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Thread: America moves closer to being a cashless society

  1. #1

    Exclamation America moves closer to being a cashless society

    And every time you idiots swipe that plastic or finger $#@! that sail fawn, the banksters make more money.


    America moves closer to being a cashless society

    https://www.marketwatch.com/story/am...ety-2018-09-11

    Published: Sept 11, 2018 10:34 a.m. ET

    Why businesses love it
    Bloomberg
    A customer uses an iPhone to make a payment on a Square device in San Francisco.
    By
    BOB
    SULLIVAN
    If you want to buy a beer at Flatstick pub in Seattle, don’t whip out a $10 bill to pay—you’ll walk away thirsty. Flatstick, a hot new mini-chain in the Pacific Northwest, doesn’t take cash. Neither does Bluestone Lane, a coffee chain with locations in New York, Philly and D.C. Patrons there have to pay with plastic or an app called LevelUp. Want to grab a Sweetgreen salad for lunch with cash? No can-do at many locations.

    Cashless commerce is popping up around the country, particularly in restaurants catering to a younger crowd, which is likely to leave home without any greenbacks, or even a wallet, and instead choose to live life with a smartphone and a few credit or debit cards attached.

    Businesses who’ve gone cashless rave about the results. Flatstick owner Sam Largent told me plastic-only reduces error rates during times of complex accounting, such as calculating tips when shifts change.

    Cash sure seems to be on the ropes. The dollar value of cash transactions sank 7% from 2010 to 2015, according to The Nilson Report, while credit and debit card payments rose nearly 50%. Meanwhile, ATMs, which had their 50th birthday last year, are disappearing around the block and around the world, signaling the decline of the “cash run.”

    Of course, cash-free environments aren’t brand new. Airlines went cashless a long time ago (for meals and other onboard purchases), as did parking lots and other unmanned spots. And with the meteoric rise of friend-to-friend payment apps like Venmo, Zelle and Splitwise, we’re no longer throwing $20 bills on the table after a meal (or handing over cash or checks to roommates for the gas bill).

    So you’re saying cash is over?

    Not exactly. The Federal Reserve said in 2016 that 35% of U.S. transactions were still made in cash. And the amount of cash—literally, legal tender notes—being used around the world continues to rise. Plus, there are still plenty of obstacles to going cashless.

    For starters, the FDIC estimates that 7% of the U.S. population is still unbanked. In other words, they live an all-cash life, so would be entirely shut out in a cashless society. Some also like the anonymity that comes with paying cash. Others use cash for budgeting reasons (when you’re out of cash, you stop spending).

    Don’t miss: This 30-year-old financial term was finally added to the dictionary

    Still, on a global scale, eliminating cash offers some intriguing possibilities. Merely the elimination of large denominations, which the EU has done, makes life much harder for large-enterprise criminals, like drug dealers. It’s far more conspicuous to carry around large piles of small bills. If all financial transactions were electronic, hiding crime would become much more difficult. There’s also the convenience factor of pulling out plastic (or your phone) instead of counting bills.

    What does this all mean for law-abiding citizens like me?
    Forces will undoubtedly continue nudging us toward a cashless life, which comes with plenty of benefits. Just remember that cashless spending is frictionless—it’s just a swipe of a card or a wave of your phone. So, if you’re already prone to overspending, get creative about curbing those tendencies and making sure your savings goals are on track.
    Another mark of a tyrant is that he likes foreigners better than citizens, and lives with them and invites them to his table; for the one are enemies, but the Others enter into no rivalry with him. - Aristotle's Politics Book 5 Part 11



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  3. #2
    The Federal Reserve said in 2016 that 35% of U.S. transactions were still made in cash.
    That's it? I'm a dinosaur, at least 80% of all my financial transactions are in cash. It's not possible to do it all in cash or I would.
    "The Patriarch"

  4. #3

  5. #4
    Been headed in that direction for quite some time... myself, I still like using cash for alot of smaller purchases... still write checks to pay my bills.


    Don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows

  6. #5
    (Sorry for the late bump. Was just talking about this tonight.)

    Quote Originally Posted by Origanalist View Post
    That's it? I'm a dinosaur, at least 80% of all my financial transactions are in cash. It's not possible to do it all in cash or I would.
    The way I see it, in this day in age, they monitor cash just as easily as a card. Every bill is numbered and recorded each time it passes through a bank. It's not hard to know which cash went to which person in between. At least on your higher denominations. People take that money out of one bank, give to a business, who then puts it right back in another bank. Sure, the ones and fives might get recirculated a few times before they hit the bank, but with fewer people using cash?? It just means the money doesn't flow as fast between people. So it's more likely to return the bank these days.

