[Teandw]

No citation needed. It doesn't take much brain power to know that certain things are or aren't likely.

It would be like asking me to prove that not many people have done the calculation of 15435 divided by 12.5 in their life. I can just tell you from basic logical thinking, that it's not likely that many people have.

[pclmulqdq]

Really? Using $10,000 in cash is like doing a very specific math problem?

A lot more people have used large quantities of cash for non-criminal activity. The few times I have used huge quantities of cash, it has been for stupid reasons: someone doesn't take credit cards or bank transfers, and won't trust a check until it clears, so it's easier to just use a pile of cash. By the way, I keep plenty of cash around so I can still pay for stuff even if the internet goes out regionally.

Also note that this does not really stop criminals or rich people from moving money around: there are plenty of ways around these laws.

[stev-0]

Explain a single scenario of how one acquires large amounts of cash that:

1. Isn’t easy to provide provisions for.(which is how cash payments can be made legal). 2. Doesn’t require criminal activity in Europe.

I think a lot of people are thinking about this with the US tax system in the back of their minds.

The tax system in many European countries is very different. We pay WAY more income tax. That means that the incentives for tax avoidance are much greater. As a result tax avoidance is a European pastime.

I think that a more transparent financial system is a great thing to strive for. Less financial privacy is is likely to lead to. 1. less money going toward lobbying. 2. Less tax avoidance 3. Less hidden wealth. 4. Less/more expensive money laundering.

It might someday even lead to successful taxation of wealth instead of income.

[purerandomness]

> someone doesn't take credit cards or bank transfers

That will change with this law, finally. Or put them out of business. That's a good thing, don't you agree?

> so I can still pay for stuff even if the internet goes out regionally

If you having to pay transactions >10k frequently enough that network outages block you, I'd wager you're doing exactly the kind of something this law should prevent.

> there are plenty of ways around these laws.

Sure, but now there's an instrument in the toolbox which wasn't there before. Or are you arguing that outlaws gonna outlaw no matter what, so why even try?

[helloworld11]

>That will change with this law, finally. Or put them out of business. That's a good thing, don't you agree?

Or here's a novel idea: Try not to support coercive laws and rules that seek to stamp out the possibility of people having unorthodox or somewhat unusual voluntary payment preferences, just because you don't personally like them.

>If you having to pay transactions >10k frequently enough that network outages block you, I'd wager you're doing exactly the kind of something this law should prevent.

Because somebody has cash and payment needs, or levels of preparedness that your own narrow thinking doesn't digest isn't a good reason to automatically assume that they're probably a criminal who should be targeted by invasive and authoritarian controls. Frankly, it's something of a sick mentality to immediately treat with suspicion of criminal activity those who support or personally prefer conducting their financial affairs differently from how you do.

As for your final comment, People wanting to transact privately aren't nuts and bolts to be removed from the scene by some nasty, dirty little toolbox of edicts by politicians who regularly protect corruption on larger scales. It's absurdly malicious, or at least plain ignorant to think that way. There are much more fundamental and obvious reasons underpinning the fight against parasitic, invasive financial laws. Read a little about both modern politics in much of the world and modern history even in Europe itself to at least slightly understand the basis for resisting these rules on cash.

[alasdair_]

Have you ever spent time in Germany? It is a very cash-based culture because people are understandably worried about government surveillance of their financial transactions.

Germany initially wanted there to be 10,000EUR notes for this very reason.

There are a whole lot of people there that want to pay cash for everything, including things like cars and houses.

[sva_]

It is fairly common to buy a used car in cash here in Germany.

[Rebelgecko]

I know tons of people who have either bought used cars or sold a car at least once. A decent chunk of those transactions would've been more than 10k euros at current exchange rates.

[ETH_start]

€10K is not that much.

[tormeh]

1k EUR is a lot to carry in cash. 10k is absurd. I'd guess 95% of people doing it are doing it because they're doing something illegal.

[alasdair_]

When I played a lot of poker, I would routinely carry 30k or more. A single buy-in could be 10k. The people I played with all did similar things.

Moreover there are some countries (like Germany) where people routinely use a lot of cash to (say) buy a car or a business.

[ceejayoz]

It's a lot to put in a sack and bring to a store to pay for something.

[pclmulqdq]

$10,000 in US $20 bills weighs about 1 pound. In $100 bills, it fits nicely in your pocket or in a small purse. I assume 100 euro notes are about the same.

[ceejayoz]

It's a lot of money to put in your pocket. I didn't say anything about weight.

[throwaway09223]

It's not, though. I remember carrying that much cash when I saved up for a summer to buy some computer components. They didn't take checks, and at the time I was like 19 and my debit card didn't have a high enough limit to buy the items I wanted (a couple of high end workstations, nothing super fancy- computers used to be expensive!)

It's actually pretty common to need to buy things over $10k. It's pretty common for vendors to not take checks. It's pretty common to not have high enough credit limits to cover these types of purchases.

There still isn't any way to do this other than cash.

It's unusual to carry around this much cash every day, but it's totally normal to carry this much cash sometimes for specific large purchases.

[WastingMyTime89]

> It's actually pretty common to need to buy things over $10k. It's pretty common for vendors to not take checks. It's pretty common to not have high enough credit limits to cover these types of purchases.

That's a very USA-centric comment. Checks are virtually unheard of in Europe and no one would pay so much money in cash. You would do a wire transfer or a card payment for that.

Payments in cash to a professional from a French citizen have been capped at 1000€ in France for years with virtually no impact. I have never seen or heard of someone attempting to use that much cash.

[pclmulqdq]

I personally don't have enough fingers to count the number of times I've carried around a huge amount of cash. Buying computers, cars, and collectibles can all involve a ton of money. Also, when I was playing poker a lot, that wasn't an unreasonably large amount to have on hand.

[SergeAx]

They also have 500 EUR bills there in Europe. 10000 EUR will fit in a postcard envelope.

[thdespou]

500 euro bills were scrapped some time ago.

[SergeAx]

Well, I am holding one in my hands right now, I got it from European bank several days ago.

[ericd]

It fits in a standard envelope, but you can use a sack if you want.