SomeKindaName,

Most of those negatives sound fine to me.

cm0002,

…how? The only acceptable one (Even though I personally don’t like it) is cash.

Fax sucks ass and should have been put in the grave LONG ago, Flash drives are superior to Floppy in every way and fuck paper filing, digitized paperwork is far superior.

768,

Floppy drives are the brontosaurus among these, excusive paper filing sucks too, but cash society and fax telecom is not that bad.

SuckMyWang,

I mean these things can’t be that bad, Japan compete well on the world stage so whatever they’re doing is working fine. Can it be improved, probably. Does it need to be? Not yet

MeanEYE,
@MeanEYE@lemmy.world avatar

If people actually upgraded from FAX, I would have completely agreed. What we have today is an abomination which doesn’t work. Not even a week ago I had an issue with some paperwork where tax office required me to fill some form in PDF, then print it, then sign it, scan it and send it to them. I have a phone with a pen, so I did all of that and skipped few steps. Signed the document on screen. No no no no no. They didn’t want that. They want my signature on paper which I never have to send them but my signature signed through screen is not good enough.

FAX is basically all of this with fewer steps and I can easily see why they wouldn’t want to move away from it. It it works, don’t fix it mentality. Luckily this trend is slowly going away, but damn. Not to mention same IRS office required me to generate a certificate which I can use to digitally sign documents. But I couldn’t do this either, since they accept that only on some documents. A mystery.

As far as floppy disks are concerned, this is mainly for industrial machines. They are still a huge user. Those machines are not replaced every 2 years as they are more robust and made to last. So having a machine older than 30 years still working in industry is nothing new and considering upgrade costs literally millions, it’s simply not worth paying that much money to upgrade to USB.

st3ph3n,
@st3ph3n@kbin.social avatar

Lots of those floppy drives in industrial and lab applications (as well as the retro computing enthusiast space) are being replaced by things like GoTek devices, which are essentially floppy emulators with flash memory.

MeanEYE,
@MeanEYE@lemmy.world avatar

In some places, yes. But many are still not doing the upgrade as it would require technical person to do so, provide tech support, etc. All of that costs money. Whole industry is becoming very specialized place. Siemens still sells laptops with DB9 and other serial connectors just so you can access and program PLCs. And new USB based adapters to serial simply don’t work. Sometimes they do, but most of the time they have issues with these specialized devices.

SomeKindaName, (edited )
  • We use fax in the USA more than you’d think. I’d call that a wash.
  • Paper in your filing cabinet will never be messed with by a ransomware attack. Ransomware attacks seem to happen to businesses and hospitals just about daily here. I’m actually watching a news story on a hospital ransomware attack as I write this.

Floppy drives? Yeesh that one is a bit weird.

LemmyNameMyself,
@LemmyNameMyself@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah, like what’s wrong with cash?

Kusimulkku,

Annoying to deal with

idunnololz,
@idunnololz@lemmy.world avatar

I have a really slim wallet, which is only possible because I never have to use cash. Also cash is dirty. I can wash my phone once a week to keep it clean but I can’t do that with cash (well I can but what’s the point, and I’ll get accused of money laundering /j). It’s inefficient since you have to count your coins and bills and the cashier needs to do the same and then you have to check if you got the right change. You can also misplace cash, especially coins.

Meanwhile I haven’t had to handle cash for like 6 years now except for extremely rare circumstances and it just feels way better.

Wrench,

It’s not even accurate anymore. Cards are accepted in a lot of places.

It was absolutely true 10 years ago, though. It’s inconvenient always needing to think about how much cash you need to bring, and having a pocket full of change because it’s significant denominations.

Also, their banks are only open on weekdays and close super early. Bank lines were (are?) massive because everyone had to go at the same time due to work hours.

TimewornTraveler,

America doesn’t really have a functional system for this yet either. It’s a lot easier to just tap your phone on a brick and be done with it, but currently the tap method is pretty hit or miss. And bank transfers are atrocious - why do we pay venmo to do something that Korean banks just straight up do for everyone? In Korea you can just give someone your deposit number and with a couple buttons you send money easily/instantly.

olicvb,
@olicvb@lemmy.ca avatar

You don’t even have to go that far, Canada has interac e-transfers where you can send money by email. Directly accessible through the standard bank app/site. I haven’t handled cash in years

TWeaK,

Ew email does not sound like the place for cash transactions.

But yeah, most countries these days have instant bank transfers. The US is ancient when it comes to payments, “cashing your payslip” isn’t a thing in much of the rest of the world.

eating3645,

They likely mean their bank uses email as an identifier. So the bank asks you the registered email you’d like to send money to. Not that you’re emailing cash or something like that.

Similar to zelle, a third party that fills the gap.

idunnololz,
@idunnololz@lemmy.world avatar

The email is like an id for your account. You can use your phone number. AFAIK if you link it email or phone number to your bank and someone sends you money to that email or phone number it doesn’t actually text or email you. The money will be directly deposited into your account.

scottyjoe9,

In Australia you can send money via phone number or email (called payid) but it’s not sent in an email or SMS, it’s just that your number/email address is used as a unique identifier linked to your bank account. When someone pays you via either of those, the money gets directed into that account instantly.

