https://www.nssh.com/2020/04/philadelphias-ban-on-cashless-s...
I personally never use anything but cards since I have many of the high reward credit cards. But I've also had family members with tax liens or other problems that didn't allow them to get a bank account, that relied on family to pay bills, order things online for them, etc.
The gist was that if everybody is paying with credit cards, $50 will eventually whittle down to $0 because AmEx, et. Al. got $50 worth of fees after so many transactions (accountant pays grocer who pays dentist who pays hygienist who pays daycare, etc.). On one hand, what a huge waste of money. On the other hand, I as the consumer typically don’t get a discount for paying with cash, so why shouldn’t I take advantage of the “free” and secure payment option available to me?
Processing fees are not unique to cash. Banks charge cash processing fees to businesses too, and have for ever. Most shops will deposit all the cash received at the end of the day - perhaps every few days - with a bank.
Taxes will do the same, though. Employers have to payroll taxes, employees have to pay income taxes. The $50 will eventually all bleed back to the government.
This sounds like the real problem to solve. It's unacceptable for people to be unable to get a bank account and whatever cards to pay cashless
It's totally a fake problem that untrustworthy people can't be trusted in modern times with bank accounts. The risk is check bouncing. People don't "need" checks anymore though to function in the cashless world.
We already have prepaid card accounts that don't allow you to spend money you don't have. The only catch is that they're run as profiteering machines which extract fees at every turn.
I guess what I'm saying is, let USPS run an operation (like Green Dot, Vanilla, etc.) but with a fee structure based on the true cost of the service only. And the government should give Visa and Mastercard the choice of:
1. antitrust suit to break them up.
2. the USPS cards will be a V/MC, and V/MC will give them very deeply discounted interchange rates
3. a new independent USPS card network with low fees will be built AND commercialized for any issuer to use, and a regulation that anyone who accepts V/MC must also accept that network.
Checks aren't a thing in most of the world. Opening a bank account is hard because of know-your-customer laws.
The civilised solution to this is very simple: cash! Until you get you bearings and have a bank account opened, just use cash.
Tourist in a country where your debit or credit cards don't reliably work or come with extra fees? Cash!
Buying a second-hand piece of furniture from someone else, and don't feel the need to expose more information than necessary? Cash!
Electronic payment system goes down while you are in the queue at the supermarket? No problem, because you always carry a little cash for backup. (I've had this happen to me several times.)
Cash is the ultimate fallback in civilized society, and worth protecting.
A recent immigrant from countries that don't issue biometric passports (like India) might struggle to open a bank account. I had to devote a lot of time to finding loopholes for my readers.
The status of such migrants is (AIUI) a fraught issue politically, and I'm not sure you can resolve the issues of the unbanked without resolving it.
At least it's a serious issue in Germany, especially for Indians whose passport is not accepted by many authentication services.
There are plenty of much poorer countries where cash has pretty much died out.
Imagine driving along in some mountainous, rural area in China. You stop at a little roadside shop in the middle of nowhere. You pull out your paper Renminbi bills to pay, and the shopkeeper looks at you like you're crazy. Everyone uses their smartphone to pay for everything, and yes, everyone has a smartphone.
If it's possible to transition entirely to digital payment in a country that was part of the Third World just one generation ago, it should be possible in the US.
I agree with you that businesses should accept cash for the reason that you’ve noted. The underlying problem is fuelled by the almost unique dysfunction of American bureaucracies. This is in cases where the systems aren’t maliciously designed to lock people out.
