[deanly]

Exactly. In an ideal world:

Merchants want zero fees, and instant payout (like cash), but "wait a minute" you might say. Don't businesses pay taxes, and how do you think those tax dollars are spent (in a non-gov't shutdown state)? Partially keeping the dollar bill presses running.

Herein lies the problem. Cash is a government-run operation, and credit card networks are privately owned. We forget that our cash system doesn't run itself and isn't free to operate, so we take cash for granted, and undervalue or ignore the "interchange" fees.

By changing their perspective, merchants might see that zero fees is unrealistic. It's an unfortunate(?) consequence of leaving the bartering days behind, and joining a money economy.

[patmcc]

People also forget that cash isn't free - you have to protect it (with a safe/locks/doors/armoured cars), count it, process it, watch for counterfeits, have change on hand, deposit it, and so on. And it's flammable.

Given a choice, there are lots of (big) businesses who would switch to debit/credit exclusively if that was an option, especially with the existence of branded credit cards. Home Depot would love nothing more than having all its customers using the HD credit card.