Payroll itself (following all of the rules and making sure that everything is done correctly and on time!) is cumbersome for small businesses. Creating and transmitting an ACH file shouldn't be.
Electronic payments are even more traceable - they don't require a human to read someone's handwriting because all of the information about the transaction is part of the transaction (including the trace numbers).
In the mid 1990's, nearly 50 billion checks were being processed in the US. It was down to 37 billion transactions in 2004 and is steadily dropping. Things like debit cards, increased usage of credit cards for smaller purchases, increased usage of ACH transactions for payroll and billing, online billpay (where many items are transacted via ACH), and the conversion of checks to ACH items either at the point of sale or at large billing houses have all contributed to this.
With the advent of Check 21, any check that you may write will probably not arrive at your bank as a physical item (unless it is deposited there).
You will be suprised how many people in IT got the best grades in maths and now end up spending a year getting all the code to be adjusted for a simple tax change. Yeah, that is high science!
Not to quibble - but I don't think that there is such a thing as a "simple tax change." Especially so when changes to the tax code aren't put into place by the IRS until at or after January of the next year (like the form 8903's were this year).
At my first job after college, I did some programming in RPG at a hospital, and one my assignments was to figure out why a box didn't get checked correctly on a medicare form. How complicated could that be? Because of the rules dictated by Medicare, it was a mess. Taxes are the same way.
The problem already exists and is called "Counterfeiting" - easily doable given the proper equipment. Much of the money in circulation at any given moment in time is already "digital" - in the form of checking accounts or credit cards.
Having said that, I wouldn't bet that cold, hard cash will disappear any time too soon. It's quick and easy to use for informal transactions, doesn't require any equipment to transfer, and doesn't have any float to worry about.
What is needed is a law that forces companies dealing with bank and finantial details (banks, credit card companies, card processors, insurance companies, finance companies, ATM providers, EFTPOS/credit card processing machine providers and so on) to take greater efforts to keep it secure, much like HIPPA mandates high security for medical records.
Banks already have that - it's the Gramm-Leach-Bliley act and purportedly is meant to protect customer financial privacy.
I think that the gist of the article, though, is that the merchants are not under the same regulatory burden - and that is where the weak link in the chain is at the moment.
I still think that if you disallow repeat questions for 180 days and if you allow for the occasional "oops" (misspelling, wrong caps, happy fingers) and ask a different question and if your system has a timeout, you'll need around 1000 (?) question/password combinations.
The same question doesn't get reused for 180 days or so.
Great idea - nice and simple so it's easy to remember for the user without having to right it down or use the same password across many systems.
But...
When setting up any new users, you'll need to collect (at the minimum) 180 pieces of information. 360 if they can define their own questions. 360 * ? if they can define their own questions and you force a new "password" for each time that they have to unlock their machine after the screen saver kicks in or for asking for a different "password" should they enter one incorrectly.
Debit cards are much more effective at forcing you to live within your means since I don't think they'll let you overdraft at all any more. They certainly won't let you go over by more than $100 or so.
They are more effective at making you live within your means. Many banks do allow overdrafts from debit cards - but certainly not to the extent that one can with credit cards.
They've got a fine line to walk - err too much one way, they'll tick off the merchants. Err too much the other, and they'll loose banks. Nobody likes losses - but the consumer is always the one that ends up paying in the end.
That walmart lawsuit a couple of years ago hurt too (a lot).
Why? Because the cost of turning away potential sales - including fraudulent ones - is many multiples of VISA's cost of lost revenue due to fraudulent activity and theft.
VISA doesn't foot the losses. Merchants and banks do. VISA is just a network - and they make money by taking a small part of each transaction.
Of course, you know why you will get that wind? Because Wyoming SUCKS. Sorry, could not avoid it (a coloradoan).
Given the predominant wind pattern, it's more likely that either Illinois sucks, or Nebraska blows:)
The lay of the land in Iowa kind of precludes sending water up to a holding pool high above... anything. From what I've read, the geology around central Iowa is ideal for the type of power storage that they're discussing.
But most of the alternatives showing a great deal of promise are in wind and solar. They can NOT be counted on.
In Iowa, the wind blows pretty steadily for about 9 months of the year - except during the summer when wind energy would be most useful. A couple years ago, I saw the following proposed. Don't know how much good it would do, but (assuming that they could make it work), it would allow for "wind" power to be stored in the form of subterranian compressed air. Neat idea, though.
those loaning up the money and goods to live our excessive lifestyles are getting close to stopping the flow back.
Does that mean that they will stop purchasing debt, or stop purchasing all American goods and services? And if so, what will they do with the dollars that we're sending them (or are they planning on stopping all trade with the states?)?
What comes out of the midwest is typically feed corn - much of which is used for animal feed and ethanol.
Looking back over what you were talking about seems to be what farmers groups have wanted to for a long time - a thing called "value adding" to their crop - doing the first step in processing close to the farm and keeping more of that margin local.
