=>gemini://altesq.net/~masqq/gemlog/2022-07-11-2.gmi

A related blog post describes the idiocy of requiring an app to do anything these days.

But the situation is even worse!

Not long ago you could get a cup of coffee with some change in your pocket. Never mind inflation, and the fact that a fancy latte with nut milk pricing is approaching $10.00. Many places won't even take a $10.00 bill, US legal tender. And they feel somehow enlightened, real twenty-first-century fucks, mumbling impatiently that I should really get Apple Pay or Samsung Pay, like a real person.

Now why would someone not take cash? We've reached yet a new level of idiocy.

A family member with an MBA pitched in: "Processing cash is really expensive. We recommend that businesses avoid cash". Huh? I thought the purpose of owning a brick and mortar business was to take cash in exchange for goods and services. Credit cards are expensive with 3-5% surcharges...

Taking cash, you see, requires counting it (a skill that is disappearing rapidly, in spite of everyone having a college degree). Then, you have to get it to a bank and deposit it. Apparently, these things are worth a few percent off your gross intake. What?

On the same note, eating requires cooking, or at least getting to a restaurant. Then, there is the shitting part, which can be, well, messy. Should we not eat?

Inventories are expensive, and so are salespeople, not to mention real estate. Perhaps we can just outsource all of these. Apparently, that is exactly how the new economy works! I can't believe that anything gets done, ever. When I pay for something and it actually works out, I feel like I'd just won the lottery.

And then there is privacy. Not taking cash inserts several banks and credit reporting agencies into your business and mine. Generating records as durable as the blockchain, but much less accurate. Records that sit unguarded at night, and are traded by asshat 'hackers' like baseball cards.

And then there is discrimination. Not taking cash assures that your establishment is filled with white people with jobs, not some street trash.

I outright boycott places that don't take cash, after letting the poor employees know that they are participating in a terrible racist plot. Not that they need to hear it, but perhaps a few nearby customers will change their mind. But in reality I mostly stay quiet...

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