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Budgeting with the data trail of a card is significantly easier if you have a lot of transactions. It's also generally cheaper due to cashback and other incent

by throwaway22032 1y ago

Budgeting with the data trail of a card is significantly easier if you have a lot of transactions. It's also generally cheaper due to cashback and other incentives. Other than that I've always found the idea that cash is "inconvenient" a bit of a child-like argument. Okay, yeah, you have to count some coins, you also have to brush your teeth and use a knife and fork instead of your hands, come on.

theamk 1y ago
We improve our life with technology all the time. Electric lights, refrigerator, AC, washing machine, dishwasher, electric toothbrush... Nothing "child-like" in trying to make your life better, even in small ways.
- throwaway22032 1y ago
  Sure. I suppose my argument is along the following lines - books are too cumbersome so let's scroll Instagram instead. It's a fake argument, it's not that big a deal, you just didn't care enough about reading books.
  - XorNot 1y ago
    Why would I care about how I pay for things though? You're the one saying I should value some particular method over others. But the reality is I don't care at all: I'm trying to buy milk and go home.
    - throwaway22032 1y ago
      Because there are significant privacy benefits and benefits in removing the middlemen etc. If you don’t care, you don’t care. I gave up a long time ago too. In that case it would be annoying enough if the privacy preserving card were just 1cm longer or something that you wouldn’t use it.
beeflet 1y ago
The necessity of making change is major usability/privacy/fungibility roadblock that shows up in more than just cash. For example, it presents a problem for chaumian e-cash or other private money systems like pre-MLSAG monero. If it's possible to do the equivalent of cash, but with some sort of smartcards that exchange some sort of offline zero-knowlege proofs, then that would be preferable over physical cash, because it could eliminate the need for change or marked bills and it would be even more private.
dlcarrier 1y ago
Most of the places I shop charge a credit card fee that's far more than cashback would get you, so oftan that benefit is moot.

theamk 1y ago

We improve our life with technology all the time. Electric lights, refrigerator, AC, washing machine, dishwasher, electric toothbrush... Nothing "child-like" in trying to make your life better, even in small ways.

throwaway22032 1y ago
Sure. I suppose my argument is along the following lines - books are too cumbersome so let's scroll Instagram instead. It's a fake argument, it's not that big a deal, you just didn't care enough about reading books.
- XorNot 1y ago
  Why would I care about how I pay for things though? You're the one saying I should value some particular method over others. But the reality is I don't care at all: I'm trying to buy milk and go home.
  - throwaway22032 1y ago
    Because there are significant privacy benefits and benefits in removing the middlemen etc. If you don’t care, you don’t care. I gave up a long time ago too. In that case it would be annoying enough if the privacy preserving card were just 1cm longer or something that you wouldn’t use it.

beeflet 1y ago

The necessity of making change is major usability/privacy/fungibility roadblock that shows up in more than just cash. For example, it presents a problem for chaumian e-cash or other private money systems like pre-MLSAG monero. If it's possible to do the equivalent of cash, but with some sort of smartcards that exchange some sort of offline zero-knowlege proofs, then that would be preferable over physical cash, because it could eliminate the need for change or marked bills and it would be even more private.

dlcarrier 1y ago

Most of the places I shop charge a credit card fee that's far more than cashback would get you, so oftan that benefit is moot.