And yes, being paid directly into your bank account is standard here and I would say really the only option for most jobs. I’m 35 and have never had a job that doesn’t pay you direct to your account.

psud,

In Australia you can send money bank to bank for free, with practically instant transfers (though large amounts and first transfers from you to someone get a 24hr hold)

And you can use the person’s phone number as the transaction target (instead of bank branch number and account number)

It’s pretty nice, good for small business too, especially trades

ASeriesOfPoorChoices,

Re: Australia: be aware that all normal bank to bank transfers are still min 1 working day transfer. Its FAST and Osko which bypass that with their own new network (up to $1000).

Not every bank is with Osko or FAST, and some are with one and not the other. Though I think FAST is fading away with Osko being dominant.

Re: phone number: or email address! It’s great, especially if you have your own domain name. You can make different PayID email addresses for each account you have if you want.

psud,

Me and my mate have sent money to each other for kitty balancing on fishing trips, this year (about an hour ago) he sent me his share (high hundreds) and it was instant

We don’t use phone number since we have had each other’s bank details for ages

ASeriesOfPoorChoices,

Osko/FAST: are fast BSB/Acct# transfers.

PayID: is an easy way to reference a BSB/Acct#.

Together, they are fast and easy, but they are not the same thing and are not required for one to be used to use the other.

Also, “high hundreds” is less than $1000 :-P

Rolando,

I don’t know much about Korea. Do they have laws limiting how much you can be tracked and marketed to?

Vilian, (edited )

Same in Brazil, i can send i think 10k to anyone in my contact using PIX that was created by the goverment and is opensource, i can pay with it too, there is other way too, but PIX is the easier, just need a internet connection

you can send using ramdom nunber, cellphone number, CPF, qr code, email, just need to configure the key that you want in you bank or bank app, and it just work without fees

lemmy___user,

Theoretically the situation with bank to bank money transfers should be improving - the replacement for the ancient, slow ACH system went live a few months ago. Of course it will likely take several centuries for a critical mass of banks to support it, but there has been some progress at least.

MonkeMischief,

My bank still sends me a text message and has no other means of 2FA options.

You’d think they’d be way more up to date on this “digital security practices” stuff. :|

darq,
@darq@kbin.social avatar

Yeah honestly living there for a while, I came around a bit on doing things by paper.

It's slower, certainly. But the Japanese are scary efficient at it, and there is a lot of infrastructure to support it.

And in the case where things go wrong or are confusing, at least you can take the forms and actually go and talk to someone, rather than staring at a computer screen that offers nothing.

Gork,

They have those cool blue plastic trays with rubber mats that you put your money in though. And they’re everywhere.

MrJameGumb,
@MrJameGumb@lemmy.world avatar

People still use fax machines? I wouldn’t even know where to look for a fax machine these days! Is Kinkos still a thing? I think that’s where I had to go the last time I faxed something 20 years ago lol

The_Picard_Maneuver,
@The_Picard_Maneuver@startrek.website avatar

Healthcare in the US still relies on a surprising amount of faxing.

can,

Prescriptions need to be faxed where I’m from.

RootBeerGuy,
@RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

Hello, fax machine? This is Germany!

QuinceDaPence,

Most copiers can have a fax card added. And most businesses that need a fax machine don't even do that. They have their VoIP phone service set up a virtual fax machine. If it even needs a physical part it's probably a little black box in a network closet, but now most don't even do that.

Real fun thing, did you know faxed advertisements were and are still a thing? At work we get like 3 random ads each day that come out of the machine.

Cracks_InTheWalls, (edited )
@Cracks_InTheWalls@sh.itjust.works avatar

When I have to check the efax and see these, I almost always save the clipart for use in inter-office memes before deleting them.

I’m pretty sure that’s the most engagement these things have got in the past 20 years.

MedicPigBabySaver,

You can actual use the Internet to send a fax to a standard fax machine. There are websites for that.

psud,

The Australian government used faxes well into the 2000s, I think the last three faxes I sent though were through my modem

thehatfox,
@thehatfox@lemmy.world avatar

The UK National Health Service (NHS) still loves fax machines. There was supposed to be a plan to phase them all out by 2020 but it never happened.

They are still somewhat common in some B2B sectors here too, although most businesses have migrated to e-fax systems now.

PeleSpirit,

deleted_by_author

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  • TWeaK,

    And yet they never picked up SMS messages, they just used email on their phones all the while.

    tiredofsametab,

    Old SMS had some pretty crappy character limits so they went with the option that didn't is basically how I see it. Now, LINE is king. I've only used text with like two people ever in Japan.

    TWeaK,

    Old SMS was free though, it used the spare bits in a regular phone call datastream. Meanwhile, the network provider charged you 10p a pop, and far more for any kind of data.

    tiredofsametab,

    I don't know what the prices here in Japan were without looking it up. I'll try to remember to ask my wife when she gets home.

    darq,
    @darq@kbin.social avatar

    Japan has been in the year 2000 for the past 50 years.

    Floshie,

    Not the first time I see this, still makes me laugh

    IvanOverdrive, (edited )

    Fax machines are definitely being phased out.

    Floppy disks? How old is this meme? In the nearly twenty years I’ve been in Japan, I’ve never even seen a floppy disk.

    Paper filing is an option if you want it.

    And as for cash, electronic payments have really taken off in the last year. I still value my privacy though. So I stick it out in the slow line up.

    All in all, there’s a kernel of truth to the meme. What the outside sees as a Blade Runner society drenched in neon, the reality is more “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” kinda place.

