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anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
16,660
31,230
46
In the semi-rural NorthEastern USA
I went to the supermarket this morning at about 7am to by some ciggies. Tap my phone to pay and..... declined. Did it again and got the same result. Took my card out of my wallet and tapped it.... still nothing. Had to put my card in the reader and entered my pin, luckily that worked.

Made me realise, though. A cashless society is all well and good, as long as the bastard system works. I only had £20 in my wallet which was nowhere near enough for 5 packs of cigarettes. Came to £80+. I immediately went to a cash machine and withdrew some money to keep in my wallet just in case. Lesson learned
I always say technology makes things convenient until it doesn't.
 
Jun 9, 2018
4,396
14,128
England
This article sums up how I feel about the idea of a "cashless society".

The GMB Union said the outage reinforced what it had been saying for years: that “cash is a vital part of how our communities operate”. “When you take cash out of the system, people have nothing to fall back on, impacting on how they do the everyday basics.”

Authorities in China and the US have fined businesses for not accepting cash. Delnevo said the UK should have a law requiring all businesses to take cash.

 
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Jan 30, 2020
2,203
7,308
New Jersey
IMO, going to purchase something is probably the smallest inconvenience of what happened. The amount of manufacture, infrastructure and logistics that the everyday person never sees really is where the beating was taken. Not being able to buy something on a credit card is more of a surface scratch to the entire thing.
 

Alejo R.

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 13, 2020
982
2,122
49
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
I went to the supermarket this morning at about 7am to by some ciggies. Tap my phone to pay and..... declined. Did it again and got the same result. Took my card out of my wallet and tapped it.... still nothing. Had to put my card in the reader and entered my pin, luckily that worked.

Made me realise, though. A cashless society is all well and good, as long as the bastard system works. I only had £20 in my wallet which was nowhere near enough for 5 packs of cigarettes. Came to £80+. I immediately went to a cash machine and withdrew some money to keep in my wallet just in case. Lesson learned
I work in a bank.
The problem was quite simple, but it had to be solved machine by machine. You had to go into drivers and delete the update.
The ATMs and self-service terminals, which also dispense money, worked because they run under Linux. The stores' posnets worked correctly.
The Bank App worked perfectly.
 

Alejo R.

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 13, 2020
982
2,122
49
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
I went to the supermarket this morning at about 7am to by some ciggies. Tap my phone to pay and..... declined. Did it again and got the same result. Took my card out of my wallet and tapped it.... still nothing. Had to put my card in the reader and entered my pin, luckily that worked.

Made me realise, though. A cashless society is all well and good, as long as the bastard system works. I only had £20 in my wallet which was nowhere near enough for 5 packs of cigarettes. Came to £80+. I immediately went to a cash machine and withdrew some money to keep in my wallet just in case. Lesson learned
Money issued without gold support is already s..t, because it allows the issuer of money to issue money without an economic activity that supports it and generates inflation. If we add to that a cashless society, not only is the above, but it will enable the issuer of money to know how people spend their money, which is a gigantic invasion of privacy.
 

anantaandroscoggin

Part of the Furniture Now
Sep 9, 2017
694
1,108
71
Greene, Maine, USA
Just one more reason to be happy I abandoned using Windows when Windows 2.0 was released, and we spent more of our work day rebooting the machines than we got to spend actually working.

Wonder how things went for those invested heavily into imaginary money since they don't trust fiat money.
 
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BingBong

Lifer
Apr 26, 2024
1,324
5,753
London UK
Money issued without gold support is already s..t, because it allows the issuer of money to issue money without an economic activity that supports it and generates inflation. If we add to that a cashless society, not only is the above, but it will enable the issuer of money to know how people spend their money, which is a gigantic invasion of privacy.
CBDCs would empower their micromanagement of your spending. Limits on fuel purchases, blocks on tobacco products, even limits on the zone in which you can buy. 15km radius, anyone? It was touted as a possible use of that technology and every bank voted for it.
 

Alejo R.

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 13, 2020
982
2,122
49
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
CBDCs would empower their micromanagement of your spending. Limits on fuel purchases, blocks on tobacco products, even limits on the zone in which you can buy. 15km radius, anyone? It was touted as a possible use of that technology and every bank voted for it.
For this, paper must be eliminated (there is no need to underestimate people's ability and inventiveness to go under the table), but that is protected by law all over the world.
We must be careful that laws are not passed that make physical money not legal tender.
That's why the bill says "valid for all debts." It is illegal for a debt or purchase to not be paid in bills, that should not change.
 
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Sigmund

Lifer
Sep 17, 2023
2,984
28,526
France
Ive no idea as to the cause but we had no internet or cell phone signals for nearly four hours today. We have lost internet before but never both.