Don't forget the disabled. Many of whom cannot use digital devices of any kind. I have a disabled sister who is unable to use a digital device. She is a good reader, and can read signs and almost anything, and her reading comprehension is good. She has no use for a QR code..and has no idea what it is. The disabled are left out of this equation entirely. I don't use a smartphone, by choice, because I feel I am worth more than data and want to be paid handsomely for my private and intimate information. If life gets difficult without a smart device, so be it. I don't care. In New York State, by law, businesses have to take cash. It was written into an discrimination bill. Because more than 15% of the population is bank-less and have a cash only existence. This is big tech and silicon valley getting it's way, and forcing onto everyone, once again, something no one ever asked for. Just Like self driving cars(failed) and and other useless shit that no body's wants, except Wall Street!
Did that bill actually get passed? Because I feel like there are still a few cafes/ice cream parlors/etc in Manhattan, at least, that only take cards (which I absolutely hate).
It did get past. What they are doing is illegal, and lazy. My boyfriend works with the homeless community and said it was certain that businesses must take cash.
Sneering at those who excessively travel is a bit of middle class culture war I've engaged in since a kid and still do. I've never bought into the alleged social benefits of traveling. Beyond that remark, agreed. Increasingly delegating everything to the smartphone is degrading. Happy that Julia Salazar stood against the MTA going for cashless toolbooth. I wish there was more movement to pushback against QR codes and these other frictionless ways of interacting with the world.
Yep. I was invited to NYU's commencement earlier this week and was flabbergasted to learn that I could not print out a ticket - I would have to download an MLB app to be permitted into Yankee Stadium. Of course, since I don't own a smartphone, this meant I effectively was locked out of that event - and any baseball game, apparently. What really astonished me, though, is that when I told this to friends, quite a few of them offered to buy me a smartphone - as though this was merely a problem of my personal Luddism rather than a policy that disproportionately impacts the poor.
Cashless businesses usually frame the policy as a hedge against robberies. Total bullshit, of course: if your clientele are sufficiently upscale that you can go card-only without losing customers, you're at no risk of getting held up.
Exactly. It's an acceptable and sneaky way to weed out the poorest of the poor and the most vulnerable from your client pool, even if they remain a minority. And this paradigm is something being forced unto many businesses by the banks and card companies themselves. Selling merchants many overpriced POS solutions and charging them complicated transaction processing fees that cut into their bottom line and accounting budget. We're basically being charged money to use money!
Similar note, just for the locals: I don't think I've seen a single person use one of those OMNY scanners. I'm not even sure they've been installed here in the outer boroughs, and the MetroCard's supposed to be phased out in less than a year. Who exactly benefits from replacing the MetroCard with an app?
I see OMNY as a sneaky way to make it frictionless to raise fares. But it’s is also convenient and clean - swiping never worked completely, tbe cards wrinkled and demagnetized, the MTA always had people out with king q-tip type things to clean the readers.
I get your point, but it might also like a frictionless way of making the subways free - once people get used to not paying visibly, they will wonder why they have to pay after all.
On those rare occasions in this COVID world that I get on the subway, I have used the scanner to pay my fare with a credit card. Works great, actually, and it's nice to not have to generate the massive amount of trash those crappy metrocards are.
I would love it if bums started leaving me alone instead of hassling me literally twenty times a day. But everything else about this seems bad. I believe someone proposed making it illegal in NYC. Guess that fell by the wayside, probably too much business pressure.
Yes, please call 311..albeit the workers who answer the calls know very little about what bills have passed. They are generally very nice, but in general they don't know what is actually legal or not legal.
I tell you, nothing could have made me love the rotting corpse of NYC again more effectively than living in SF and the Bay Area. No matter how bad it is in NYC, it's far worse just about every place else. Cured my 20+ years of NYC burnout quite quickly.
What a waste of the time to read this rubbish. Wah wah wah, i wanna live in the past. I'm all for getting rid of cash and progressive bullshit to prevent this just to keep Amazon out.
Because the goal of passing cashless bans is to keep Amazon retail stores out, most politicians will tell sob stories about the elderly or homeless, but the goal is to keep 'evil' Amazon out
I'm OK calling a company that destroys the middle class, local business, and forces desperate people to shit in plastic bags to stay on schedule "evil".
Call me crazy, but if your business requires obscene tax breaks to survive, I'm capitalist enough to say "the market has spoken".
But then, hey! I'm old enough to remember when a person could purchase well made, well engineered things were built in America and not be mostly doomed to purchasing cheap pieces of shit made by slaves in China.
Living through nostalgic rose colored glasses is fine for fantasies. I’ll take quick and easy with Amazon over some Mom and Pop any day. And, let’s be honest, small businesses are usually owned by horrible people who flaunt laws. Yeah, I’m sure they’re paying tax with ‘cash only’ sales.
Don't forget the disabled. Many of whom cannot use digital devices of any kind. I have a disabled sister who is unable to use a digital device. She is a good reader, and can read signs and almost anything, and her reading comprehension is good. She has no use for a QR code..and has no idea what it is. The disabled are left out of this equation entirely. I don't use a smartphone, by choice, because I feel I am worth more than data and want to be paid handsomely for my private and intimate information. If life gets difficult without a smart device, so be it. I don't care. In New York State, by law, businesses have to take cash. It was written into an discrimination bill. Because more than 15% of the population is bank-less and have a cash only existence. This is big tech and silicon valley getting it's way, and forcing onto everyone, once again, something no one ever asked for. Just Like self driving cars(failed) and and other useless shit that no body's wants, except Wall Street!
