I'd rather not screw over local businesses with credit card fees - and some give discounts because Interac charges them less than a cent per transaction - and I don't want to deal with a pocketful of change.
I admire your altruism but I think it will not be reciprocated very often. All you are accomplishing is to subsidize others who aren't so generous by taking risk on yourself by using a debit card. The price of those interchange fees (2-4%) is built in to the price. So you are giving a 1-2% tip to a business that already is charging you what (probably) is a profitable amount while taking on significant risk in the process. I like doing business with local merchants too but I'm not about to risk someone emptying my bank account (even briefly) to support them.
Oh, and the price of processing a debit card is not "less than a cent per transaction". It is considerably higher than that. The cap is presently set at $0.21 per swipe plus 0.05% of the value of the transaction.
My (Canadian debit) card has been scanned twice, and both times the bank called me up, notified me of the fraudulent charges on my account, and the money was back in my account in under two weeks.
With a credit card the money wouldn't have left your account at all. What you have described is exactly why debit cards are a bad idea. Even if things work out well, like the did for you, you still are out the money for some period of time.
While I'll accept your counter, it should also be noted that most EU countries are much smaller than the US, which does make it a bit easier to change that infrastructure.
The size of the EU is about the same as the size of the US overall. If anything it is more complicated to change things in the EU because of the national boundaries and the need for cross border cooperation. Hell, the EU managed to get all these countries to change currency which is a MUCH tougher thing to do.
the USA had credit cards first any time you are first you build up a system and its hard to change.
Bogus argument. There has been plenty of time to transition to more secure infrastructure. It's not like the US had some massive lead on the rest of the world in credit card infrastructure. This could have easily been done years ago and the longer we wait the more expensive the change will become.
Whether that is true or not depends entirely on the laws of the particular country and the cardholder agreement.
Your debit card is somehow compromised, someone makes a purchase with it that takes your account to well below the balance you expect to be there, your rent is due and has been set to be paid and the balance in your account is hundreds less than you expect it to be.
Easy solution. Don't use a debit card. Debit cards are a Bad Idea and are completely unnecessary. Use a credit card or use cash. Plenty of banks will give you an ATM card with no debit card features if you ask.
In all the time I've spent in America I don't believe I've ever seen anyone really check the signature against the card.. always amazed me how lax and open to fraud that system was.
That's because the signature isn't about security. It is about agreeing to the cardholder agreement. It is a legal acknowledgement of a contract. It's more or less useless as a security measure.
Why the hell would they switch to a pin system, rather than adding it as a second factor?
Because that is a pain in the ass. Entering a pin and giving a signature adds a lot of annoyance without improving security much. The cost outweighs the benefits. If the clerk is concerned they can always ask for a picture ID.
The signature is useful for forensic analysis of the fraud after the fact.
No it really is not. I have yet to sign on a digital pad that results in a signature that even vaguely resembles my actual signature. Furthermore the signature is mostly about you agreeing to the cardholder agreement. It's value for security is frankly minimal. Much less useful than asking for picture ID.
You're asking that question to the only large country that has yet to adopt the metric system? We prefer to do things the old fashioned way and then pretend it is better that way.
IF you could clearly sign all of those touch-screen signature pads, AND some system actually compared what was input to your signature on file, then maybe.
The signature has little to do with security and are ridiculously easy to forge. The signature is your acceptance of the cardholder agreement and your agreement to pay. While the clerk can compare signatures, they're hardly a forensic expert.
Frankly how inconsistently I sign my signature (not intentionally), I'm pretty sure no handwriting recognition program could have any confidence it was me.
You can't divide an inch by ten very easily - but you have millimeters and micrometers.
Sure you can. We do that in my shop all the time. All our rulers are decimalized (tenths) inches and we use mils (thousandths) for more precise measurements. And the reason we did it is because people are terrible at dealing with fractions. You'd be amazed how many people get stumped when you ask if 3/8ths is larger than 5/16ths. I'd rather we went metric but since most of our customer drawings come in US customary that is what we use.
