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Is Australia Becoming A Cashless Society? (abc.net.au)
Australia's Reserve Bank will roll out an instantaneous money-transferring technology later this year, "which will push Australia even further towards being a cashless society," according to ABC. An anonymous reader quotes their report:
In 2014, 12 financial institutions signed up to build the "New Payment Platform," partly as a way of bringing Australia up to speed with other countries that are ahead in the race to becoming completely cashless. Sweden is on track to become the world's first completely cashless economy, and just last November India got rid of its highest denomination bills, effectively eliminating 90 per cent of its paper money... The "New Payment Platform" will mean money can be transferred almost instantaneously, even when the payer and payee are members of different banks.
"It's estimated that somewhere between about $3.5 and $5 billion in Australia every year is lost in tax revenue due to the sort of cash economy," says an economics professor at the University of New South Wales, who predicts Australia could be cash-free by 2020. The Australian Payments Association reports that over 75% of the country's face-to-face payments are already tap-and-go, and ATM withdrawals have sunk to a 15-year low.
"It's estimated that somewhere between about $3.5 and $5 billion in Australia every year is lost in tax revenue due to the sort of cash economy," says an economics professor at the University of New South Wales, who predicts Australia could be cash-free by 2020. The Australian Payments Association reports that over 75% of the country's face-to-face payments are already tap-and-go, and ATM withdrawals have sunk to a 15-year low.
The supermarket duopoly offer POS cash withdrawals with no fee.
Contrast that with an ATM where you have to hunt for your bank's machine or face an extortionate $2 charge to withdraw from a rival bank's machine. Hence an increasing number of people just get $100 or so out in cash when they buy their groceries.
There are all sorts who want information on your shopping history. The NSA is passe. We know the government has access to most digital shopping data. If you are an undocumented immigrant or buying anything tangentially illegal or without paying the appropriate tax they can look it up. Today's argument is generally more marketing or blackmail oriented.
I pay cash for just about everything. I often get discounts so the merchant doesn't have to pay the 3% charge. Win win.
What this kind of paranoid person doesn't understand is that they can already track you to an incredible degree
Who is "they"? The NSA probably has access to my credit card transactions. But my neighbor doesn't, nor does my mother-in-law, nor do the local police.
... so ultimately all you're doing is arguing against having the convenience.
Isn't that enough to oppose this? How many reasons do I need to tell the government to get out of my personal business? Assuming the government can already track all my monetary transactions that does not mean I am somehow obligated to make it easier for them.
The reasons black markets exist is because the government has imposed some restrictions on trade. By shifting what would have been legal before into the black market now the government has the ability to fine, imprison, or otherwise make life more miserable for something we used to be able to do freely.
We should not have to turn to the black market to get what we want and need. Places where black markets thrive tend to be tyrannical hellholes where mothers have to sell their hair to wig makers to get enough cash to buy milk for their children.
Free markets are where bread sits in lines waiting for me. The alternative is me waiting in lines for bread.
I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
Sales tax and a number of other taxes were phased out when the GST (goods and service tax) was introduced. It didn't simplify the system as much as it should have but it went partway there. Yes, we have income tax, but I don't find it burdensome - even the first AUD$18,200 is tax-free.There's no property tax, but someone is proposing to phase out contract stamp duty in favour of a property tax. Yes, there are "sin' taxes. Don't know what a homeowner tax is, but we do pay council rates for roads & parks, sewerage, rubbish collection, etc. No poll tax.
Wasteful spending aside, taxes are the way a government collects revenue to spend on public utilities and services - major infrastructure like interstate highways, health care (Australia has universal free health care), defense, and so on. All that is common knowledge.
The GST was proposed to even out the tax burden - have a broad-based goods and service tax (with some exemptions), instead of a narrow tax here, and another one there, and more over there. It spreads the tax burden more evenly over the population. The super-rich can avoid income tax with creative accounting, but they can't avoid 10% GST on their fine wines and home cinemas. That's the theory, anyway.
They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
Obviously you aren't Australian then. In Australia paywave/paypass are many times faster than cash. I still use cash for a lot of things but when speed is needed you can't beat the speed of contactless payments.
I don't fucking know.
For those Americans confused by the above "chop-chop" is tobacco sold outside the mainstream so not subject to very high rates of tax on over the counter tobacco products. While there is likely to be a massive black market it's probably less than the tax even just Apple avoids in Australia.
and lastly, because if everyone pays their rightful share, each individual can pay less. This is not about "extra" taxation, or taxing "3, 4, 5" times, but simply applying the same rules everyone. It is amusing to me that you assume that everyone in the world has the same allergic reaction to paying taxes that you do, because you assume that everyone else in the world shares the same jaundiced view of government and the social contract that many of you do - not just those on the libertarian fringe either, it seems, but reg'lar folks who rather unbelievably to me and many in my country, elected a president that publicly brags about paying little or no taxes. In Australia a political campaign would be dead in the water after such an admission, - the "obligation to shareholders blah blah blah" argument being self-serving bullshit in the case of a privately-held company like Trump Organization anyhow - because although we're not the fair and equitable nation we once were there's a pretty strong feeling that our obligations must balance our privileges. Of which we have many. As it happens I don't think GST or other consumption taxes that this kind of payment system will help with tracking are the best kind of tax, but they're not entirely regressive either. For mine, a single, universal no-exemption financial transaction tax is the way to go.