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.
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?”
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.
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.
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?
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.