The reason to go to Celcius isn't because it is easier. The reason to go to Celcius is because 95% of the world uses it and it is expensive and wasteful to maintain two sets of standards when one will do the job just fine. We waste an outrageous amount of money and time converting between the two systems.
The everyday need to divide something into fifths is less common than into thirds or fourths.
And you can do this in metric. You might not get an integer but who cares? You won't get an integer most of the time in US customary either. How is 1/3 of a quart any different in practical terms than 1/3 of a liter? It's still 1/3 of some larger integer quantity. However it is MUCH simpler to simply say 0.33 liters and have a measuring device that can deal with that.
When it comes to lengths, frankly people are absolute CRAP at dealing with fractions. I run a manufacturing company and while we have to use inches, we switched all our measurements to decimalized inches (tenths) instead of using fractionalized sixteenths. You would be shocked how many people have no idea whether 5/16 is less than 3/8. We had to switch all our work instructions to say things like 11.4 inches because of all the screwups from using fractional inches. We actually have a simple test for employees when we hire which checks their ability to read a ruler. We have tested probably 150+ people and out of the 4 questions on the test, we have had probably 5 people get them all correct. Now we're not hiring the best and brightest but this is actually a pretty fair representation of a huge portion of the population. People are terrible at dealing with fractions when it comes to length. It might seem easy to you but it isn't to a lot of people.
0-100 allows for finer granularity of temperature representation without resorting to fractions or decimals, which, while simple enough, are more cumbersome than integers for the average person to deal with.
Only if you have an integer fetish. Furthermore, somehow 95% of the world somehow seems to exist just fine without Fahrenheit so the integer granularity advantage you are touting seems to be of dubious value. You also seem to be discounting the benefit of being able to communicate with 95% of the world without using a conversion chart.
The 0-100 degreen range of Farenheit better represents the range of temperatures that humans encounter.
It is exactly the same unless you have some integer fetish. The only difference is the number used. If you need sub-integer precision with Celsius then, gasp, use a decimal. It's not hard to say 21.2 degrees.
It really depends what you're using said units for.
Generally speaking it really doesn't. The advantages of using something you are familiar with are VASTLY outweighed by the advantages of having to only maintain one system and one set of tools and one set of gauges and one set of documentation and one set of instruments and the fact that you can communicate with others without using any conversion charts with their inevitable errors. You prefer cups over liters because you are used to it, not because it is more effective.
Celsius merely replaces one set of 'arbitrary' reference points with another...
No, what it does is get (almost) everyone in the world using a single consistent measurement system so that we can communicate effectively and save a lot of money by not having to maintain extra unnecessary tools and instruments and documentation and conversion charts. It means I can go anywhere in the world (except the US) and know what temperature is being referred to without doing math.
Aside from that, it's what people grew up & are comfortable with.
No. The main benefit is that 95% of the world uses it. The fact that you grew up with something else does not make it a good idea to use that something else out here in the real world. Standard measurement systems are a Good Thing.
I just looked at a Dodge that was made in either Indiana or Illinois, I forget which. The American content was around 60-70% (the big exception was the transmission, which came from Korea).
I have a Honda pickup which is 75% parts from the US/Canada (mostly US in this case). Even the Ford F150 does not have more US made content.
There are entire cities in my state that have no manufacturing plants at all anymore.
None of any substantial size. The only towns where there is no manufacturing at all are tiny ones. Some like Flint Michigan have been hit hard by companies leaving but even still they have substantial manufacturing operations.
Literally entire towns are devastated. What do we manufacture here? Seriously?
I'm sure that's true. I've no idea what our trade balance is in vanadium or ruthenium. The aggregate is not so good though.
And what do you think the US is doing with all those raw materials? They get bought and then used for productive purposes. Japan has virtually no natural resources but no one is arguing that they are screwed as a result. Being a net importer of raw materials is neither good nor bad by itself.
No, what everybody is celebrating is that our domestic production is now slightly higher than our imports.
