[Spivak]

> I'm sick of subsidizing other people's airline mile because Target charges us the same price no matter how we pay

You should actually love this because fees paid by the merchant are pure gravy for you as the customer. If they could charge more and get away with they should just do that. Externalizing the interchange costs would be a huge win for merchants because they just got free money while keeping the sticker price the same. All the benefit of hidden fees without the needing to hide it part, just like taxes. It would do nothing except make everything 2%ish more expensive for card users while you gain nothing. If you've ever wondered why companies push so hard against requiring display prices to include tax this is why. It's not the high cost of label printing, it's that they would just have to eat the 7% because they can't just hike prices without consumers reacting to it.

Have you never noticed that despite the fact that different retail outlets take wildly different cuts it never manifests in significant price differences? "Cut out the middleman and buy direct" is often the most expensive way to buy something.