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Weird do over here - cashlessness was accelerated enormously when a wave of Eastern European beggars hit the city, and it was felt it would be a deterrent to them. Obviously they just got the necessary phone apps and cracked on. Now they're wanting to pivot back to cash on account of fearing Russian cyber attacks on the banking infrastructure, but without any great incentive it's one of those where the toothpaste has long left the tube.

I very rarely carry any cash, except when planning on going to bars in the city. And yeah, I need a card to get that cash in the first place.

I would not mind seeing paper cash go away.

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Sun Dec 15, 2024 8:43 pm Crap. As if buying illegal drugs wasn’t enough of a hassle already.

That’s what bitcoin is for

In the last year or two, smaller NYC businesses are fighting cashlessness in their own cool ways. Many are now enacting 3% surcharges or dollar fees if you pay w/a card or an app. One Chinese restaurant I know of discounts you 15% if you pay cash.

Reliance on cashlessness might as well be endorsing shitty credit-card companies and predatory lending practices. Sure, Whole Foods can well fucking afford the bite credit cards take from its profits, but my butcher or a Chinatown fruit vendor cannot.

It's also been proven over and over again that people who pay cash scrutinize their purchases more carefully and go into way less debt. Never mind the ethics regarding low-income people and the elderly, who often don't qualify for cards and/or have no idea how the fuck Zelle works.

The only upside of cashlessness is that businesses tend to get robbed less, but increasingly sophisticated hacking is already changing that.

Keep the world tangible, please.

OrthodoxEaster wrote: Mon Dec 16, 2024 12:02 pm The only upside of cashlessness is that businesses tend to get robbed less

They’re lesser concerns, but it also limits the ability of people to cheat on/avoid taxes.

Wood Goblin wrote:

OrthodoxEaster wrote: Mon Dec 16, 2024 12:02 pm The only upside of cashlessness is that businesses tend to get robbed less

They’re lesser concerns, but it also limits the ability of people to cheat on/avoid taxes.

Fair enough, and completely true.

I'm not saying that things like payroll, home purchases, or cars should be paid in cash, but the whole cashlessness concept is mostly a thing b/c scumbags in the tech and finance worlds profit immensely from it. And the only service they're providing you w/is temporary relief from payment that, unless you pay 100% of your shit off ASAP (which I do), too often comes w/a gigantic catch.

I used to largely deal in cash, and am trying to get back to it. The "cashless society" shit really gained steam during COVID, but it's really just a way for the aforementioned tech/finance douche to exploit you. Cash is still king regardless of local pressure from the perma-N95 crowd. As usual, fuck Elon Musk.

Krev wrote: Mon Dec 16, 2024 12:50 pm I used to largely deal in cash, and am trying to get back to it. The "cashless society" shit really gained steam during COVID, but it's really just a way for the aforementioned tech/finance douche to exploit you. Cash is still king regardless of local pressure from the perma-N95 crowd. As usual, fuck Elon Musk and Peter Thiel.

This is really it. If the whole of society went cashless the consumer should not have to pay any transaction fees, ever.

The idea that a company exists solely to charge money to both the consumer and store operator to facilitate just the exchange of resources between individuals to then allow the actual transaction itself to take place is fucking hilarious really, which is essentially what POS merchants do.

Companies build in the costs of credit card processing to our goods regardless of whether we use credit, then ask us to use debit to save them money on the processing fees. Only Americans can come up with such a naked fucking grift and then convince us we have no other choice.

One thing I’d be curious about is what actually costs the consumer more: the add-on of transaction fees for digital transactions versus the costs associated with handling cash (in security, robberies and thefts, etc).