What everyone is celebrating is that exports exceeded imports in 2013 and that looks to continue in 2014. Plus Canada and Mexico account for around half of US oil imports so it's not like the US is directly dependent on the middle east for supply.
That must explain the US trade deficit and the German surplus in manufactured goods.
The US exports more than Germany does AND has a GDP 4X the size of Germany meaning the US economy is not nearly so dependent on exports. You're a little too wrapped up in whether a country has a trade surplus or not. Having your economy so dependent on exports has both significant advantages and disadvantages. It's not simply suplus=good/deficit=bad.
Bush decided to reclassify fast food as manufacturers to hid the job losses last decade to China.
Stop making nonsense up. Nothing of the sort happened and McDonalds is not and never has been classified as a manufacturer. Some of the products they purchase (food products) are manufactured but McDonalds themselves are not and never has been classified as a manufacturer.
Is that all you got? The real list is FAR FAR longer than a few military projects. Frankly those are relatively minor as far as US manufacturing goes. You would know this if you bothered to do any actual research on the topic.
If you're looking for stuff that isn't solely for the defense sector, I can only think of a couple of things: Intel CPUs and Boeing passenger jets, along with some automobiles (I think Chryslers are still mostly made in the US).
Then you have no idea what you are talking about and proclaiming that ignorance publicly. Almost every major auto manufacturer (foreign or domestic) has very substantial manufacturing operations in the US plus the attendant supply chain which they substantially share, much of which is domestic as well. (I have worked in that industry for well over a decade) Caterpillar has roughly 50 plants in the US (about half their total number) and they are among the worlds largest exporters. The US has extremely substantial manufacturing operations in pharmaceuticals, semiconductors (not just Intel), civilian and military aircraft, petroleum products, steel (yes we still make lots), chemicals, food processing, electronics, agriculture and mining equipment, jet engines, medical devices, and more. Go do some actual research before spouting off further ignorance.
It's entirely possible the script has been updated to try and fuck you over if you ever use non-standard software on the PC
What exactly is "non-standard software"? It's a general purpose computer so there is no such thing as non-standard applications unless we are talking complete operating system change.
However, like most big numbers that people throw around to impress, that means little because it's not expressed as a percentage, or a balance, or something meaningful.
I did put it in context which you gleefully ignored. The three largest manufacturing "countries" in the world are the EU, the US and China with Japan a distant fourth. Together they make up somewhere over half of all global manufacturing and all three are within a few percentage points of each other. The claim is that the US does not manufacture anything anymore. That claim is demonstrably and ridiculously false and will remain so.
The US has a large trade deficit in manufactured goods, and raw materials.
A fact around which you have put no context whatsoever. You (wrongly) accuse me of not putting the size of the US manufacturing sector in context and then turn around and then do exactly what you are accusing me of. The effects of trade deficits are complicated and not necessarily bad.
More sophisticated industries are where we shine, but the "let's move it to China" trend keeps moving up the food chain.
Of course they do, just like Japan did some years ago. And as China's economy grows they are having to pay their workers more and industries that moved to China for cheap labor become less competitive. I run a manufacturing company and I see this first hand. The US will eventually have to compete with China on more sophisticated products the same as it does with Germany and Japan and others. This is normal.
I know of IBM as a: - Desktop PC manufacturer - Server manufacturer - Chip manufacturer
You're describing IBM as they existed 20 years ago. They haven't been primarily a manufacturing company for quite some time now. Technical and business services is the core of the company as it exists today. They still make some products (hardware and software) but they are high margin products with significant support requirements.
Slashdot Mirror
And what happens in an accident... when the lens is smashed open, when the blue laser beam accidentally shines into a first responder's eyes?
Will never happen. This is an imaginary failure mode. It's about as likely as the first responder being blinded by a unicorn fart.
I'd rather not screw over local businesses with credit card fees - and some give discounts because Interac charges them less than a cent per transaction - and I don't want to deal with a pocketful of change.