    MedicPigBabySaver,

    What privacy from cash? Do you use an ATM or bank account to get your cash?

    Then you’re either on the business security cam or the local police network cam. There is no privacy even with cash.

    naeap,
    @naeap@sopuli.xyz avatar

    All your shopping behaviour and more can be tracked easily by card purchases. Cash purchases are much harder to track.

    At least that’s how I see the advantage of cash here. Maybe I do miss something though

    MeanEYE,
    @MeanEYE@lemmy.world avatar

    Floppies are still a huge thing in heavy industry. Many of those machines are still being used and you have to enter code somehow.

    tiredofsametab,

    Fax machines are definitely being phased out.

    NTT East, at least as of a little over two years ago, hard requires a fax to set up internet still. It's infuriating.

    ManosTheHandsOfFate,
    @ManosTheHandsOfFate@lemmy.world avatar

    Also in the US the medical industry still does a ton of faxing.

    tiredofsametab,

    Yep. Having worked in the industry for a long time, including trying to transition to EMR and such, I get this. In Japan, one of the reason fax machines are still important that is not often talked about is that they generally have a bank of pre-programmed numbers. This is seen as a way to reduce the chance of exposing PII to others by accident. This is not wrong, but the same could be implemented for other systems such as email (or the host of EDI that exist). I literally just had a training that said we should not even send a fax ourselves, but have someone observe that we hit the correct pre-programmed button for it.

    TWeaK,

    Cash is king, we shouldn’t be paying MasterCard and VISA for every purchase we make.

    Case in point: when the UK left the EU, MC and VISA immediately increased their transaction fees from 0.3% to 1.5%.

    Kolanaki, (edited )
    @Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

    Here in at least the state of California (not sure if this is country wide) those bank “convenience” fees are limited to no more than $1.50 by law.

    usualsuspect191,

    Are you talking credit card fees or bank transaction fees?

    Kolanaki,
    @Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

    That fee charged for simply using your debit card at a POS.

    Anticorp,

    That’s more of a California thing. They’re talking about the fee charged by the CC company to the merchant, which is usually absorbed by the merchant. You’re talking about businesses charging you extra for using your credit card, which I have only seen in California.

    odium,

    I’ve seen it in local businesses in texas

    Mr_Blott,

    Yes cos California is little Europe and we love the modern thinking

    Icedrous,

    My bank (RBC) charges me $2.50 after 10 or so free transactions, doubled if tapped.

    I switched to Neo and I love it.

    MedicPigBabySaver,

    Very large amount of people end up paying fees from ATMs to get cash. And, if there weren’t card service, you bet the banks would add fees to any type of cash access, eg: all ATMs and bank withdrawals.

    TWeaK,

    Other countries don’t have ATM fees, either. I can go to almost any cash point with any bank and withdraw for free. It’s only certain ones that charge, typically places with a captive audience eg festivals or certain retail parks.

    The US is incredibly strange for charging people money to get their cash.

    Rentlar, (edited )

    I’ll just tell you about Japan… they will have “outside of business hours” ATM fees just because. Link to website

    With the Postal Bank it is possible to carry around your passbook in place of your debit bank card to access your account. Even from an ATM that automatically records transactions in there which is kind of retro yet cool.

    Edit: added link

    EatYouWell,

    ATM fees do make sense if it’s not a bank owned ATM, though. A separate company owns and maintains the machines, which costs money.

    TWeaK,

    Yeah, those are the only ones that might charge. Standalone ones in shops, not at a bank branch, and in particular in places where people might be out drinking.

    WldFyre,

    So some ATMs don’t have fees, and some locations do have fees.

    Wow, sounds exactly like how it is in the US, too!

    TWeaK,

    My experience in the US is you pay fees whenever you withdraw from a bank that isn’t your own. In other countries, you don’t pay fees unless you withdraw from an independent machine, and even then many are free.

    I dunno though, I had a cushy US bank with no branches of their own, so they didn’t charge fees anywhere. BoA were bastards though, and I’ve heard terrible things about Chase.

    ASeriesOfPoorChoices,

    Chase has some of the best bank accounts in America.

    The bank may be awful, but some of their products are among the best in the world.

    TWeaK,
    ASeriesOfPoorChoices,

    Heh, they’re in the UK now too? Cool. Yeah, the UK has some pretty shitty bank accounts from what little I’ve seen, so this helps.

    Chase are still pricks though, to be clear. Bunch of bell-ends.

    wildginger,

    thats an american thing, civilized nations dont let banks do that

    RaoulDook,

    I’ve never had to pay a fee to withdraw cash from an ATM in the USA, unless it was from a different bank than mine. Other banks charge for the convenience of taking your money from their ATM, when you don’t have an account with their bank or affiliate.

