[mosburger]

Until very recently I worked for an international remittances company. It's remarkable how far behind the U.S. is, and I always tell people the first countries to go (mostly) cashless with mobile wallets are in East Africa... e.g. Kenya had a ton of people using MPesa long before many European/North American/Asian countries had anything analogous.

[dingnuts]

I don't understand why cashless is a goal. You want DOGE to be able to control who you're allowed to pay, directly? And Trump Admin tracks every transaction?

I understand that w bills with serial numbers, cash is also trackable, but there's something deeply authoritarian about monetary systems predicated on a fiat currency with no physical representation.

Going to have to start buying little bags of silver coins with which to effect personal trade

[mrtksn]

I think the Europeans want to live in a society, have a good life and want all this to be coordinated by a common entity - the government. It’s also socially acceptable to take down the government you really don’t like. Be it by force or political means, government in Europe come and go all the time.

Another thing is, Europe tends to have parliamentary democracies, so if your party loses an election it doesn’t mean it’s all over, it means you your say is smaller but still relevant.

So in Europe governments are politically inefficient but the state is usually alright, it keeps working regardless of the political situation. There are instances where there’s is no president or government for years.

Anyway, if you hate your government that much or don’t trust it that much why don’t you fix it instead of making your life hard?