LA is considering a ban on cashless businesses as the plastic shift leaves some behind

Take a penny, leave a penny… just don’t pay with one. As Americans’ cash usage declines, more shops are refusing to accept physical currency. With no federal law saying a business must accept cash, cities that want to keep cash flowing have to pass legislation. This month, lawmakers in LA proposed a ban on cashless businesses, arguing they exclude people with low incomes, older adults, and unbanked communities.

Cashless-biz bans have already passed in cities like San Francisco, NYC, Philly, and DC.

Cash made up only 20% of all US payments in 2021, a steep drop from 31% in 2017. As of last October, 4 in 10 Americans weren’t using cash at all in a typical week. Square said that in the first year of the pandemic US cashless businesses more than doubled.

Paper or plastic: Cashless businesses say the lack of paper currency discourages theft and is more efficient (picture: no cash transport and storage costs).

Cashless has other biz perks… Studies show that customers paying with a card tend to spend more. Credit-card companies, which earn a transaction fee on every swipe, have (unsurprisingly) encouraged no-cash trends: in 2018 Visa held a cashless contest, paying $10K to 50 businesses that stopped accepting real currency. Card and digital payments (like Apple Pay) also give merchants data on consumers, which can be used for targeting your latte habits.

. THE TAKEAWAY Fast change can leave some short-changed… As cashless transactions take over, large populations could be excluded. Some groups still rely heavily on cash, like unbanked populations (7% of CA), older people who haven’t transitioned to digital payments, and kids or teens who aren’t old enough to get a credit card.

. FACT OF THE DAY

The first modern credit card, the Diners Club card, was introduced in 1950

. PS This article has been forwarded from the Snacks newsletter, I though it's an interesting read and hope you enjoy. There's also a little link on the image above where the company SweetGreen justify the need to go cashless, delirious! Always selling confort instead truths...if you curious bit.ly/sgcashless goes to https://medium.com/sweetgreen/cashless-49f64f24dd0f

view all related items

131 sats \ 2 replies \ @nullama 29 Aug 2023

Cash should always be accepted.

In reality, it's getting harder every day to pay with cash.

From shops not accepting it, to ATMs charging fees for withdrawing it.

And physical branches of banks have been closing down recently.

It all feels like they're preparing the public for the CBDCs.

11 sats \ 1 reply \ @m00ninite 29 Aug 2023

Most of the businesses I interact with day to day still accept cash, thankfully.

A good way to cope with ATMs being more scarce and expensive is to withdraw more cash than you need and leave most of it at home. Less trips to the ATM if you can just add a couple 20s to your wallet before leaving the house.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @JohnRawlins 30 Aug 2023

i use the grocery store as my atm machine. i buy a lollipop at the cash register (50 cents), do cashback, and give the lollipop to a homeless person.

5 sats \ 2 replies \ @SimpleStacker 29 Aug 2023

OK fine, but we still need a bearer asset so Bitcoin it is then.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @brianh 30 Aug 2023

out goes paper, in comes the sats 😎

5 sats \ 0 replies \ @SimpleStacker 31 Aug 2023

Out with the cash, in with the sats! 👍

11 sats \ 1 reply \ @a68dd96af9 OP 29 Aug 2023

this in reality should have been the cover image... editing too late :)

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @JohnRawlins 30 Aug 2023

for thousands of years we've had coin or paper based currency.

there's no need to change that.

what would be really really interesting, is someone develops a device that computes POW on bitcoin transactions, perhaps it runs on a raspberry pi, or something.

said device would become a "wallet" and you would have a little receipt printer on it, and at a business - it would...... you guessed it, you'd pay the business, compute the transaction on the network, then you'd print out the receipt, give them one, and keep one.

something like that.

why this doesn't exist yet, I don't know, but it shows people are not really thinking yet., or if it does someone correct me. better yet why dont you find someone to make it, because i lack the capacity to do so.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @JohnRawlins 30 Aug 2023

this is about the NWO and being able to turn peoples currency liquidity OFF.

imho its very important to always accept cash, and this manner of thing will only serve to create violence, a gap in society highly visible , and make a big mess of a great many other things.

it's absolutely a pre-conditioning move for the whole cbdc thing.

and it's bunk.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @runningbitcorn 30 Aug 2023

Shame on you peeps who insist on perpetuating the use of cash. Cash is only possible through Central Banks and we're trying to oust the mfers. Oops, said the quiet part aloud.

3 sats \ 0 replies \ @clr 30 Aug 2023

I cannot speak for others, but what I want is to jump straight from cash to bitcoin, avoiding the compulsory use of the banking system. Or do all these "cashless" businesses accept bitcoin? Are bank cards possible without central banks? How do you oust the mfers if you (are forced to) use their payment rails?