528
Global IT outage shows dangers of cashless society, campaigners say
(www.theguardian.com)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2024
528 points (94.0% liked)
Privacy
31974 readers
208 users here now
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
Chat rooms
-
[Matrix/Element]Dead
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
Does anyone actually want a cashless society though?
I don't carry cash for the same reason I don't carry my socket wrench. I use it for specific things at specific times but I don't need it day to day. That doesn't mean I think socket wrenches should be outlawed.
Governments love the idea. It's much easier to collect taxes or punish dissidents in a cashless society.
Well, our own government has never said anything about it. If they did propose it I guess our democratic process would find the best way forward. The same could be said of a great many things that will never exist.
Also collecting taxes ought to be easy and fair. If no one cheats then no one pays too much if they do not cheat. Besides that, there's plenty of other measures that can be applied in 2024 to diminish tax evasion.
The right to have cash is granted on a constitutional level in the EU, all 27 member states would have to agree to get rid of cash.
It's now illegal in many parts of Europe to make large cash transactions.
... but how could someone buy a new Audi during a blackout ?