    It’s easy to avoid those fees by just going to your own bank’s ATM.

    ahornsirup, (edited )
    @ahornsirup@sopuli.xyz avatar

    For the record - that’s generally also how it works in Europe. Or well, Germany at least. Also there are independent ATM companies (Euronet and the like) not affiliated with major banks who charge outrageous fees to everyone desperate enough to use one of their ATMs.

    pirat,

    I’ve only touched a Euronet ATM to write “SCAM” on it, to warn those unaware of the dangers awaiting them…

    tigeruppercut,

    Japan does, and it’s actually worse than the US bc the ATM from your own bank charges you if you use it after 5 pm or on the weekend. They also shut down some ATMs at either 5 or 9 pm.

    wildginger,

    Thats actually insane, wtf japan

    tigeruppercut,

    Despite the facade, Japan is pretty backwards with technology. The classic way to look at it is a country of duality with bipedal robots and fax machines, although faxes are finally dying out finally. Some examples are that they still produced VCRs until 2016, many places depending where you are didn’t take credit cards up until about 5 years ago (although they seemingly mostly jumped over the credit card thing and went straight from cash to mobile pay systems), and as of 15 years ago I still saw the presence of 3.5" floppies, although those needed to be connected to computers via USB floppy drives.

    pirat,

    I live in Europe, and when I withdraw from ATMs when traveling in Germany, I only use “trusted” ATMs like official banks (never Euronet or other “scam” ATMs), but because it’s outside of my own country, it’ll cost ~5€ per withdrawal. In my own country I don’t pay, no matter which bank’s ATM I use.

    Azzu,

    Honestly there should be governmental electronic cash with the same advantages as cash, i.e. no fees & no traceability.

    TWeaK,

    I dunno, there are good arguments for traceability. Bitcoin has complete traceability, up to its endpoints.

    ASeriesOfPoorChoices,

    there are very easy free bank accounts to open.

    Traceability is the tricky part.

    Azzu,

    The cost of a bank account has nothing to do with fees for electronic cash. Fees for electronic cash are collected per each transaction and are paid by the business you buy from. These huge fees are why businesses are slow to adopt electronic cash in Germany, they see no reason to pay 1%+ of their revenue to Mastercard or Visa or whatever.

    ASeriesOfPoorChoices,

    You… are not an adult, are you?

    Mastercard and VISA are not banks and don’t offer bank accounts.

    Bank accounts are free. Transfers to and between banks are free.

    That 1% fee you’re talking about is a processing fee from the credit card companies, which are separate financial institutions acting as middlemen to the banks.

    There is no need to use their services. You can just transfer bank to bank for free, with free bank accounts. No MasterCard or VISA involved at all.

    Azzu, (edited )

    You… do not know what thread I was replying to, do you?

    What is being talked about is high fees associated with each transaction done with electronic cash. Please read the comment I directly responded to again: lemm.ee/comment/6705330

    It is necessary to use their services (or at least some other entity collecting fees) when you pay without cash in a store. You can’t go to a store and pay with direct bank transfer.

    ASeriesOfPoorChoices,

    Also, PS: this comment I wrote a while back: lemmy.world/comment/5658808

    ASeriesOfPoorChoices,

    deleted_by_moderator

  • Loading...
  • Artyom,

    If only there was some way of federating spending in a way that would make private credit card companies obsolete. I’m still confused how no one sees any future in block chain and just say “it’s all a scam”.

    TWeaK,

    Block chain has become a buzz word, just like AI or NFT’s, but they sure as hell makes some people a chunk of money before everyone realises what it actually means.

    vrighter,

    because it doesn’t work. case in point: it hasn’t. It improves on one aspect, and regresses (very very badly) in every single other aspect.

    azertyfun,

    Just saw a sign in my bakery today begging people to pay by card because getting small coins from the bank is hard and expensive.

    TBF here in Belgium Bancontact has a local monopoly (about 1 % flat fee, no fixed cost per transaction; that seems fair and intuitively cheaper than holding, insuring, depositing cash, dealing with employees skimming off the top, of the time lost counting bills).

    Also the government heavily incentivizes electronic payments because those can’t be pocketed without paying VAT. That’s a MONUMENTAL amount of tax fraud being chipped at by the progressive disappearance of cash.

    _danny,

    Seems like an easy fix for a business, just change their prices so that they don’t have to use coins. Make everything an integer number of dollars. If the items are too cheap to round up, encourage a three for two deal or something like that.

    Sales tax doesn’t change that frequently. It’s easy for a business to predict and account for it when setting their prices.

    TWeaK,

    Unfortunatley that won’t work, banks charge businesses a percentage for deposits.

    azertyfun,

    … the euros’ lowest paper bill is 5€. 1 € and 2€ coins are bulky pieces of shit too.

    And a bakery is the worst affected kind of business even if there was a 1€ paper bill. A loaf of good bread is 1.40€, if you round up it’s way too expensive and if you round down they may not even make a profit. Can’t exactly buy 3 loaves of bread either unless you got a family of 6 to feed.

    TWeaK,

    That’s the real crux, banks charge businesses to deposit cash. They do it in such a way that there’s no way to escape their ever-increasing fee percentage.

    The mattress solution is more and more appealing, imo.

    Also the government heavily incentivizes electronic payments because those can’t be pocketed without paying VAT. That’s a MONUMENTAL amount of tax fraud being chipped at by the progressive disappearance of cash.

    Unfortunately I think the amount of cash tax fraud that exists is far more reasonable than the amount of straight up fraudulent, yet “legitimate”, expenditure that governments allow. See, for example, covid PPP loans.