    They got computers crunching data a lot harder than this.

    If anyone is trying to hide from the evil eye, this is probably not a very effective way to do so. They've gotcha either way.
    "And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works." - Bastiat

    "It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." - Voltaire

  7. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by CaptUSA View Post
    If anyone is trying to hide from the evil eye, this is probably not a very effective way to do so. They've gotcha either way.
    No way is very effective anymore.

    The technologists and futurists have "pooh poohed" people's legitimate concerns about the creeping electric eyes of Big Brother so many times, thus ensuring that no real resistance was put up, that the web of surveillance is now total and pervasive.

    That said: why make it easy for the $#@!ers?

    As far as I know, individual bills are not yet tied to individuals for the purposes of tracking purchases, or, more importantly, blocking purchases based on an individual's personal attributes.

    Furthermore, why should I make the $#@!ers rich?

    The banksters make money off every single CC/Debit card purchase, that we all pay for.

  8. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by OP article
    What does this all mean for law-abiding citizens like me?
    It means you're a literal slave, working for absolutely free. They don't even have to spend the 2 cents to print ink onto paper....
    "Let it not be said that we did nothing."-Ron Paul

    "We have set them on the hobby-horse of an idea about the absorption of individuality by the symbolic unit of COLLECTIVISM. They have never yet and they never will have the sense to reflect that this hobby-horse is a manifest violation of the most important law of nature, which has established from the very creation of the world one unit unlike another and precisely for the purpose of instituting individuality."- A Quote From Some Old Book

  9. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Anti Federalist View Post
    As far as I know, individual bills are not yet tied to individuals for the purposes of tracking purchases...
    Oh sure... they are tracked when they need to be. They have the data; it's just a matter of whether or not they choose to use it. Make a big enough stink and they will choose it. Agreed on everything else in your post.

    (BTW, I'm not a technologist or a futurist - I just choose to focus on the positive side... Maybe a stupid "optimist"?)
    "And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works." - Bastiat

    "It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." - Voltaire



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  11. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by CaptUSA View Post
    Oh sure... they are tracked when they need to be. They have the data; it's just a matter of whether or not they choose to use it. Make a big enough stink and they will choose it. Agreed on everything else in your post.

    (BTW, I'm not a technologist or a futurist - I just choose to focus on the positive side... Maybe a stupid "optimist"?)
    Not meant as a personal jab at all, just a general remark at folks who blindly embrace all that is "new" and dismiss as backward thinking Luddities those people sitting on the sidelines and hollering "That's not a good idea, you're fixin' to $#@! up, badly".

  12. #10
    “Say it with cash” that’s my motto...
    "Nobody wins in a Dairy Challenge" ~ Kenny Rogers, RIP


    "When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken, or cease to be honest." ~ anonymous


    “The fate of all mankind I see
    Is in the hands of fools” ~ King Crimson

  13. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Anti Federalist View Post
    Not meant as a personal jab at all, just a general remark at folks who blindly embrace all that is "new" and dismiss as backward thinking Luddities those people sitting on the sidelines and hollering "That's not a good idea, you're fixin' to $#@! up, badly".
    I get it. I wasn't speaking for anyone else, either.

    I just see technology as something that comes regardless of what anyone does, so I try to not to blame the technology, but the people who misuse it. And then I try to see the good that people who don't misuse it get.
    "And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works." - Bastiat

    "It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." - Voltaire

  14. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by sam1952 View Post
    “Say it with cash” that’s my motto...
    Well, then, practice what you preach!

    Instead of posting, you should just:



  15. #13
    I always try to use cash whenever I can.
    "Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration is minding my own business."

    Calvin Coolidge

  16. #14
    Of course they want a cashless society, you'd get rid of the entire underground economy. I mean while a good citizen would never consider not reporting every payment of cash, I'm sure there are unscrupulous citizens who try to screw the government out of taxes.

    It amazes me that simply depositing a few hundred dollars into a business account in cash will require a driver's license scan now at a Chase, and this doesn't even raise an eyebrow. This doesn't seem to happen all the time but has happened enough that seems it's a regular policy. Most tellers don't even understand when I start talking about big brother.

    Bitcoin has survived over 10 years and while not widespread it shows there is a demand for a non bank method of value transmission. Other crypto spin offs are working on making as anonymous as possible crypto... the fact that they haven't all been shut down gives me a tiny bit of hope that everything won't be tracked.
    “…let us teach them that all who draw breath are of equal worth, and that those who seek to press heel upon the throat of liberty, will fall to the cry of FREEDOM!!!” – Spartacus, War of the Damned

    BTC: 1AFbCLYU3G1dkbsSJnk3spWeEwpqYVC2Pq



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