgusting number of people on this site share these kinds of narrowly elitist ideas of how the world should work, based purely on their own privileged experiences and notions.
arp242 3y ago
Many businesses dislike cash because it's just a hassle. It takes more time to charge and give change, you need to make sure you have change, employees can steal it, you can be robbed, you need to count it, you can make errors, you need to bring it to a bank. I'm not from the US so I'm a little bit hesitant to push back too strongly on this as I can't speak to the situation there, but from my experience homeless people don't really factor in.

They were definitely already pushing cashless pre-COVID, but COVID green-lighted a lot more of it in the name of flattening the curve by being "contactless". The same rationale was being used to push the QR codes and deprecating paper menus. COVID-19 is a master class of "never let a good crisis go to waste". BTW it wasn't strictly about keeping homeless out, it's also to prevent theft of the register by staff. This is definitely not a one-dimensional issue. But I do think the discrimination against the homeless facet is all the cities need to outright ban the practice for their licensed public-serving businesses.

JCharante 3y ago
Staff would also prefer not counting cash and having to be responsible. My first job in high school was at Dunkin and I hated having to count $2000 worth of coins and bills at the end of my shift. I'd gladly break a $50 or $100 bill for people so that it'd be easier to count at the end of the day. One day my drawer was $100 short and thankfully the manager believed me. Protocol is for each staff to have their own drawers and swap them in/out but in practice everybody shares drawers making accountability more like whomever the manager dislikes that week. Homeless people should just buy a prepaid debit card and top it up at supermarkets. Cash has no place in a modern society.
- DiscourseFan 3y ago
  >Cash has no place in a modern society. Cash is an anonymous form of payment, it is secure and untraceable. Anyone can get it and it is not associated with anyone in particular. It doesn't just have a place in modern society, as long as we live in a money system, to protect the privacy of citizens it is necessary that we use cash.
  - JCharante 3y ago
    If you still want privacy you can one-time use prepaid cards.
    - Grimburger 3y ago
      Which come with a large fee compared to the value they hold.
- CaptainZapp 3y ago
  Poor people who need to rely on pre paid debit cards, which charge for every transaction, including topping the card up. It's expensive to be poor and the vultures are even more on you ripping you off. Obligatory addition: https://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/ https://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/
  - JCharante 3y ago
    I know there are activation fees but I didn't know there are per-transaction fees. A system like Bangkok's Rabbit cards would be better (no fees beyond the fee for getting a card) or Japan's SUICA cards. They are transportation cards that also get accepted at convenience stores and some restaurants and you can top them up at any train stop.
- Grimburger 3y ago
  > Cash has no place in a modern society. In my country your worthiness to get a homeloan goes down for even a few dollars worth of lotteries tickets on your bank statement. Same with alcohol or cigarettes.
  - throwawayadvsec 3y ago
    it makes sense though
- southernplaces7 3y ago
  So because of some bullshit, trifling adolescent inconveniences you had with cash, you now neatly enclose yourself off into a categorical belief that cash "has no place" in society. Never mind how the prepaid cards you speak of only encourage more parasitic fees and costs to the most basic aspects of living for poor people, or how the fundamental privacy of paying for daily things without having all your choices registered and judged by cold, remote, closed systems is something to applaud. But none of those matter details right? The important thing for how the world should work is your own little bubble of personal comfort. A rather disgusting number of people on this site share these kinds of narrowly elitist ideas of how the world should work, based purely on their own privileged experiences and notions.

arp242 3y ago

Many businesses dislike cash because it's just a hassle. It takes more time to charge and give change, you need to make sure you have change, employees can steal it, you can be robbed, you need to count it, you can make errors, you need to bring it to a bank. I'm not from the US so I'm a little bit hesitant to push back too strongly on this as I can't speak to the situation there, but from my experience homeless people don't really factor in.