    ElegantBiscuit,

    Write offs, PPP loans, deferrals, and all the other accounting tricks that the government carved out for the primary benefit of the wealthy are definitely a bigger loss of tax revenue. One guy writing off a personal vehicle for his personal business is probably what a busy restaurant makes in 4 months of cash purchases. Suppliers and distributors are also unlikely to deal with large volumes of cash just as a matter of practicality and risk, and the fact that you can’t have a functioning business with employees that need paychecks without going through banks which go through the government, unless you’re operating with an entirely under the table staff which is just begging for trouble.

    freebee,

    The people insisting on using cash are the ones with a big pile of it, with origin dubious to unknown. Anti tax evasion is the best part of digital banking. Threats to privacy is the other side of that coin unfortunately…

    ASeriesOfPoorChoices,

    Re: credit card companies: you’re right, and you’re not the first to say it.

    South East Asia is pissed off at them and their fees too. Starting in Thailand (but spreading) their big banks got together and made a QR code system for instant sending of money (similar to what Australia did with PayID which obfuscated bank account numbers with your own phone or email address, and stacked with Osko, a fast transfer system to bypass the slow (days) bank to bank transfers).

    You will see street vendors with food carts with a QR code on it. You want to buy something? You order, they say the price, you scan the code, send the money, show your phone, get your food.

    (You can have codes with the payment amount already in it, like in a bill, but since this is just a food cart on a sidewalk, they just have one generic “pay me” code)

    Because they are bank to bank, it’s all fee-free.

    And yes, in the USA you have Venmo and similar, which has other issues, I think.

    In the Philippines so many people use pay-as-you-go and prepaid phone plans, and load up their account with credit, they’ve gone further. People could gift credit to other people for a long time. Now, you can actually pay for things with your phone credit there. (GCash, which confused me for a Google product for a while). There’s only two mobile/cellular phone companies in the country (all the rest are resellers), so it has some monopoly issues. But what it means is since everyone has a phone (doesn’t have to be a smart phone. A nokia style dumb phone is fine), you don’t need cash or to pay VISA/MC.

    Cash is garbage. Using cash electronically is good.

    Using credit card companies is dubious.

    thehatfox,
    @thehatfox@lemmy.world avatar

    Cash isn’t much use for making purchases online, which is also where an ever increasing amount of spending is done.

    There’s no coin or note slot on my laptop, and contrary to the internet’s advice throwing money at my screen doesn’t seem to work either.

    I used to be a big proponent of cash but with the bulk of my financial activity happening online now I can’t help it feeling a bit redundant.

    SeekPie,

    Mullvad lets you mail them cash, but I don’t think it’s scalable nor fast enough to be widely used.

    SpookyUnderwear,

    The last time I sent cash in the mail was in the early 00s when buying CDs from ebay. Wild that there is a service today that takes cash via mail.

    SeekPie,

    They do it to make it as anonymous as possible

    Croquette,

    Cash is needed nonetheless because when there is a downtime for whatever reason, it is not good if the only thing you have is a card.

    TWeaK,

    Yes that’s fair enough, cash doesn’t work online - but bitcoin is a better solution for online transactions than cards.

    I mean, we haven’t even got into the subject of data tracking. If you think Facebook is bad, consider for a moment how much your card provider knows about you. Banks and card companies have learned from Facebook, and data brokerage is now a trillion dollar industry - with only 8 billion people in the world (many of whom don’t use the internet or have data being traded), that means your data is worth roughly $1,000 a year. Surely, as the manufacturer of the data, you should be getting some of that?!

    TheBat,
    @TheBat@lemmy.world avatar

    bitcoin is a better solution for online transactions than cards.

    Aaaaaand now you’ve lost me.

    TWeaK,

    Aaaaand how?

    TheBat,
    @TheBat@lemmy.world avatar

    For one, Bitcoin is inefficient and energy intensive technology.

    WldFyre,

    Lol Bitcoin is not better than cards for online shopping, the only thing it’s better for is buying whatever you’re smoking.

    TWeaK,

    Objectively, bitcoin is better for online transactions. It’s not even all that safe for buying drugs - every transaction is recorded permanently in an open ledger, so it’s actually much easier to trace (at least up to the end points where traditional currency is exchanged).

    It might be less widely accepted, but that’s only because of how insidiously endemic MasterCard and VISA are.

    Croquette,

    How is bitcoin objectively better? That’s a pretty bold statement that needs some backing arguments.

    They both have pros and cons, but until BTC have garanteed near instanteneous transaction confirmation, I don’t see how that would work at the grocery store for example.

    TWeaK,

    Bitcoin is objectively better based on the way it works. Subjectively, with the established infrastructure behind it, traditional card payments are artificially better - purely because of convenience. But on a level playing field bitcoin works better and is less susceptible to negative influences.

    The grocery store is not typically an online transaction. I did specify online transactions. For buying groceries online, bitcoin would be better - there are no fees when trading bitcoin. When trading cash, there are no fees.

    When putting cash into a business account, there are fees, and as almost all businesses put their money into an account they pay these fees. These cash deposit fees and card processing fees have grown in such a way as to entrap nearly all commercial transactions.

    Objectively, it’s better if there aren’t fees, particularly when the fees are not proportional to the actual service the fees are supposed to represent.

    Croquette,

    That’s a weird take. A system is better because it’s free?

    I re-read your comment and I missed the fact that you said online buying, sorry about that.

    One advantage of traditional CC over Bitcoin is buyer insurance against fraud. If someone gets a hold of your Bitcoin wallet, he can take out everything and you have no recourse.

    If someone steal your credit card and make fraudulent purchases, the transactions will be cancelled and you won’t be left on the hook.

    vrighter,

    you’re wrong for valuing peace of mind.

