3 ms·
What Europe has since a few year though is a right to a bank account. Banks must offer basic accounts to anybody (at nondiscriminatory pricing) and unless it's
by arlcode 3y ago
What Europe has since a few year though is a right to a bank account.
Banks must offer basic accounts to anybody (at nondiscriminatory pricing) and unless it's used for fraud or if the fee cannot be paid isn't allowed to close it.
That certainly helps.
- BiteCode_dev 3y agoIt helps with accessibility, not with the problem that cashless is dangerous for democracy. Everytime you pay anything with something else than cash, it is recorded: the amount, the time, the place, and the nature of the thing you buy. There is no way to go to a gay bar (or another place loaded with consequences) without a trace. And this is needed for human dignity. There is way to support a controversial political movement without a trace. And this is necessary for new idea to come up. There is not way for kids to do dumb things without a trace. And this is necessary for growing. There is no way to pay for something when electricity or network goes down. And this is necessary to deal with crisis. Basically, cash buys humanity margin of maneuver, and a fallback against any decaying societal or technical system.
- mdp2021 3y agoYes but some points have priorities: -- "Every exchange will leave a full track - where, when, what" already should raise a "you'd better be joking". -- Failsafe fallback: a system depending on running infrastructure (electricity, internet, servers etc.) is badly conceived.
- reaperducer 3y agoThere is no way to pay for something when electricity or network goes down. And this is necessary to deal with crisis. I've noticed that the loudest voices in favor of getting rid of cash usually seem to live in places that have few, if any, natural disasters.
- mdp2021 3y ago> natural disasters Infrastructure does not fail only because of natural disasters.
- BiteCode_dev 3y agoIndeed. Or war. Or just bad engineering.
- pessimizer 3y ago> There is no way to go to a gay bar (or another place loaded with consequences) without a trace. And this is needed for human dignity. We should remember that this is also true about phones.
- staunton 3y agoYou can leave your phone at home and go to a bar no problem. If you can't pay for drinks, that's a problem.
- BiteCode_dev 3y agoOp has a point since one phone is enough to ruin the privacy of a place. It doesn't need to be yours to cause some trouble.
- OkayPhysicist 3y agoCredit cards actually don't need electricity or the network to be up. That was kind of the original point. The business that you're paying trusts the card issuer to pay them on your behalf, so they can communicate the payment details to the bank asynchronously, and after supplying the paid for goods or services. But the rest of your point stands. Cash grants a lot more flexibility.
- sneak 3y agoThat hasn't been true for years. CC processing today 100% requires power and network.
- BiteCode_dev 3y agoI don't know of any business in my country that has the manual machine anymore. But even if it did, how would visa process the recipe without power ? Their money is all bits. Cash is cash, even when there is no accounting.