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by graemep 20 days ago
> As a result, governments continue to strengthen and expand laws in that direction.

Which creates national security and sovereignty issues. Cash is robust and decentralised. There is a good reason Sweden went from pushing cashless to advising people to keep cash at home for emergencies, and were at least considering an obligation to accept cash for small transactions.
2 comments
marysol5 20 days ago
That's just a disaster planning POV. If you've ever been in a shop where the EPOS goes down, you'll know how chaotic it is. And that's just a macro scale.
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rwmj 20 days ago
> Which creates national security and sovereignty issues

Are you talking about people who don't pay tax? They create very large national security and sovereignty issues. Countries that don't collect much tax have real problems with both of these.

> There is a good reason Sweden went from pushing cashless to advising people to keep cash at home for emergencies

The key phrase being "for emergencies".

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graemep 20 days ago
> Countries that don't collect much tax have real problems with both of these.

Nothing like as bad as the potential problem of your economy grinding to a halt.

There are other ways to deal with tax evasion. Those countries usually do not have good systems. If you investigate properly, design tax laws properly, chuck a few people in jail, etc. the problem can be solved.

Not using does not close loopholes, or prevent corruption, or stop people sending money offshore.....

> The key phrase being "for emergencies".

If you go cashless you will not have the infrastructure to use cash in an emergency.

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pjc50 20 days ago
The national security and sovn. issues are when the US threatens to turn off the system, or starts sanctioning individual non-US nationals.
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graemep 20 days ago
Or an enemy state of criminals attack centralised systems. Or even just a failure. I think Sweden's biggest concern is the threat posed by Russia.
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anigbrowl 20 days ago
As a consumer, I like paying with cash. It's more convenient for me to think about the amount I have on me than to maintain a mental inventory of bank/card balances all the time. That's my business, not anyone else's.
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