    /s

    TWeaK,

    That’s credit, most online purchases are made with debit cards.

    Croquette,

    That’s debit as well. I have protection against fraud on my debit card.

    TauZero,

    The credit companies do not insure against fraud, they simply take the money out of the merchant account and put it back into yours. Now it’s the merchant who has no recourse, if they have already shipped the product. So the only difference between CC and crypto is who is typically left holding an empty bag in case of theft - the payer or the payee. Certainly not the banks!

    I’d argue in terms of assigning responsibility, it seems more fair to expect you the customer to keep your digital wallet secure from thieves, than to expect the merchant to try guess every time whether the visitor to their online store happens to be using a stolen credit card.

    ReadyUser31,

    Retaining some ability to spend and use cash is vital because otherwise, all our financial transactions are totally controlled by the banks, and they are completely untrustworthy. The cost is inconvenience.

    shiroininja,

    I don’t pay them. The business conducting the transaction does :p

    ASeriesOfPoorChoices,

    You mean, the fee is already baked into the sticker price, so you’re paying it regardless of which payment method you use.

    shiroininja,

    Ya

    Kusimulkku,

    No thanks

    Prandom_returns,

    Electronic is faster, more convenient, safer, easier to track, and doesn’t need a stupid purse to carry around.

    Haven’t touched cash since 2020, couldn’t be happier.

    _number8_,
    • regressive drug laws
    Floshie,

    still not so up to date LGBTQIA+ laws

    Speculater,
    @Speculater@lemmy.world avatar

    80 hour work weeks

    AllonzeeLV, (edited )

    I take pity on Japan as the only nation on Earth to fully internalize grind culture as their source of existential meaning to an even more toxic degree than the United States.

    If they didn’t exist, I probably would deem such a thing unsustainably improbable, but there it is.

    To be clear, I’m not referring to places where the poor are exploited to work even longer hours at more physically brutal jobs for basic survival, I’m talking about self proclaimed “developed” nations whose citizens are indoctrinated to proudly jump into the productivity volcano as some kind of honor/life’s purpose/sense of identity in itself, and who wouldn’t have it any other way.

    Zehzin, (edited )
    @Zehzin@lemmy.world avatar

    South Korea is more the first case than the second, no?

    AllonzeeLV, (edited )

    Completely fair.

    That said, when there was a proposal to increase standard work hours in South Korea recently, the people rejected it loudly. There is a desire in SK by many to achieve work life balance, which would be something of a slur in Japan.

    Everything I’ve ever seen of Japanese culture would indicate so much as speaking against something like that would get you ostracized by the vast majority.

    embed_me,
    @embed_me@programming.dev avatar

    I’m not from the original “developed” nations but imo occupation is a pretty big factor in one’s identity.

    Floshie,

    And their website design…

    tiredofsametab,

    A/B testing clean, minimalist, modern designs common in the West against modern Japanese designs always shows better results for the Japanese designs amongst Japanese consumers. I don't think they're going to cater to the 2.5% of foreign residents and others that might use Japanese sites (though I often wish they would)

    beerclue,

    All of those apply to Germany as well. Except floppies …

    Shmandom,

    If it ain’t broken…

    tiredofsametab,

    Live in Japan. Plenty of things are quite broken :/

    Vrtrx,

    When I found out about all that I was honestly kinda glad my country, Germany, isn’t the only one that’s in the past in terms of bureaucracy and digitalization of services.

    But cash is a weird point to add. A society without cash would kinda be dystopian ngl

    RaoulDook,

    Without cash, you can’t have privacy. All card or contactless payments are logged and probably sold to advertisers or anyone with enough cash who wants that info.

    CalicoJack,

    Very true. But those advertisers and data brokers (and governments) have convinced most people that the convenience is worth it, and that only criminals desire that level of privacy.

    RaoulDook,

    They can’t stop me from using cash if I want to though. It is legal tender for all debts, public and private.

    CurlyMoustache,
    @CurlyMoustache@lemmy.world avatar

    It is legal tender, but you can’t force people to accept cash in their own businesses. Before you walk into a store, they can say we do not accept cash. By walking in and buying, you agree to not use cash

    RaoulDook,

    Yeah but that doesn’t happen. Cash payment is the default standard that backs up the other forms of payment that depend on Internet / phone infrastructure and electricity.

    No business that I have ever patronized has refused cash, but many have been cash only and were not able to accept cards or contactless payment. Power outages, Internet outages, etc all can bring down payment systems’ infrastructure.

    That’s how it is in the USA, and it’s a good system. Cash is reliable and puts the entire monetary purchasing power into the literal hand of the citizens, versus cards and other digital payment systems that can be controlled by authorities to deny your access to your own money.

    CurlyMoustache,
    @CurlyMoustache@lemmy.world avatar

    It does around here (Norway). I’ve never even seen how our cash looks like since the late 00s.

    The US is a shit system made for fucking the average tax player in the ass

    RaoulDook,

    Sounds like you don’t know what you’re talking about. This all works fine in the USA for us, it’s not a bad system at all.

    I have ALL options available to me - cards, contactless payment, cash, credit, whatever. I celebrate the fact that cash is an option that lets me avoid having every data-hoarding entity collect records of my purchases.

    Taxes aren’t fucking me anywhere, I pay them and I get government services and infrastructure in return. Taxes aren’t hurting me at all in fact.

    candybrie,

    Debts, yes. But businesses don’t have to accept cash if you pay before the service is rendered or the product is purchased.