Ethanol plants are doing that already. I live 15 miles from a 100 million gallon plant that has dramatically changed the corn market in the area.
I was at a meeting last night where a biodiesel group was talking about starting a 60 million gallon plant in the county.
Process the crops locally and keep the profits in the community - sounds like a great idea.
What the guy on Lou Dobbs pointed out last week was that for the most part, it's unstable, unprocessed foodstuffs that we ship out,
I was thinking mainly grain - corn. I'm not sure how unstable corn is, unless you happen to be standing in a bin full of it - but it certainly is unprocessed.
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Per bushel or per acre? In Iowa, we get at least three times the number of bushels of corn per acre than soybeans.
N Is for Nowledge
But only the expense from them that are greater than 7.5% of your Adjusted Gross Income - and only if you are itemizing your deductions anyway.
Payroll itself (following all of the rules and making sure that everything is done correctly and on time!) is cumbersome for small businesses. Creating and transmitting an ACH file shouldn't be.
Electronic payments are even more traceable - they don't require a human to read someone's handwriting because all of the information about the transaction is part of the transaction (including the trace numbers).
In the mid 1990's, nearly 50 billion checks were being processed in the US. It was down to 37 billion transactions in 2004 and is steadily dropping. Things like debit cards, increased usage of credit cards for smaller purchases, increased usage of ACH transactions for payroll and billing, online billpay (where many items are transacted via ACH), and the conversion of checks to ACH items either at the point of sale or at large billing houses have all contributed to this.
With the advent of Check 21, any check that you may write will probably not arrive at your bank as a physical item (unless it is deposited there).
Not to quibble - but I don't think that there is such a thing as a "simple tax change." Especially so when changes to the tax code aren't put into place by the IRS until at or after January of the next year (like the form 8903's were this year).
At my first job after college, I did some programming in RPG at a hospital, and one my assignments was to figure out why a box didn't get checked correctly on a medicare form. How complicated could that be? Because of the rules dictated by Medicare, it was a mess. Taxes are the same way.
Having said that, I wouldn't bet that cold, hard cash will disappear any time too soon. It's quick and easy to use for informal transactions, doesn't require any equipment to transfer, and doesn't have any float to worry about.
Banks already have that - it's the Gramm-Leach-Bliley act and purportedly is meant to protect customer financial privacy.
I think that the gist of the article, though, is that the merchants are not under the same regulatory burden - and that is where the weak link in the chain is at the moment.
I still think that if you disallow repeat questions for 180 days and if you allow for the occasional "oops" (misspelling, wrong caps, happy fingers) and ask a different question and if your system has a timeout, you'll need around 1000 (?) question/password combinations.
Great idea - nice and simple so it's easy to remember for the user without having to right it down or use the same password across many systems.
But...
When setting up any new users, you'll need to collect (at the minimum) 180 pieces of information. 360 if they can define their own questions. 360 * ? if they can define their own questions and you force a new "password" for each time that they have to unlock their machine after the screen saver kicks in or for asking for a different "password" should they enter one incorrectly.
The fool! The boss should know that data moves more quickly through blue cables!
They are more effective at making you live within your means. Many banks do allow overdrafts from debit cards - but certainly not to the extent that one can with credit cards.
If you reported to the bank the fraud in a timely manner, your maximum liability can be found here.
But each of those would have been avoided if the user either kept their machines patched or (at least) kept them behind a firewall.
That walmart lawsuit a couple of years ago hurt too (a lot).
Or make using that information a capital crime.
VISA doesn't foot the losses. Merchants and banks do. VISA is just a network - and they make money by taking a small part of each transaction.
Given the predominant wind pattern, it's more likely that either Illinois sucks, or Nebraska blows :)
The lay of the land in Iowa kind of precludes sending water up to a holding pool high above ... anything. From what I've read, the geology around central Iowa is ideal for the type of power storage that they're discussing.
In Iowa, the wind blows pretty steadily for about 9 months of the year - except during the summer when wind energy would be most useful. A couple years ago, I saw the following proposed. Don't know how much good it would do, but (assuming that they could make it work), it would allow for "wind" power to be stored in the form of subterranian compressed air. Neat idea, though.
one thing on the drawing board
damn straight
Technical problems we can solve. Idealogical problems, on the other hand, ...
Does that mean that they will stop purchasing debt, or stop purchasing all American goods and services? And if so, what will they do with the dollars that we're sending them (or are they planning on stopping all trade with the states?)?
Looking back over what you were talking about seems to be what farmers groups have wanted to for a long time - a thing called "value adding" to their crop - doing the first step in processing close to the farm and keeping more of that margin local.
Ethanol plants are doing that already. I live 15 miles from a 100 million gallon plant that has dramatically changed the corn market in the area.
I was at a meeting last night where a biodiesel group was talking about starting a 60 million gallon plant in the county.
Process the crops locally and keep the profits in the community - sounds like a great idea.
I was thinking mainly grain - corn. I'm not sure how unstable corn is, unless you happen to be standing in a bin full of it - but it certainly is unprocessed.