[kernoble]

Even with cash, you can't buy a plane ticket without handing over all your info. Which is a good thing!

And, if I had to guess, the booking of hotel rooms probably has more to do with liability rather than tracking. There are plenty of ways of getting a roof over your head without using a credit card; though IMO they are likely a downgrade.

While your statements resonate with me, it's a bit hyperbolic to say that electronic payments/banking are the only way of exerting the control you're worried about. I think there are a lot of good points in this line of complaint about centralized private financial systems, but the ones you're raising are a bit fringe.

[SoftTalker]

> Even with cash, you can't buy a plane ticket without handing over all your info. Which is a good thing!

Why is that a good thing? You used to be able to walk into the airport, pay cash at the ticket counter for a ticket, and get on the plane. Compared to the fantastic level of nonsense we put up with today?

[derf_]

In the 1974 political thriller The Parallax View, one of the characters boards a plane at LAX, and then purchases a ticket from the stewardess. It is the most jarring scene in the entire film.

[TrueSlacker0]

In this film they used to trust people? What a novelty in today's society. I wish we had more of it.