Slashdot Mirror
'The Cashless Society is a Con -- and Big Finance is Behind It' (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader quotes this opinion piece by former derivatives broker Brett Scott:
Banks are closing ATMs and branches in an attempt to 'nudge' users towards digital services -- and it's all for their own benefit... I recently got a letter from my bank telling me that they are shutting down local branches because "customers are turning to digital", and they are thus "responding to changing customer preferences". I am one of the customers they are referring to, but I never asked them to shut down the branches... I am much more likely to "choose" a digital option if the banks deliberately make it harder for me to choose a non-digital option. In behavioural economics this is referred to as "nudging". If a powerful institution wants to make people choose a certain thing, the best strategy is to make it difficult to choose the alternative...
Digital systems may be "convenient", but they often come with central points of failure. Cash, on the other hand, does not crash. It does not rely on external data centres, and is not subject to remote control or remote monitoring. The cash system allows for an unmonitored "off the grid" space. This is also the reason why financial institutions and financial technology companies want to get rid of it. Cash transactions are outside the net that such institutions cast to harvest fees and data.
A cashless society brings dangers. People without bank accounts will find themselves further marginalised, disenfranchised from the cash infrastructure that previously supported them. There are also poorly understood psychological implications about cash encouraging self-control while paying by card or a mobile phone can encourage spending. And a cashless society has major surveillance implications.
While a cashless society might make it cheaper to run a bank, "A cashless society is not in your interest..." argues the author.
"We must recognise every cash machine that is shut down as another step in financial institutions' campaign to nudge you into their digital enclosures."
Digital systems may be "convenient", but they often come with central points of failure. Cash, on the other hand, does not crash. It does not rely on external data centres, and is not subject to remote control or remote monitoring. The cash system allows for an unmonitored "off the grid" space. This is also the reason why financial institutions and financial technology companies want to get rid of it. Cash transactions are outside the net that such institutions cast to harvest fees and data.
A cashless society brings dangers. People without bank accounts will find themselves further marginalised, disenfranchised from the cash infrastructure that previously supported them. There are also poorly understood psychological implications about cash encouraging self-control while paying by card or a mobile phone can encourage spending. And a cashless society has major surveillance implications.
While a cashless society might make it cheaper to run a bank, "A cashless society is not in your interest..." argues the author.
"We must recognise every cash machine that is shut down as another step in financial institutions' campaign to nudge you into their digital enclosures."
Money can be stolen even when it's not cash. Credit cards get stolen and those companies have to cover the fraud themselves. Wasn't it a few days ago that Slashdot reported a digital coin site had been hacked and robbed?
Perhaps you don't get out much. Many POS systems have contact payments already built-in. With Apple Pay I've paid T-Mobile at their store, and bought items at New Seasons, Walgreens, McDonalds, and vending machines at the Community College and University in town. Those are just the ones off the top of my head. Admittedly, I haven't noticed cryptocurrency payments being accepted anywhere than online, but since I don't have any I haven't really bothered to look or inquire.
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." [Thomas Jefferson]
I love cash, but electronic money is more convenient, more versatile and great.
Just ask a non-bancarized guy in Kenya or Tanzania using M-Pesa about it... And trust me when I tell you that Safaricom and Vodafone did not implement this from the goodness of their hears, but for pure profit, and yet, it ended up raising the living standards of the people at large, and specialy of those non-bancarized.
Sources:
The economist Sept 26-oct 2, 2009
And IEEE Spectrum here:
https://spectrum.ieee.org/stat...
Yes, if we look at electronic money and a cashless society from the optic of a westener who has enough diposable income to aford a computer and knows what this "internet" thing is, is all doom and gloom.
But once we try to get ourselves in the whorn -out shoes of less fortunate people that make less than $1 a day (and for me, being in Venezuela, this is easier, as is not a tought experiemnt, but a reality I see everyday) we see that electronic money can be beneficial for everyone, warts and all...
So, I for one, welcome our e-money overlords... Yes, I wish there would still be cash, but... whatever benefits the many is ok by me...
*** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!
Banks hate cash. It requires physical handling. It can be stolen. It wears out. It "isn't working for us" as it sits in a vault, an ATM, or an armored car. Electronic money can be working all the time - earning interest, being leveraged, being arbitraged, whatever. Cash is so "static" compared to electronic funds.
The Brave New World is almost here. Add an implant and the process will be complete. Can you imagine being arrested on suspicion of a serious crime because 30 minutes prior to the crime, in the "walking distance" proximity, you bought a pack of gum with your implant (or your debit card, or your smartphone)?
I'm rather old, my friends, and as you revel in your youth (assuming you are there), marvel at how anyone could be happy to be older. This world is yours. I'll be in it for a little longer, but not nearly as long as so many of you. I suppose cashless is your future - not so much mine.
Actually, cash and any / all deposits and withdraws whether by check, electronic transaction etc starts "working" every night as it's reconciled with the Federal Reserve (or any nation's Central Bank). The true means that bank deposits start "working" is when a Bank makes a loan, which creates money out of thin air ... when they make a loan, they write a check to you (or deposit funds in your account) and that money from that moment exists. Prior to the loan, it didn't exist. That's how banking works (and why it's a critical step in the prosperity of the economy).
Those transactions as well are reconciled with the Central Banks. Central Banks control the money supply by manipulating interest rates ... higher rates mean loans are harder to make, lower rates mean loans are easier to make. Banks only keep a small portion of their loan portfolio in deposits. It varies but can be below 10% deposits to 90% loans. The asset to loan ratio is also manipulated by Central Banks to control the money supply.
So 100 million in cash and checks puttering around a city in an Armoured Car are not only working, they are enabling the bank to make $900 million (for example) in new loans created out of thin air (the borrower's risk of paying it back is the real currency of banking).
Easy Credit is good for the economy although it also runs the risk of inflation, so they can't just do what they want without repercussions. But it creates money that otherwise would not exist, that money is spent (the old Econ textbooks would say a new dollar is spent 7 times, creating $7 in economic benefit. That multiplier might have changed since I was in college, but not by much and with electronic transactions, because they are so quick, it might even be higher than 7x now).
"You must include in gross income in the year of receipt the fair market value of goods or services received from bartering. Generally, you report this income on Form 1040, Schedule C.pdf, Profit or Loss from Business (Sole Proprietorship), or Form 1040, Schedule C-EZ.pdf, Net Profit from Business (Sole Proprietorship)."
https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc420
I love it when I can catch out so-called reasonable people that still ask for more conservative-bias koolaid.
No, there was actually next to nothing done congressionally during "the first few months" of Trump's term. By 4/18/18, Congress has passed only 25 joint resolutions, barely 5 of which could you conceivably consider real legislation. And that's only if you consider a law to promote female entrepreneurs and another to promote female astronauts as real work, otherwise you're down to 3 at best.
Cashless means, ultimately, that no transaction happens without somebody getting to skim a little something off the top in the form of fees. You can't accept money digitally without paying somebody to provide that service. Some places even charge a "convenience fee" that is passed on to customers for paying a bill with a credit card. It's the pinnacle of racketeering.
Why can't we go back to using jumpers to configure slot adapter cards? Why? I say!
Or the opposite. You just don't know who is going to have power over you and what their believes might be.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism