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London Launches World's First Contactless Payment Scheme For Street Performers (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Here's a casualty of the cashless society you might not have previously thought of: the humble street performer. After all, if more of us are paying our way with smartphones and contactless cards, how can we give spare change to musicians on the subway? London has one solution: a new scheme that outfits performers with contactless payment terminals. The project was launched this weekend by the city's mayor, Sadiq Khan, and is a collaboration with Busk In London (a professional body for buskers) and the Swedish payments firm iZettle (which was bought this month by PayPal for $2.2 billion). A select few performers have been testing iZettle's contactless readers on the streets for the past few weeks, and Khan now says the scheme will be rolled out across London's 32 boroughs.
So their modest income is now trackable by the government, if not now, very soon. It’s only a matter of time until even the oldest profession in the world is monitored by governments for taxes due.
And they're jailing journalists for engaging in journalism.
has ever been dumb enough to give money to a street performer?
I have, many times, and in many cities. If they put on a good show, and make me laugh, I am happy to contribute a few bucks to their livelihood and keep street culture alive.
Of course, because you're not a jerk. And you never know who the person with his instrument case open on the ground might someday become. The list of famous musicians who were once buskers is very long.
Rod Steward, B.B. King, Steve Martin, Janis Joplin and Robin Williams were all street performers at one time. Busking is an honorable livelihood.
People who say they would never give money to a busker simply do not have any soul whatsoever.
And let's not forget that master musician Sonny Rollins used to walk the few blocks from his New York apartment to play on the Williamsburg Bridge. He ended up getting a famous album out of it, reigniting his career and creating an image that was later used during the introduction to The Simpsons, with Lisa playing on a bridge. I seem to recall Rollins was even in an episode of the show.
You are welcome on my lawn.
This is a good lesson to you younger Slashdotters out there: racism makes you stupid. Look what's happened to poor Brett Buck (811747). He was probably just like you or me at one time, and could tell the difference between a National Front/Fox News fever dream and reality. Now, all he can do is holler things that are provably untrue.
Don't be like Brett Buck. You have your life ahead of you and there's just no coming back from racist insanity when it gets to that point.
You are welcome on my lawn.
It depends on the performed...
I don't like being approached and harassed, not only when i walk down the street but also in my own home.
However most of these street performers don't harass anyone, they sit in one location and perform, you are free to walk around and ignore them, or you can choose to stop and watch. Some of them are good, some of them suck, but it's no different than a bar or shop which has music or video playing in the window.
If they passively perform and are good i will happily give them money sometimes...
If they aggressively approach me demanding money, disturbing my day or intentionally blocking my path they will get nothing but a hostile stare from me. This applies not only to buskers, but anyone trying to get something from me either for free or in exchange for something.
If your goods are on display and i like the look of them and/or ask about them thats great, if you aggressively try to sell to me i'm not interested.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
Now "Sorry, I don't carry cash" is no excuse.
You can claim that your cell battery is dead.
Or you could just say no. Works just as well. Mind you if lying because you feel you would otherwise be a bad person makes you feel better about yourself then by all means.
This is a good lesson to you younger Slashdotters out there: racism makes you stupid.
Except that "muslim" isn't a race.
Who's stupid again?