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0 pointsAnalemma_3y ago0 comments

Remember: this is HN, where the bubble effect is strong. On Hacker News, everybody "knows" that Google Search is useless these days and that Amazon results are all counterfeit junk, even though in the real world I have never heard anyone bring this up and these services are still incredibly popular. It's the same thing with cash: I don't think I've seen anyone pay with cash in years. Even the old people at the grocery store use chip-and-PIN cards.

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blendergeek3y ago

> I don't think I've seen anyone pay with cash in years. Even the old people at the grocery store use chip-and-PIN cards.

I'm not sure where you live. I work in a fast-food place on a college campus. While the students generally use their meal-plans to buy food, the moment we have a "parents' weekend" or similar event, we do a lot of cash.

It is generally poorer people (who don't have access to banks) who have to use cash (or resort to alternative banking systems that charge exorbitant fees).

andirk3y ago

A few companies around town here in SF Bay Area started doing cashless and the community saw it as a red flag as it clearly disadvantages certain groups in our community. A couple of those places I frequented took back cashless from said pushback.

extra883y ago

According to this [0], it's illegal for retail businesses to not accept cash in San Francisco, Philadelphia, New York City and the states of Massachusetts and New Jersey.

[0] https://www.cashmatters.org/blog/right-pay-cash-now-protecte...

nicbou3y ago

Remember that this is also an American bubble at times. In Germany, cash is still king. You can't go long without 10€ in your wallet.

Tangential: I'm surprised that no one complains about these things. Google Search has become unbearable and Amazon is obviously bad these days. There's no way people aren't getting annoyed by the tech they use every day, yet you're right, no complaints.

ACS_Solver3y ago

Germany's certainly a contrast. As a counterpoint from another end of the scale, I'm in Sweden and it's so cashless that the US seemed cash-heavy to me on a visit a year ago. I saw people pay cash in a restaurant and I even saw a public transport machine that accepts bills, things that would be a very unusual sight in Sweden. Here, the bills were changed five years ago and I'm not even sure what they look like.

goodpoint3y ago

> this is also an American bubble at times

It's almost always a silicon valley bubble

Nursie3y ago

> In Germany, cash is still king

In Australia I haven't bothered to take any cash out in about a year, many businesses don't accept cash, and everything still seems to function just fine.

adunsulag3y ago

Many stores I go to in rural america ONLY accept cash or check. The areas are so poor they refuse to pay the credit card fee. That and I suspect there's a lot of tax evasion going on.

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