“one step” - you’re being overly generous.
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Not to mention that anyone with creditor problems can’t use normal banks for fear of garnishments. Hence the ubiquitous check cashing and paycheck advance businesses that occupy every street corner in blighted areas.
The numbers of “unbanked” and “underbanked” people are indeed growing. Seventeen million people nationwide are unbanked, up from ten million in 2002; forty-three million are underbanked. In very low-income areas like the South Bronx, where I worked, more than half of the residents have no bank account.
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I know, I just couldn’t resist pulling your chain.
While the pumps will ask for a zip code, the POS equipment inside the station doesn’t. You can just walk in.
The original article gives some good examples:
- The (minority) businessman from Georgia who was relieved of $75,000 he’d raised from relatives to buy a resta> urant in Louisiana.
- The (minority) church leaders who were carrying nearly $30,000 from their Baltimore parishioners to carry out church activities in North Carolina and El Salvador.
- The young college grad with no criminal record on his way to a job interview out West who was relieved of $2,500 lent to him by his dad for the trip.
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We (the United States) has officially become a third world country. As a kid, I remember warnings about cop in countries south of us.
sigh
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I’ll tell you exactly how: Because they have the resources to file appeal after appeal until they bankrupt you waiting for a verdict, and license to harass and intimidate you every step of the way.
It can also be more costly to fight than to just drop it- I once got a $75 traffic ticket that should have gone to the car in front of me- I went to court and the judge found in my favor. The police appealed, I had to go back to court. The cop lied under oath, and they found against me. The cost for me to appeal that decision: $130, with no hard evidence to support either of us: So, I’m now looking at a third day of missed work, a total of six hours drive time, and double the original fine, just to take my chances.
I have a huge respect for police, and endless contempt for those who abuse their oath. Cops that abuse and steal from the people they’re supposed to be protecting from violence and theft should be publicly raped to death, their corpses desecrated, assets seized, and their families deported to the most lawless third world hell hole we can air drop them into.
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Of course they’re not really. But police pretend they are so they have “probably cause” to “search for contraband”.
The average Canadian does not have enough melanin to trigger a traffic stop.
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Correction…
The US is just one peel away from becoming a banana republic.
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So… victim blaming already?
For some places, out of state plates are enough. Out of country plates are magically delicious.
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Because they profile to only get poor and lower-middle class people in these traps. The poor and powerless have virtually no recourse or voice - and the police-industry know this.
They fully understand if they nab a wealthy or politically connected person in their scam the pushback could crumble their system - So they don’t.
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Yes but if the station is busy, that means we will take two to three times longer to get gas. Add to that we then have to estimate how much to put on the pump when we are dealing in a foreign currency and galleons instead of liters… it is just far easier to pay in cash.
You need to tell them your postcode before you’re allowed to buy gas? Who’s recording that? Does the government get to keep a log of where people are buying gas and where they live? Sounds like the start of a plan to take all your guns away.
But seriously, I always love discovering all these extra bits of weirdness from the Land of the Not Quite As Free As It’s Mythology Thinks.
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US credit cards don;t have chips, so PINs can’t be used for offline transactions. A machine can’t check your signature, so I suppose that asking for a ZIP code is the next best thing.
So if you’ve stolen a card you’ve a pretty good guess as to how to buy gas with it? That’s helpful.
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Why don’t they use chip & pin? Cos paying for the cards would impinge on the banks’ freedoms, or what?
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Coming soon.
Well, that took a while. Are they going to start implementing two factor authentication as well? Without airstrikes on their headquarters or anything? You’ll be getting reasonably priced vegetables and sane healthcare as well at this rate 
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