I admire your altruism but I think it will not be reciprocated very often. All you are accomplishing is to subsidize others who aren't so generous by taking risk on yourself by using a debit card. The price of those interchange fees (2-4%) is built in to the price. So you are giving a 1-2% tip to a business that already is charging you what (probably) is a profitable amount while taking on significant risk in the process. I like doing business with local merchants too but I'm not about to risk someone emptying my bank account (even briefly) to support them.
Oh, and the price of processing a debit card is not "less than a cent per transaction". It is considerably higher than that. The cap is presently set at $0.21 per swipe plus 0.05% of the value of the transaction.
My (Canadian debit) card has been scanned twice, and both times the bank called me up, notified me of the fraudulent charges on my account, and the money was back in my account in under two weeks.
With a credit card the money wouldn't have left your account at all. What you have described is exactly why debit cards are a bad idea. Even if things work out well, like the did for you, you still are out the money for some period of time.
While I'll accept your counter, it should also be noted that most EU countries are much smaller than the US, which does make it a bit easier to change that infrastructure.
The size of the EU is about the same as the size of the US overall. If anything it is more complicated to change things in the EU because of the national boundaries and the need for cross border cooperation. Hell, the EU managed to get all these countries to change currency which is a MUCH tougher thing to do.
the USA had credit cards first any time you are first you build up a system and its hard to change.
Bogus argument. There has been plenty of time to transition to more secure infrastructure. It's not like the US had some massive lead on the rest of the world in credit card infrastructure. This could have easily been done years ago and the longer we wait the more expensive the change will become.
This puts the risk entirely on the consumer side.
Whether that is true or not depends entirely on the laws of the particular country and the cardholder agreement.
Your debit card is somehow compromised, someone makes a purchase with it that takes your account to well below the balance you expect to be there, your rent is due and has been set to be paid and the balance in your account is hundreds less than you expect it to be.
Easy solution. Don't use a debit card. Debit cards are a Bad Idea and are completely unnecessary. Use a credit card or use cash. Plenty of banks will give you an ATM card with no debit card features if you ask.
In all the time I've spent in America I don't believe I've ever seen anyone really check the signature against the card.. always amazed me how lax and open to fraud that system was.
That's because the signature isn't about security. It is about agreeing to the cardholder agreement. It is a legal acknowledgement of a contract. It's more or less useless as a security measure.
Why the hell would they switch to a pin system, rather than adding it as a second factor?
Because that is a pain in the ass. Entering a pin and giving a signature adds a lot of annoyance without improving security much. The cost outweighs the benefits. If the clerk is concerned they can always ask for a picture ID.
The signature is useful for forensic analysis of the fraud after the fact.
No it really is not. I have yet to sign on a digital pad that results in a signature that even vaguely resembles my actual signature. Furthermore the signature is mostly about you agreeing to the cardholder agreement. It's value for security is frankly minimal. Much less useful than asking for picture ID.
Why the hell has it taken y'all so long?
You're asking that question to the only large country that has yet to adopt the metric system? We prefer to do things the old fashioned way and then pretend it is better that way.
IF you could clearly sign all of those touch-screen signature pads, AND some system actually compared what was input to your signature on file, then maybe.
The signature has little to do with security and are ridiculously easy to forge. The signature is your acceptance of the cardholder agreement and your agreement to pay. While the clerk can compare signatures, they're hardly a forensic expert.
Frankly how inconsistently I sign my signature (not intentionally), I'm pretty sure no handwriting recognition program could have any confidence it was me.
You can't divide an inch by ten very easily - but you have millimeters and micrometers.
Sure you can. We do that in my shop all the time. All our rulers are decimalized (tenths) inches and we use mils (thousandths) for more precise measurements. And the reason we did it is because people are terrible at dealing with fractions. You'd be amazed how many people get stumped when you ask if 3/8ths is larger than 5/16ths. I'd rather we went metric but since most of our customer drawings come in US customary that is what we use.
The reason to go to Celcius isn't because it is easier. The reason to go to Celcius is because 95% of the world uses it and it is expensive and wasteful to maintain two sets of standards when one will do the job just fine. We waste an outrageous amount of money and time converting between the two systems.
