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by asdojasdosadsa 1413 days ago
Why would physical (passport, cash) be excluded if digital option is added?
3 comments

It shouldn't, but if history is any indication, the new will replace the old. Especially if they conjure some kind of feel-good reason, like fighting against terrorists or something.
Example from today - I was in a supermarket and all self-checkout machines that accept cash were defunct except one, so there was a huge queue of people who wanted to pay with cash and no queue of people paying with card.

I see that there is a silent war on cash - they try to make it as inconvenient as possible and then claim not enough people use it to sustain Cash Points, cash self-checkout etc.

Digital money remove agency from people. You no longer own it - you just have access to it that it can be withdrawn on a whim (see Trudeau casus) and then they will be deciding what you can or cannot buy based on your profile. Google about CBDC - programmable money that is in the works. Cash stands in the way.

The self checkouts are a problem in themselves. Where I have the choice, I will always go to a human operated checkout line. I would prefer people have jobs, rather than seeing them taken over by the self-service option.

Also in the UK recently I encountered for the first time a supermarket where self-service was the only option. As I was buying beer, before I would complete my transaction it had to be approved by a human, which seemed to defeat the purpose.

So the government will decide what you can buy because… why?

Big corporations want it? Big corporations want the biggest chunk of your money so they want you to have a “complete” freedom of your money so you can spend it on their products.

All these arguments sound to me like conspiracy theories because I don’t see real examples. Show me a scenario where the government would want you to not buy something. Like what would that be? Guns? Yeah I’m the EU they will block you but that’s because it’s illegal.

Do you feel like they will limit the amount of alcohol you can buy? That would be an example. But prohibition has been tried before. Ppl want alcohol and ppl vote.

Also why would the government care so much about what you buy? If their plan was to control you and stuff why do we have so many privacy laws and initiatives in the EU?

Also this seems like a very long term project. Do you believe the ppl working in the government are soooo competent?

It’s happening already, as noted in my comment above. A fair number of venues in the UK no longer accept cash payments.
It’s very common in Sweden. There’s even tax incentives I believe.

“Kontantfri” is a sign I see very often.

Not really tax incentives but not having to pay some security company to come pick your cash every evening to store it securely in the bank and exchange the bigger notes for smaller ones so you can give change back turns out to be more expensive for smaller shops/cafes then paying whatever card transaction processor you use their ~1% fees.

So at the end of the day accepting cash is more expensive for small shops. (not 100% sure about Sweden but that is the case here in Finland).