2 ms·

Part of the cost of a tax is cognitive. That’s why VAT is a great tax. Build it into the systems. Instead, private credit cards are built into the system. That

Part of the cost of a tax is cognitive. That’s why VAT is a great tax. Build it into the systems. Instead, private credit cards are built into the system. That makes no sense to me. The US system of credit cards does very little for economic stability or growth. It has clear harms to the vulnerable and it hardly benefits the economically stable. Instead, there should be a system of frictionless debit payment. Governments shouldn’t pick winners and losers, but they should build infrastructure for healthy markets. Signing credit card slips? What is that? Clearly irrational. Visa and Mastercard are not just normal market players. American capitalism would function better without the excessive role of credit cards in commerce.

robertlagrant 3y ago
> Instead, there should be a system of frictionless debit payment Here in the UK we have frictionless debit payments and we all use credit cards. Credit cards have a safety net in case of fraud. Much better.
- nicoburns 3y ago
  Do we all use credit cards? I know people who use credit cards specifically for large purchases. I know very few people who use one regularly for groceries, etc.
  - robertlagrant 3y ago
    Seems crazy not to, just because of the risk of tapping a debit card that gets cloned. I only use a debit card to (occasionally) draw cash.
    - Symbiote 3y ago
      Debit cards are 48% of all payments in the UK, and credit cards 8%. Cash is 15%, the rest are various types of bank transfer. Note this is all transactions, online and in-person, including things like subscription renewals. (How can a debit card be cloned, anyway? I'm not aware of any case of this, only a possible problem in the USA where data is 'cloned' onto a magstripe card.) https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/system/files/2022-08/UKF%20Payment%20Markets%20Summary%202022.pdf https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/system/files/2022-08/UKF%20Paym...
      - robertlagrant 3y ago
        Accordingly to ukfinance.org[0] 13% of card transactions are CC and the rest are debit. I'm surprised it's that high for CC, but still, I think it's reasonable to say a lot of people use them. Er yes, you're right about debit card cloning I think. I'll retract that one :) However if purchase something that doesn't work your CC company is jointly liable (crazily enough) and if your card details leak you have protection against fake purchases. Neither is the case for debit card use. [0] https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/data-and-research/data/card-spending https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/data-and-research/data/card-spe...
        deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]

robertlagrant 3y ago

> Instead, there should be a system of frictionless debit payment Here in the UK we have frictionless debit payments and we all use credit cards. Credit cards have a safety net in case of fraud. Much better.

nicoburns 3y ago
Do we all use credit cards? I know people who use credit cards specifically for large purchases. I know very few people who use one regularly for groceries, etc.
- robertlagrant 3y ago
  Seems crazy not to, just because of the risk of tapping a debit card that gets cloned. I only use a debit card to (occasionally) draw cash.
  - Symbiote 3y ago
    Debit cards are 48% of all payments in the UK, and credit cards 8%. Cash is 15%, the rest are various types of bank transfer. Note this is all transactions, online and in-person, including things like subscription renewals. (How can a debit card be cloned, anyway? I'm not aware of any case of this, only a possible problem in the USA where data is 'cloned' onto a magstripe card.) https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/system/files/2022-08/UKF%20Payment%20Markets%20Summary%202022.pdf https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/system/files/2022-08/UKF%20Paym...
    - robertlagrant 3y ago
      Accordingly to ukfinance.org[0] 13% of card transactions are CC and the rest are debit. I'm surprised it's that high for CC, but still, I think it's reasonable to say a lot of people use them. Er yes, you're right about debit card cloning I think. I'll retract that one :) However if purchase something that doesn't work your CC company is jointly liable (crazily enough) and if your card details leak you have protection against fake purchases. Neither is the case for debit card use. [0] https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/data-and-research/data/card-spending https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/data-and-research/data/card-spe...
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]