    RaoulDook,

    Businesses in the USA, especially regions with a higher proportion of black or hispanic residents, will go out of business if they stop accepting cash. It’s not going to happen.

    idiomaddict, (edited )

    I’m an immigrant in Germany and kind of had to laugh at this, because the cash thing is so hard for foreigners here. Since the pandemic it’s been better, but I had multiple moments before it where a grocery store or gas station only accepted cash with zero warning.

    I didn’t like having much cash on me at first, because I was worried about losing it or having stolen. After about a year, I did lose my wallet, but the found things bureau at town hall called me to return it, cash still inside it. They charged 10% (iirc) and split it wiith the person who found it.

    Edit: name of town hall changed for clarity

    sarmale,

    Why should the town charge you?

    idiomaddict, (edited )

    They provide a service, why wouldn’t they? As a student, I didn’t pay any taxes, but I still benefit from the service. If I had had my rent payment in the wallet or hadn’t been able to afford it, I might have tried to cap it, but it was like 60€ total (for a payment of 6€, not a payment of 60€), so I wasn’t bothered.

    sarmale,

    Because its a public service funded by taxes? Ok now I understand if you didnt pay any

    idiomaddict, (edited )

    I’m not sure if it’s partially funded by taxes or just the profit from the found things, because I’ve only dealt with them the once. I’d assume it’s at least partially funded by taxes, because they’d need to find a lot of lost things otherwise. I don’t know if a taxpayer still has to pay a fee, but I suspect so, based on how things generally work here (though they’re also generally sympathetic, in the case that someone does have their rent or something that they can’t afford to pay in the wallet, though there probably is a cap on how much someone would have to pay).

    I think of it basically as a deductible for the lost item insurance.

    Edit: I realized the problem. The found things bureau called me, I just felt like that was a weird translation so said town hall. Sorry lol

    Vrtrx,

    I’m currently in Scotland and have experienced the exact opposite xd I was kinda shocked when certain shops and stalls at festivals only offered card payment. Like just a few days ago I went into town and saw that the Christmas market was already up and running so I thought I might as well buy myself a mulled wine. At the stall I realized I didn’t have that much cash on me (especially since mulled wine is extremely expensive in Scotland for some reason. Borderline scam lol) and asked if card payment would be okay thinking they would refuse since it’s just a stall on a Christmas market so why would they be able to accept card payments right? The clerk answered “Oh yeah we only accept card anyway”. I was kinda shocked a bit but I got my mulled wine so all’s good :D

    TrickDacy,
    @TrickDacy@lemmy.world avatar

    Floppy disks??

    Isthisreddit,

    Nuclear arsenals use floppies, and for good reason.

    Personally I use spinning hard drives as floppies, but same idea (offline storage, usually off-site as well if I have time)

    Blue_Morpho,

    I’d think Blu-ray m-disc would be a bit safer than a floppy that could have a bit flip from being too close to an iPhone (magsafe).

    TrickDacy,
    @TrickDacy@lemmy.world avatar

    I’m gonna need an explanation as to floppies and hard drives being so similar. I can easily buy a brand new hard drive. Floppy disks and drives, not so much…

    siipale,

    Both are spinning magnetic disks. I guess they meant the reliability aspect of the storage medium.

    TrickDacy,
    @TrickDacy@lemmy.world avatar

    I honestly had several catastrophic failures of floppy disks that made me stop trusting them. imo floppy disks are the least reliable way to store data by far

    siipale,

    I don’t know how reliable SSD is compared to magnetic but I guess they do fail too. Good thing about SSD is that it doesn’t have moving parts so at least one fewer points of failure.

    TrickDacy,
    @TrickDacy@lemmy.world avatar

    Depends on how much writing you are doing. I think that if you’re doing tons of writes all the time, HDD might edge out SSD, but it all depends on a lot.

    Floppies were an entirely different beast. Instead of a disk failing every few years, a floppy disk that hadn’t been used in a few months, in my experience, was about 50/50 if it was bad or corrupted in some way.

    neonred,

    What’s bad about cash?

    DavidGarcia,

    i think the issue is more that people don’t really understand what is good about cash and what is bad about the alternative

    and the economic and societal reasons why cash is vastly preferable.

    Oha,

    Cash is fucking awesome

    kandoh,

    It stresses me out giving the cashier a math problem to solve. I know they can a calculator, but still.

    Rin, (edited )

    I’ve worked at a till long ago. You ring up the customer then type in how much they gave you then the machine tells you how much change to give.

    Croquette,

    It’s not a million dollar problem, it’s a few cents issue. You’ll be fine

    Eyelessoozeguy,

    There was a movie about this, how a few cents of rounding error moved into an account generated a lot of money. Office space.

    ASeriesOfPoorChoices,

    That’s specifically a USA problem only. In the rest of the world, the price you see is the price you pay (not inc. restaurant service fees, etc, which are more BS exported from the US)

    There is zero reason that the price sticker on a shelf or menu shouldn’t be what you actually pay. It’s not like online shopping where they need to calculate shipping based on distance, or tax based on state of the receiver. And there is no reason they couldn’t even put both prices on the sticker.

    But in America, they do it for one reason: capitalism. It’s a marketing scheme. Makes you think you’re getting a better deal and paying less while you shop, so shoppers tend to spend more.

