I know this is an unpopular answer for here*, but: This is dumb. Cash is dumb. Cash-only businesses just want to cheat on their taxes. As for people being underbanked or unbanked, that’s probably so they can cheat on their taxes or because they have some other reason (formal immigration status) to not want to deal with a bank’s links to civil society. And while many citizens are ‘underbanked,’ the idea to turn every Post Office into a FDIC-bank with controlled fees and offerings would make that concern disappear – and provide more and more services to more and more people, and provide the system with more happy participants able to do more things. And finally, making cash is very soon to cost more money than it’s worth – especially dumb, fragile American bills. I’d prefer a cashless society; then again, I’d also like it if offshore banking were illegal, too.
You could try not assuming everyone is a shifty financial criminal.
I’m not assuming all people are shifty financial criminals, but I am saying some people do shifty financial crimes, and as I live in a society, I would like it to be harder for those people. Just as I would like it to be harder for a lot of shitty people to do a lot of shitty things.
As others said, keyword being “debts.”
Wow. No, that’s just not true. Please talk to some people who aren’t like you.
The 1980s called. They want their criminal conspiracies back.
Electronic commerce has become just as easy to cheat with, thanks to the wonders of technology. Credit card skimmers are common and easy to build, and some businesses are even in on installing them. Cash is often the safest way to do business.
“Sorry, Declan (if that’s your real name), the network is down, so we can’t take your card. Do you have any cash for your purchase? No?”
Also, you’re putting the cart before the horse. That nonexistent Post Office bank system needs to be in place before going cashless, assuming it’s a good idea in the first place.
You are correct. They have to take cash. The bill is in fact the settling of a debt.
What a coincidence – I talk to people who aren’t me every day. And I’m not going to say some shit like “If an adult wants something to happen, they make it happen, and if they don’t. they don’t” in regards to banking but I won’t. I MYSELF NOTED THAT THERE IS A LACK OF STRONG COMMUNITY BANKING IN AMERICA and that the Post Office/Community bank solution many – many! – Politicians are talking about would help with that.
I was engaging in light hyperbole for emphasis, and you read past the part where I agreed with the thesis that people are underserved by banks and mentioned how to fix that. But by and large, the Cash economy IS A FUCKING DODGE, and I dislike scams.
One aspect of cashless societies that I don’t see mentioned here yet is during disasters. When a hurricane destroys all means of paying with CC, a lack of a cash system would make survival and recovery inmensly more difficult and painfull if not deadlyer. All countries that are toying with the idea will have to revert to cash eventually. Besides, I like some transactions to be anonymous!
Yes, that’s why drug dealers love it so much.
See, this is when I say “Oh, then I’ll come back later.” Because I don’t see everything in a blinded, Ayn-Rand-by-way-of-Silicon-Valley my-way-or-the-slippery-slope-to-fascism way.
Put it this way: Would I rather be able to pay cash for bullshit or know where, say, Jeffery Epstein’s or Sheldon Adelson’s money was? Because one of those is an inconvenience to me and the other is A FUCKING FLAMING HOLE IN THE SIDE OF CIVILIZATION.
why would legal immigrants not want to deal with a bank
Unclear: People who do not have legal immigration status might not want to work with a bank. Perhaps the parenthetical should have been “(Immigration status).” Because while perhaps no person is illegal, people do illegal things.
so what you really meant to say was
“Illegal immigration” is such a distasteful phrase; let’s go with “(ahem, formal immigration status”), shall we?
Then you’re being privilege-blind. Not everyone has the time to come back later. They have jobs, kids or sick parents to take care of, medicine to buy, or they took hours of public transportation to get where they are in order to make that purchase.
Sometimes people need to make their purchase now, not hours later. I walk around in a big privilege bubble several layers deep. But last year, I had a bad infection that was a few hours from going from local to sepsis. I went to get my prescribed antibiotics and even in the 20 minutes of unnecessary wait the pharmacy caused by not discussing lack of availability to the optional, second drug I was prescribed, I went from feeling bad but functional to near-delirious with fever. If my $9.50 purchase of antibiotics had been delayed by hours because of a down card network, I would have passed out vomiting in that pharmacy and ended up in intensive care. IF I was lucky.
Stop acting like you’ve got all the bases covered when you so obviously don’t.
Did you see the headline where it says “cashless retail businesses”?
Such as not getting nibbled to death by monthly fees, low-balance fees, and any other charges the banks can dream up, which can be significant to those without much money in the first place.
I don’t have all the bases covered. Not what I’m saying. And Yes, if the system is down when you need insulin or an antibiotic, that is a problem. A serious one. Maybe one where we create a NHS where you can, 24-hours and without cost, get the life-saving medicine you need immediately and not one where a for-profit doctor sends you to a for-profit pharmacy where you have 10 minutes to make your $9.80 purchase in 10 minutes before death and we carry cash in case the hypothetical life-saving medicine store is hypothetical hours away from the hypothetical person who needs it and their hypothetical card reader is down.
Again, I can’t convince you of an argument you refuse to fricking hear.
yes, and community banks in post offices would help with that. WHICH I MENTION.
Jesus.
The topic of the OP is about a law right now to combat a problem in NYC and other cities right now. I’m 100% in support of both community banking and M4A. But those are sparkly figments of our imagination right now and have no bearing on current public policy.
The imaginary ones? Are they better than “thoughts and prayers?”