Did that bill actually get passed? Because I feel like there are still a few cafes/ice cream parlors/etc in Manhattan, at least, that only take cards (which I absolutely hate).
It did get past. What they are doing is illegal, and lazy. My boyfriend works with the homeless community and said it was certain that businesses must take cash.
Sneering at those who excessively travel is a bit of middle class culture war I've engaged in since a kid and still do. I've never bought into the alleged social benefits of traveling. Beyond that remark, agreed. Increasingly delegating everything to the smartphone is degrading. Happy that Julia Salazar stood against the MTA going for cashless toolbooth. I wish there was more movement to pushback against QR codes and these other frictionless ways of interacting with the world.
Yep. I was invited to NYU's commencement earlier this week and was flabbergasted to learn that I could not print out a ticket - I would have to download an MLB app to be permitted into Yankee Stadium. Of course, since I don't own a smartphone, this meant I effectively was locked out of that event - and any baseball game, apparently. What really astonished me, though, is that when I told this to friends, quite a few of them offered to buy me a smartphone - as though this was merely a problem of my personal Luddism rather than a policy that disproportionately impacts the poor.
Cashless businesses usually frame the policy as a hedge against robberies. Total bullshit, of course: if your clientele are sufficiently upscale that you can go card-only without losing customers, you're at no risk of getting held up.
Exactly. It's an acceptable and sneaky way to weed out the poorest of the poor and the most vulnerable from your client pool, even if they remain a minority. And this paradigm is something being forced unto many businesses by the banks and card companies themselves. Selling merchants many overpriced POS solutions and charging them complicated transaction processing fees that cut into their bottom line and accounting budget. We're basically being charged money to use money!
Similar note, just for the locals: I don't think I've seen a single person use one of those OMNY scanners. I'm not even sure they've been installed here in the outer boroughs, and the MetroCard's supposed to be phased out in less than a year. Who exactly benefits from replacing the MetroCard with an app?
I see OMNY as a sneaky way to make it frictionless to raise fares. But it’s is also convenient and clean - swiping never worked completely, tbe cards wrinkled and demagnetized, the MTA always had people out with king q-tip type things to clean the readers.
I get your point, but it might also like a frictionless way of making the subways free - once people get used to not paying visibly, they will wonder why they have to pay after all.
I have a rich fantasy life.
I see an uptick in people who think the subway is free -- they just jump the turnstile. I'm not that agile.
On those rare occasions in this COVID world that I get on the subway, I have used the scanner to pay my fare with a credit card. Works great, actually, and it's nice to not have to generate the massive amount of trash those crappy metrocards are.
Not an issue in Germany where,many a tourist discovered, cashless payments are frowned upon, even in touristy areas.
They haven’t stapled the chip into your earlobe yet? You’re embarrassing your cohort. Only a matter of time before the AI bots replace us.
I would love it if bums started leaving me alone instead of hassling me literally twenty times a day. But everything else about this seems bad. I believe someone proposed making it illegal in NYC. Guess that fell by the wayside, probably too much business pressure.
Yes, see above. In New York State, businesses are required to take cash.
Oh it did pass? Good, I will start calling 311 on scofflaws.
https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/new-york-city-council-cash-law-money/
Yes, please call 311..albeit the workers who answer the calls know very little about what bills have passed. They are generally very nice, but in general they don't know what is actually legal or not legal.
I tell you, nothing could have made me love the rotting corpse of NYC again more effectively than living in SF and the Bay Area. No matter how bad it is in NYC, it's far worse just about every place else. Cured my 20+ years of NYC burnout quite quickly.
California is the loneliest place on Earth.
What a waste of the time to read this rubbish. Wah wah wah, i wanna live in the past. I'm all for getting rid of cash and progressive bullshit to prevent this just to keep Amazon out.
Not 100% clear on how replacing cash with online payment systems will "keep Amazon out," but you do you, I guess!
Because the goal of passing cashless bans is to keep Amazon retail stores out, most politicians will tell sob stories about the elderly or homeless, but the goal is to keep 'evil' Amazon out
I'm OK calling a company that destroys the middle class, local business, and forces desperate people to shit in plastic bags to stay on schedule "evil".
Call me crazy, but if your business requires obscene tax breaks to survive, I'm capitalist enough to say "the market has spoken".
But then, hey! I'm old enough to remember when a person could purchase well made, well engineered things were built in America and not be mostly doomed to purchasing cheap pieces of shit made by slaves in China.
Living through nostalgic rose colored glasses is fine for fantasies. I’ll take quick and easy with Amazon over some Mom and Pop any day. And, let’s be honest, small businesses are usually owned by horrible people who flaunt laws. Yeah, I’m sure they’re paying tax with ‘cash only’ sales.
Just wondering what you think "rose colored glasses" means?
Not enjoying the fruits of income inequality?
Preferring to not have my convenience powered by the immiseration of others?
Enjoying living in a community?
A community with other people who can pay rent even though they only have one full time job?
Some of us might call it "not being a totally selfish asshole". Give it a shot some time. You might like it.
Yup, that never existed. But the desire to go back to 1950’s America fantasy never ends
Also, I'm curious as to why you think it is beyond Amazon's ability to purchase a cash register.