[irrational]

Will this hasten the, presumably, eventual move to a 100% digital economy? I’d like to see statistics on how often people use analog money. Is there correlation by certain socio economic classes? I imagine drug dealers are 100% analog while CEOs are 100% digital. Where does everyone in between land?

[lultimouomo]

Can I be that guy and point out that "analog money" is a horrible misnomer? There is nothing analog about coins and notes - you cannot split a note in arbitrary fractions.

[sneak]

CEOs are counterparties in the drug trade, too.

Everyone uses cash for some transactions, mostly because it affords privacy.

[irrational]

Not everyone. I personally have not touched cash in 15 years or so. I really haven’t had any need to. In all that time I haven’t had a single experience where card was not accepted.

[sneak]

Either you live in Scandinavia, or you aren’t sufficiently tipping coat check, valet, bellhops, delivery runners, et c.

Cash is also essential for grease/bribes.

[tim58]

> Cash is also essential for grease/bribes.

Am I not bribing enough people? I've never had to.

[sneak]

I once had a friend who was bleeding from a head wound from getting attacked on the street. Not life threatening, but messy.

The complication was that it was 1am, new year’s day (NYE night, an hour after midnight), on Union Square in NYC, and it was raining.

Not ideal conditions in the pre-Uber world.

Had I not had $400 in cash to flag down a limo(!) and dissuade him from his scheduled appointment, she would have spent the next 3 hours bleeding either on the subway or on foot as we walked back to Brooklyn.

Another time, I got stopped on the highway to the Cancun airport driving back from Tulum. The cop kept saying something about how he would have to write me a ticket, over and over again. Eventually it clicked, and I asked “is it okay if I just pay the fine here?”

Sometimes, cash saves the fuckin’ day.

[lotsofpulp]

Even if you needed to, there are much better ways to bribe than cash in the US.

[irrational]

Well, there’s the issue. I’m a middle class person who has never (in nearly 50 years) interacted with coat check, valet, bellhops, delivery runners, etc. As for grease/bribes... I’ve definitely never even considered doing such a thing. I think you live an entirely different lifestyle than us poor peons.

[sneak]

Tipping sustenance wage earners (bartenders, wait staff in restaurants, et c) in anything but cash in the US is also quite a dick move.

Sure, cards are convenient, but you are in effect tipping 15% less for your own convenience.

Additionally, most of the big food delivery apps have a history of skimming or outright stealing in-app tips, so it’s best to always tip delivery drivers in cash, too.

Always tip in cash. It’s the only way to make sure they get all of it, without a portion being skimmed off to pay for bombs to mass murder Afghan kids.

[irrational]

Yeah, I’ve never interacted with a bartender, and the kind of restaurants I frequent don’t expect cash tips. McDs is still considered a high end restaurant, right?

[benhurmarcel]

> you are in effect tipping 15% less for your own convenience.

It's not convenience, it's preventing fraud.

[bpodgursky]

I think you may be overestimating how many bellhops and valets the average person interacts with in a year...

[sneak]

GP specified 15 years.

[irrational]

In 50 years I’ve never interacted with those professions, much less 15. I don’t think I’ve even met anyone who lives the kind of lifestyle that would interact with bell hops, coat check, etc.

[pantaloony]

15 x 0 is 0.

[Izkata]

> I’d like to see statistics on how often people use analog money.

Probably heavily skewed right now compared to normal. As of a week ago, my grocery store does not accept cash (at least at the self-serve lanes, which seem to take about 1/3 of customers) because they don't have the coins to make change.

[quickthrowman]

Drug dealers are not 100% analog. The further up the chain you go, the more analog it gets though.

[Wowfunhappy]

Wait, what? Are they taking credit card payments? Some in-person Bitcoin payment system?

[TheSoftwareGuy]

A lot of low level drug dealers take Venmo

[maze-le]

Doesn't that leave an eventually incriminating paper trail?

[quickthrowman]

Low level weed dealers are almost never arrested, and if they are it’s because they made a mistake in a car or someone ratted them out. It may leave a paper trail, but if no one ever looks.. A series of Venmo payments with “food” and “rent” in the subject lines will likely not raise eyebrows.

The actual risk of selling weed is far lower than the perceived risk of selling it.

[Nightshaxx]

You expect a lot from low-level dealers. We might even be talking highschool kids here.

[Wowfunhappy]

Ha! Guess I was overthinking it.

[__initbrian__]

Venmo. See “the cannabis retailer” for an example.

[0] https://publicbydefault.fyi/

[quickthrowman]

Like the sibling comment said, Venmo/Cashapp/Zelle. Larger purchases are done with cash.