The everyday need to divide something into fifths is less common than into thirds or fourths.
And you can do this in metric. You might not get an integer but who cares? You won't get an integer most of the time in US customary either. How is 1/3 of a quart any different in practical terms than 1/3 of a liter? It's still 1/3 of some larger integer quantity. However it is MUCH simpler to simply say 0.33 liters and have a measuring device that can deal with that.
When it comes to lengths, frankly people are absolute CRAP at dealing with fractions. I run a manufacturing company and while we have to use inches, we switched all our measurements to decimalized inches (tenths) instead of using fractionalized sixteenths. You would be shocked how many people have no idea whether 5/16 is less than 3/8. We had to switch all our work instructions to say things like 11.4 inches because of all the screwups from using fractional inches. We actually have a simple test for employees when we hire which checks their ability to read a ruler. We have tested probably 150+ people and out of the 4 questions on the test, we have had probably 5 people get them all correct. Now we're not hiring the best and brightest but this is actually a pretty fair representation of a huge portion of the population. People are terrible at dealing with fractions when it comes to length. It might seem easy to you but it isn't to a lot of people.
0-100 allows for finer granularity of temperature representation without resorting to fractions or decimals, which, while simple enough, are more cumbersome than integers for the average person to deal with.
Only if you have an integer fetish. Furthermore, somehow 95% of the world somehow seems to exist just fine without Fahrenheit so the integer granularity advantage you are touting seems to be of dubious value. You also seem to be discounting the benefit of being able to communicate with 95% of the world without using a conversion chart.
The 0-100 degreen range of Farenheit better represents the range of temperatures that humans encounter.
It is exactly the same unless you have some integer fetish. The only difference is the number used. If you need sub-integer precision with Celsius then, gasp, use a decimal. It's not hard to say 21.2 degrees.
It really depends what you're using said units for.
Generally speaking it really doesn't. The advantages of using something you are familiar with are VASTLY outweighed by the advantages of having to only maintain one system and one set of tools and one set of gauges and one set of documentation and one set of instruments and the fact that you can communicate with others without using any conversion charts with their inevitable errors. You prefer cups over liters because you are used to it, not because it is more effective.
Celsius merely replaces one set of 'arbitrary' reference points with another...
No, what it does is get (almost) everyone in the world using a single consistent measurement system so that we can communicate effectively and save a lot of money by not having to maintain extra unnecessary tools and instruments and documentation and conversion charts. It means I can go anywhere in the world (except the US) and know what temperature is being referred to without doing math.
Aside from that, it's what people grew up & are comfortable with.
No. The main benefit is that 95% of the world uses it. The fact that you grew up with something else does not make it a good idea to use that something else out here in the real world. Standard measurement systems are a Good Thing.
you're deliberately missing the obvious point that 12 can be divided into by thirds and quarters with integer results while 10 cannot.
And 12 cannot be divided into fifths. So what?
A base 10 unit system is better because (and only because) base 10 is our primary number system.
You say that like it is a minor thing. Why would you not want your measurement system to have some some relevance to your number system?
I would tend to argue that Imperial units tend to be more natural...
The inch was originally the length of a barleycorn. Please explain what possible relevance that has to our modern society?
I just looked at a Dodge that was made in either Indiana or Illinois, I forget which. The American content was around 60-70% (the big exception was the transmission, which came from Korea).
I have a Honda pickup which is 75% parts from the US/Canada (mostly US in this case). Even the Ford F150 does not have more US made content.
There are entire cities in my state that have no manufacturing plants at all anymore.
None of any substantial size. The only towns where there is no manufacturing at all are tiny ones. Some like Flint Michigan have been hit hard by companies leaving but even still they have substantial manufacturing operations.
Literally entire towns are devastated. What do we manufacture here? Seriously?
20 seconds on wikipedia would have answered your question. Are you really that lazy?
I'm sure that's true. I've no idea what our trade balance is in vanadium or ruthenium. The aggregate is not so good though.
