You did an excellent job expressing the concerns we're facing with these social credit payment systems that are being cooked up.
In terms of what's being cooked up, it's been a slow cook in cozying up the public to cashless payment systems when factoring in debit cards and even the written check which is close to phased out entirely. It's safe to assume at this point that most people will mindlessly fall right into it without a second thought.
Many of the landlords where I reside in a city prefer their rent payments in the form of digital payments like Cashapp and Paypal. Sometimes they might bend and take cash payments, but then tell the tenant they don't wish to renew a lease when the time comes..
The problem definitely is the fact that the majority forces us into this. Most seem to rebel in their mind at the thought of barter systems for some reason, as if they feel something is being stolen from them if a cash exchange does not happen.
One time I had this scenario play out where myself and another person each had a physical item that one another wanted, which we both valued at the same value. Perfect! A trade! Not so easy though, as he preferred to actually perform a cash trade for the items between one another. I tried to tell him that merely exchanging the items that we both valued as being the same value was skipping a completely useless imaginary step but he just wouldn't bend and become uncomfortable and asked me "please can we just do it cash exchange? I'll feel more comfortable." So I agreed but I still persisted in asking him if he could see how useless the cash exchange was and he said he could see how it was useless, but the point was he was not willing to take cash out of the equation because of his well ingrained programming which he could even see but still wouldn't break that programming.
I've had folks try to pay me with apps just last year. I'm ok with just declining payment, so it turns out it wasn't a problem, but I can see that ordinary folks are using Venmo and etc, and mostly will not suspect a problem until that problem has arisen, and in this matter such problems will not be soluble when they arise. Once your worldly fortune has been digitized and devalued, written off and discarded, there's no resurrecting it to a blockchain. AI, algorithms, and inhuman psychopaths cannot provide goodwill.
I needed a 4x4 hunting truck one year because my prior hunting truck had died. I bought an f250 4x4 for $250, but it had some issues, like a leaky gas tank if you filled it more than half full. I was fretting because I was cash strapped at the time, and the 390 in the f250 isn't particularly high fuel economy, getting 9-11 mpg. I, of course, ran out of gas, topped up (or bottomed up as it were, limited to the bottom half of the fuel tank) from a can, and killed the battery trying to start it. I had to push it over a hilltop to be able to compression start it. I was engaged in that task when a couple guys came along in an old Datsun 4x4 and helped me get the heavy beast over the hill, which I greatly appreciated because it weighed at least 3 tons. I happened to mention I wish I had a more economical truck, like theirs, and they said they wished they had mine, because they wanted the heavier frame and running gear to build a mudder.
We swapped on the spot, which took a while at that price range of truck, because we had to each cite the litany of things wrong with the rigs before we felt right making the trade. I hope they were as happy with the deal as I was, because I loved that Datsun and drove it many years. My kids still miss the Frankentruck, as we came to call it. Datsun never made a 4x4 until the company became Nissan, so there were some aftermarket aspects to that 1980 Datsun, in fact literally every major system and component.
Anyway, I'm all for going cashless, as long as we're going moneyless. I deeply understand that most folks don't want that, and won't like doing it, because most folks derive at least some of their self esteem from how much money they have, and some of them only value money, sad to say. Some folks just cannot abide carrying a goodwill balance, and I have been chased down by little old ladies and paid cash, for work I declined payment for, against my will. Other people can't carry a goodwill balance because they're incapable of goodwill at all, and those people I can't transact with because I transact with goodwill for a reason, and that reason is that goodwill can't be taxed, stolen (which includes being cheated out of wages), or rot, but also can't apply to folks without the capacity to bear goodwill. I find this an extremely valuable benefit of transacting preferentially in goodwill, because clearing those folks that can't out of my market dramatically improves the quality of my social circle, which was an unexpected benefit. One aspect of that benefit is never having to justify my hours, which was a regular occurrence when I sold my labor for wages, and I don't miss haggling with such people that are incapable of having goodwill. Once I cleared such folks out of my market, those left have been remarkably faithful in providing what I did need and want instead of money, and the ease and copacity of my economic arrangements creates a whole qualitatively different life experience from making a living from wages. I mostly don't have any bills to pay, accounts to balance, any accounting to do beyond initial reckoning and arranging consideration, which has been entirely seat of the pants rather than the mathematical scribblings and arcane invocations ordinary accounting is, and I endured in the past. I find I am much happier and appreciative of the people I provide services to than I was working for wages, and I observe that the people I serve seem to be also. Transacting for goodwill has been all win IME.
The prospect of carbon tracking money threatens me just the same though, because it is a limitation on the folks I transact with, and that concerns me. It will add expenses to paying me that some good folks may not be able to bear in certain compensatory mechanisms I presently have available, such as fuel. Oh well. Working around such limitations is what thinking outside the box is for.
Thanks!
@valued-customer...
This lol. This is a comment! Much like how my replies have turned into posts. Awesomesauce...
!LUV
@topcomment
Thanks for the nomination. With Topcomment I don't upvote comments on own posts.
I should have read more! Sorry... that's on me. I will try to pay better attention... I appreciate your letting me know as well!!@topcomment...
No problem! I'm already happy that you're using it 😊
It also shows that the upvotes are done manually 😀
(1/10) sent you LUV. | tools | discord | community | HiveWiki | <>< daily@valued-customer, @wesphilbin
Glad you enjoyed it, and hope you benefited from it. I have had to turn replies into posts, when I didn't want to hijack someone's blog. This one's on my blog, though, so I can let 'er rip!
Thanks!