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>in this piece I’ll lay out 10 talking points that you can use to make even the most ardent card-tapper have second thoughts about a totally bank-dominated soci

>in this piece I’ll lay out 10 talking points that you can use to make even the most ardent card-tapper have second thoughts about a totally bank-dominated society. The writer is starting with the wrong premise: that people who prefer a cashless system don't understand these things. They do. They just don't care enough to do much about it. It's not about a lack of understanding, it's about convenience. A cashless system tends to be more convenient, and that's why people like it.

NickC25 3y ago
>It's not about a lack of understanding, it's about convenience. A cashless system tends to be more convenient, and that's why people like it. Cashless is definitely more convenient (I'll give you that all day, because it absolutely is), and it's great, but there are a bunch of economic actors that would prefer to be able to pay in cash or accept cash payments, and not all of those actors are illicit actors - there are plenty of legitimate businesses that would prefer to deal in cash whenever possible. Plenty of service people such as waiters, barbers, drivers, etc...benefit from cash. I think the lower on the economic rung you go, the more useful cash is. I'm a small biz owner myself, and I accept digital payments with no problem, but those same digital payment platforms take a nice cut of my margins. I can offer better prices if I don't have to fork over 2-5% to a 3rd party that provides little value outside of someone being able to pay me by tapping our phones together.
- OfSanguineFire 3y ago
  While you claim that there are a whole range of businesses keen on getting cash, this is region-specific. You can go to e.g. Sweden and find that those small businesses often refuse to take your cash no matter how much you plead. As soon as it becomes easy for every single person in an economy to take digital payments, even if they are just selling strawberries by the roadside or whatever, then even the people towards the bottom of the economic rung might go cashless.

NickC25 3y ago

>It's not about a lack of understanding, it's about convenience. A cashless system tends to be more convenient, and that's why people like it. Cashless is definitely more convenient (I'll give you that all day, because it absolutely is), and it's great, but there are a bunch of economic actors that would prefer to be able to pay in cash or accept cash payments, and not all of those actors are illicit actors - there are plenty of legitimate businesses that would prefer to deal in cash whenever possible. Plenty of service people such as waiters, barbers, drivers, etc...benefit from cash. I think the lower on the economic rung you go, the more useful cash is. I'm a small biz owner myself, and I accept digital payments with no problem, but those same digital payment platforms take a nice cut of my margins. I can offer better prices if I don't have to fork over 2-5% to a 3rd party that provides little value outside of someone being able to pay me by tapping our phones together.

OfSanguineFire 3y ago
While you claim that there are a whole range of businesses keen on getting cash, this is region-specific. You can go to e.g. Sweden and find that those small businesses often refuse to take your cash no matter how much you plead. As soon as it becomes easy for every single person in an economy to take digital payments, even if they are just selling strawberries by the roadside or whatever, then even the people towards the bottom of the economic rung might go cashless.