And what do you think the US is doing with all those raw materials? They get bought and then used for productive purposes. Japan has virtually no natural resources but no one is arguing that they are screwed as a result. Being a net importer of raw materials is neither good nor bad by itself.
No, what everybody is celebrating is that our domestic production is now slightly higher than our imports.
What everyone is celebrating is that exports exceeded imports in 2013 and that looks to continue in 2014. Plus Canada and Mexico account for around half of US oil imports so it's not like the US is directly dependent on the middle east for supply.
That must explain the US trade deficit and the German surplus in manufactured goods.
The US exports more than Germany does AND has a GDP 4X the size of Germany meaning the US economy is not nearly so dependent on exports. You're a little too wrapped up in whether a country has a trade surplus or not. Having your economy so dependent on exports has both significant advantages and disadvantages. It's not simply suplus=good/deficit=bad.
Bush decided to reclassify fast food as manufacturers to hid the job losses last decade to China.
Stop making nonsense up. Nothing of the sort happened and McDonalds is not and never has been classified as a manufacturer. Some of the products they purchase (food products) are manufactured but McDonalds themselves are not and never has been classified as a manufacturer.
I do not know of anything made here
Then you haven't actually bothered to look.
I can name a bunch of things we manufacture here:
Is that all you got? The real list is FAR FAR longer than a few military projects. Frankly those are relatively minor as far as US manufacturing goes. You would know this if you bothered to do any actual research on the topic.
If you're looking for stuff that isn't solely for the defense sector, I can only think of a couple of things: Intel CPUs and Boeing passenger jets, along with some automobiles (I think Chryslers are still mostly made in the US).
Then you have no idea what you are talking about and proclaiming that ignorance publicly. Almost every major auto manufacturer (foreign or domestic) has very substantial manufacturing operations in the US plus the attendant supply chain which they substantially share, much of which is domestic as well. (I have worked in that industry for well over a decade) Caterpillar has roughly 50 plants in the US (about half their total number) and they are among the worlds largest exporters. The US has extremely substantial manufacturing operations in pharmaceuticals, semiconductors (not just Intel), civilian and military aircraft, petroleum products, steel (yes we still make lots), chemicals, food processing, electronics, agriculture and mining equipment, jet engines, medical devices, and more. Go do some actual research before spouting off further ignorance.
It's entirely possible the script has been updated to try and fuck you over if you ever use non-standard software on the PC
What exactly is "non-standard software"? It's a general purpose computer so there is no such thing as non-standard applications unless we are talking complete operating system change.
However, like most big numbers that people throw around to impress, that means little because it's not expressed as a percentage, or a balance, or something meaningful.
I did put it in context which you gleefully ignored. The three largest manufacturing "countries" in the world are the EU, the US and China with Japan a distant fourth. Together they make up somewhere over half of all global manufacturing and all three are within a few percentage points of each other. The claim is that the US does not manufacture anything anymore. That claim is demonstrably and ridiculously false and will remain so.
The US has a large trade deficit in manufactured goods, and raw materials.
A fact around which you have put no context whatsoever. You (wrongly) accuse me of not putting the size of the US manufacturing sector in context and then turn around and then do exactly what you are accusing me of. The effects of trade deficits are complicated and not necessarily bad.
More sophisticated industries are where we shine, but the "let's move it to China" trend keeps moving up the food chain.
Of course they do, just like Japan did some years ago. And as China's economy grows they are having to pay their workers more and industries that moved to China for cheap labor become less competitive. I run a manufacturing company and I see this first hand. The US will eventually have to compete with China on more sophisticated products the same as it does with Germany and Japan and others. This is normal.
I know of IBM as a:
- Desktop PC manufacturer
- Server manufacturer
- Chip manufacturer
You're describing IBM as they existed 20 years ago. They haven't been primarily a manufacturing company for quite some time now. Technical and business services is the core of the company as it exists today. They still make some products (hardware and software) but they are high margin products with significant support requirements.