It's discrediting valid concerns against card-payments. It's invalidating how great cash is.
It's when the worst person you know makes a good point.
And things now are so Culture-Wars-y, nobody makes solid analyses any more, that when the far-right say cards are bad, everybody jumps to thinking cards are good.
The lack of privacy is kind of the point. I can never go back to cash. Yes, there's a ton of problems with credit cards and definitely censorship issues, but the pros still heavily outweigh the cons. Money is dirty, messy to deal with, change is a nightmare, can get lost, can get stolen, can't really carry around large amounts, and is generally really bulky to carry around.
While the last pandemic investigation showed that those machines where you put in your pin in supermarkets had more bacteria/viruses than cash. Much more people using those terminals more frequently than any same coin or same bill.
Digital money is stolen more often and in higher amounts. People who are glorifying credit cards do it until they got scammed or hacked and loose all their savings or even their identity. They go from "credit card fuck yeah" to "why have I been so stupid?" within a minute.
And why would you even carry a large amount of money with you? People who use cash, use common sense in general.
Credit cards have charge backs and fraud protection, buddy. You are significantly safer using them. That's the benefit to them being privacy invasive.
Using chip is also a bit cleaner then swiping. You also don't use just a single dollar bill or coin, you are touching multiple quantities, giving and receiving.
Also your other replies are super toxic and you talk like a child so I'm just going to block you here.
We have several stores that refuse to accept cash. A few weeks ago, we had a pretty harsh storm that knocked out power to major parts of the city for a little over a week. The area where these stores are was affected. All the stores next to them have always accepted cash. The surrounding stores continued to have business for that week, while those cash-deterrent stores had no business, and lost their edge (niche market, but they opened first in the area, so people knew them best). It's been weeks, and those stores still have not picked up foot traffic to levels before the blackout, and one just had a liquidation sale and will likely close soon. Cash should always be an option. Otherwise, we give up our independence from the supporting systems (electricity, internet, payment processors, etc.). On a side note, cash is a lot more private than card.
I recently learned that all governments participating in the Euro guarantee that business have to accept cash. Refusing it is a violation of the accords.
the lack of privacy with cards is primarily what is giving you security with them. trust factors will always exist somewhere in the chain.
to be more to the point of the post, though, you can agree with a person's singular opinion without supporting or agreeing with that person.
I'm as dead centre as it gets. On some topics, I'll gently lean left or right, but try to be balanced in my analysis of things.
I advocate for cash, as I also advocate for privacy. It doesn't make me far right.
There are plenty of reasons for cash. For me, it's privacy. For others, I'm sure there are some solid, and some whacky reasons also.
The real issue for me will be the digital dollar. Every dollar will be tracked through every transaction it's ever involved in. From inception into eternity. The ability for that data to be abused is terrifying.
I'll keep using cash as long as it exists compared to what's coming with the digital dollar.
This is a non-post, as it doesn't even bring its own analysis to the table. What are the valid concerns against card payments? What is so great about cash?
The convenience of card payments heavily outweighs the (i assume privacy) concerns. So what if anyone knows I stuffed myself with an unhealthy amount of chips? I keep my cash for things that don't accept other ways of payment, like bus fare and my drug dealer.
I see your point, though. It isn't solely applicable to this issue; any discussion is mudded by disagreeing just for the sake of rejecting anything anyone with an opposing view on a distinct and unrelated subject.
Sane and reasonable people spent several decades advocating the use of cash instead of cards since at least the 1970s, until we mostly gave up. Who knows, maybe the newly invigorated crazy people will do better. They can't do much worse.
Privacy matters the most to people who have something material to lose with it, this unfortunately for pr reasons (but fortunately for many other reasons) includes bigots
Personally I never use cash anymore, because cards are just more convenient. That being said, I agree with the conspiracy nuts that cash should always stay a viable alternative. I trust the current government and banks enough, but if all goes to shit I want to be able to pay with cash to keep my data safe.