    It’s why fuel costs $2.19 ^99/100

    Because that’s seen as cheaper than $2.20.

    Sorry, but they’re not going to be rounding that final price down to save you 1¢.

    In short: you’re as much a victim as everyone else.

    vrighter,

    it’s because taxes vary per state. I don’t think it’s a good one, but it is a reason

    ASeriesOfPoorChoices,

    Taxes don’t vary inside a store, you idiot. There are no physical stores that straddle state lines and charge you different amounts depending on which checkout you use.

    I’m going to guess you’re both an idiot and you didn’t read my second paragraph where I mentioned this specifically.

    Akinzekeel,

    Change / coins are pretty annoying imho

    FlyingSquid,
    @FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

    Nothing. It must be great. My weed dealer accepts nothing else!

    creditCrazy, (edited )
    @creditCrazy@lemmy.world avatar

    I find it pretty funny seeing people talk about how Japan is not as advanced as people think. Meanwhile my home state the majority of people don’t have Internet. I’ve been getting pretty convinced that most places use fax machines due to how few places have Internet. Anyplace that has any amount of beurocracy uses paper files. There are a considerable amount of places were cell signals simply don’t work. The only way reason I know of public transport busses is because of movies. VHS player are common place for house holds. Many work vehicles were made in the 60s and we still use buckets to collect sap when sugaring. Card readers are rare so some gas stations require you to pay with cash. All around the only advanced tech things Vermont has to offer are our winter cars and the f13s that occasionally blow peoples ear drums out.

    BigWumbo,

    Tf is sugaring

    creditCrazy,
    @creditCrazy@lemmy.world avatar

    Making maple syrup at industrial scale

    BigWumbo,

    Ahh yes. Typical Vermontian behavior

    Croquette,

    Come to Quebec where everyone and their mother have a maple syrup shack.

    guiguinofake,

    Can confirm. Everyone in Québec has a mononc(uncle) Réjean who is like the 5th biggest maple syrup producer in the world.

    FlyingSquid,
    @FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

    Your country has a strategic maple syrup reserve. Maybe you guys need to calm down about the maple syrup.

    Croquette,

    That’s the only thing we have, might as well go all in.

    thorbot,

    Bro time travelled from 1992 to make this comment

    benignintervention,

    I did too, but it took 30 some odd years

    match,
    @match@pawb.social avatar

    Okay but Vermont is basically a white people nature preserve, isn’t it?

    creditCrazy,
    @creditCrazy@lemmy.world avatar

    Well it’s a pretty shitty preserve

    GBU_28,

    Imagine saying that about another race/place

    match,
    @match@pawb.social avatar

    “the Philippines is a nature preserve for Filipino people” fucking I wish, leave us alone colonizers

    A7thStone,

    Congratulations! You have discovered that changing the words in a sentence changes its meaning.

    GBU_28,

    Point is it would not be appropriate to make a joke of that nature with another race/place combo, therefore the joke is inherently racist

    Pogbom,

    Yeahhh but when the race you’re making fun of isn’t threatened, doesn’t face any meaningful discrimination, and pretty much runs the world, I think it’s safe to make fun of us.

    GBU_28,

    Kewl

    Pogbom,

    deleted_by_moderator

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  • GBU_28, (edited )

    ez block, racism in any direction is wrong, even if casual, convenient, or seeming to you without harm.

    You absolutely meant to offend me, using a race based remark, with that one.

    Aleric,

    Indeed, you have shown all of us that blocking you is both ez and wise.

    GBU_28,

    Feel free, no worries. I just don’t use racism as a joke and call it out when I see it. any color.

    MonkeMischief,

    Either race-tinged observational jokes can be funny if good spirited (I subscribe to this view) or they should be considered poor taste 100% of the time. (That’s fine too)

    But this self-flogging “lol but it’s ok to be racist against people that look like me because the stereotype is some bad people also look like me, so I totally deserve it based on my ancestry, right guys?” Schtick isn’t good for anybody.

    (Unless you literally don’t face any injustice on your way to running the world, then I totally misunderstood lol.)

    But the idea that you should denigrate yourself to appease others’ misguided hatred of your racial “impurity” is…the exact concept we want to eradicate isn’t it?

    ASeriesOfPoorChoices,

    As a white person, I am authorising and allowing this joke to be made, and I am retracting and removing any racism labels associated or attached to it.

    You’re welcome!

    GBU_28,

    So one person of another race could “clear” a joke against their race? Obviously not.

    ASeriesOfPoorChoices,

    As a comedian, I am writing you referral for your doctor for a humor-transfusion. Any of the four will do.

    GBU_28, (edited )

    I get no one address with me here but I stand by it:

    If you can’t make the joke about another race, you shouldn’t make it about any race.

    Imagine suggesting a place is a “black nature preserve”. 100% inappropriate, therefore the joke is inherently racist

    A7thStone,

    I see, so context has no meaning, except when it means everything.

    FlyingSquid,
    @FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

    I think you need to learn the difference between punching up and punching down.

    When white people become oppressed and stop being in control of practically everything in the U.S., you will have a point.

    Trollception,

    Most people don’t have home Internet because almost everyone has it on their phone. Plenty of people don’t own a computer anymore unless it’s for work.

    tiredofsametab,

    Both things can be true, but Vermont doesn't have a giant "We're a high-tech place!" image harped upon constantly that can feel like false advertising.

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