Comment on Cashless shops operating illegally in Netherlands & Belgium; corporate disobedience
max@nano.garden 8 months agoThanks! Not only is this a great list of actions, but it also has helped me see this whole issue from a new perspective. More specifically, I multiple times I have tried to switch to cash-only because of privacy reasons, and I eventually become discouraged. For example, I recently gave up again. I have a shared card with my girlfriend, and she doesn’t really care much about privacy, so I felt like I was punishing myself for not good reason by paying with cash if my girlfriend next was going to pay with our card anyway.
But now that you have framed it from the point of view of those accepting cash, it does give me an additional source of motivation. It’s not only about my personal privacy, but also about pressuring vendors to accept it. This makes it worth it even in cases where there might not be a privacy benefit. Starting now, attempt #I-lost-count begins.
activistPnk@slrpnk.net 8 months ago
Another thing to consider is when you pay by card, there are fees. You don’t see the fees but the merchant does. The merchant receives less money than you paid. That profit margin goes to the same segment of the financial industry that is attacking the cash option. So IOW, it feeds the adversary who works against us (the consumers).
I first thought when I pay my accountant, I want her to receive 100% of what I pay because she does good work and she deserves all of it. Thus cash, check, or anything that does not diminish her share is doing her a favor at no cost to me. Almost like giving her a tip at no cost to me (except maybe postage - but that’s still money better spent anyway). Well that idea extends to other businesses as long as you’re not shopping at a scummy shop like Amazon or Walmart. You probably want to support the businesses you choose to patronize if you choose ethical vendors to start with.
I used to pay using a rebate card. I eventually decided the ~1% kickback is prostituting myself cheaply. I gladly gave up the rebate to take back my privacy (and thus control). I made the same decision with grocery loyalty cards. the 1% savings is not worth the data they fully exploit. So I ditched the loyalty cards & pay cash.