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| Cashless Australia |
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| Stray Electron:
--- Quote from: Nusa on March 11, 2021, 07:19:50 pm ---Re: U.S. Economic Stimulus Payments, first one came in check form, second one came in cash card form. Both could be, and were, deposited to my bank account. Cash is still perfectly viable for day-to-day stuff in the US almost everywhere. One example where cash is clearly still king is under emergency conditions. When a significant chunk of Texas was without power, even the more essential places (e.g. grocery stores) could only operate on a cash-only basis. Plastic was worthless even if the store had a generator, since the underlying infrastructure was down as well. --- End quote --- Yes, it reminds me of the "LeCloud is burning" thread. Living off of CCs and having no cash; or storing all of your programs and data on the Cloud, both are convenient but they have significant risks! OTOH as I pointed out earlier in this thread, it's getting to the point in the US that even if you have cash, you may not be able to spend it due to the ignorance of the store's staff! Legally you can make any purchase but in practice, not so much. When I was in college I tried to make a purchase at the college's computer store but they only took payments via check or credit card since they didn't want to deal with cash. If you insisted on paying cash then you had to go to the store, pick out your items, get a bill for them, then walk across campus to the cashier's office and show them the bill and pay them and then take your receipt back to the store to pick up your items. And that was 30+ years ago, the cash payment situation has gotten worse since then. |
| coppice:
--- Quote from: Stray Electron on March 11, 2021, 07:31:09 pm ---The problem with "Free" money is that someone eventually has to pay for it! --- End quote --- Its amazing how long these things can go on. They never just go away. The UK government paid off their second world war debt in 2006. They only recently starting paying off the bonds that financed the first world war. The debt incurred by the 19th century naval actions to end the maritime slave trade was only recently paid off. There are still debts from the South Sea Bubble in 1720, and the Napoleonic wars being serviced. However, if the interest rate is low enough, the effects of inflation eventually make the debt look small. |
| Halcyon:
--- Quote from: james_s on March 11, 2021, 06:47:34 pm --- --- Quote from: Halcyon on March 11, 2021, 06:43:38 pm ---Welfare is by far the biggest expense when it comes to where tax dollars go and my opinion is that it shouldn't be wasted on cigarettes, alcohol and other non-essentials when the recipient can't afford it. --- End quote --- Is it? In the US by far the biggest expense is military, it absolutely dwarfs everything else. I don't know how much we spend on welfare but I think it's essentially a drop in the bucket. --- End quote --- Yep. By far the biggest spend in Australia: https://budget.gov.au/2019-20/content/overview.htm |
| Zero999:
--- Quote from: Stray Electron on March 11, 2021, 03:01:37 pm --- --- Quote from: Zero999 on March 11, 2021, 08:57:55 am ---I'm all for keeping cash, mainly because going cashless would severely affect the very poor and homeless often don't have bank accounts. --- End quote --- Not really. The US Gov now issues "EBT" debit cards to welfare recipients and they can use them exactly like any other debit card. They don't need to have a bank account or even a fixed address to use the cards. I'm not certain but I think that many people are also getting their Covid-19 "Relief" payments the same way. Also in the US, if you have any kind of regular income, income that you get every month, and you have it Direct Deposited to their bank, many banks will give you a free account. --- End quote --- I didn't know about that. Can anyone put money on one of those cards? Suppose I want to help a friend, or family member, who's fallen on hard times and is on the street. Could I put money on to their card? Then there are other instances when I could see this introducing additional costs. A charity I volunteer has an annual summer event, where they sell plants, cakes, coffee, pony rides etc. They don't have any card readers, or anything, as it's not worth it for an annual event, so only take cash. What would we do if they scrapped cash? How much would it cost for us to hire card readers? If the bank could loan them to us for free and not charge per transaction, then great, but I don't that'll happen. It'll just add to the cost. |
| cdev:
--- Quote from: Halcyon on March 11, 2021, 06:43:38 pm --- --- Quote from: Stray Electron on March 11, 2021, 03:01:37 pm --- --- Quote from: Zero999 on March 11, 2021, 08:57:55 am ---I'm all for keeping cash, mainly because going cashless would severely affect the very poor and homeless often don't have bank accounts. --- End quote --- Not really. The US Gov now issues "EBT" debit cards to welfare recipients and they can use them exactly like any other debit card. They don't need to have a bank account or even a fixed address to use the cards. I'm not certain but I think that many people are also getting their Covid-19 "Relief" payments the same way. Also in the US, if you have any kind of regular income, income that you get every month, and you have it Direct Deposited to their bank, many banks will give you a free account. --- End quote --- We have something similar here, although I think it's still being trialled in certain areas, but it works (some people are unhappy with it for obvious reasons). Many people who are on benefits have no idea how to budget and are their own worst enemy when it comes to handling money. Hell, even people will full-time employment and earn decent money find it difficult to budget or don't budget at all. But that's on the individual, the system can only do so much to hold the hands of people and frankly, that's the way it should be. However if you're on Government assistance, my view is that how you spend it should be controlled (at least to some degree). Welfare is by far the biggest expense when it comes to where tax dollars go and my opinion is that it shouldn't be wasted on cigarettes, alcohol and other non-essentials when the recipient can't afford it. --- End quote --- I don't think this is even remotely true. Here is a PDF graphic on where US tax money really goes in 2021. A lot of it goes to military, we spend far more than any ofthe other countries in the world. Around 40% goes to social services. Less than many other countries, percentage wise. Lots of the money is spent in various forms of corporate welfare. Many of the largest US companies get away with paying no taxes. |
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