(edit: from another crosspost, apparently NL shops are operating legally)
Saw a “no cash” sign at a bakery. Conversation went like this:
me: So, no cash? What’s going on there?
cashier: Yeah, we’re not allowed to accept cash.
me: Isn’t it the other way around? Isn’t there a legal tender law in #Netherlands?
cashier: Yeah, we’re not allowed to refuse cash.
me: So this sign posting says loud and clear “we are breaking the law”, in effect, no? Is that not being enforced?
cashier: That’s right. It’s unenforced in Netherlands.
The same thing is happening in #Belgium. This kind of forces me to revise my understanding of European culture & norms. In both the US & Europe there is a culture of certain laws (rightfully) going unenforced against individual natural people. E.g. small amounts of marijuana possession. But I previously thought when it came to moral/legal people (businesses), they simply complied with the law in Europe to a great extent.
IOW, companies complied with laws in Europe. Contrast that with the US where corporations small and large will blatantly disregard any laws that interfere with profit based on the calculated risk of getting caught and risk of penalties.
I just wonder if Europe is being influenced by cavalier US corps and changing to comply only when penalties are likely. Or is this something I had wrong all along.. that EU companies were always loose with compliance?
#WarOnCash
update
The original post was censored without reason by @knollebol4
@nlemmy.nl. It’s now a non-existent node, perhaps rightfully so if it’s going to use an anti-spam tool against ideas.
Yes, it is increasingly difficult to pay with cash in the Netherlands. Even at the Albert Heijn they have set it up such that it is a lot more convenient NOT to pay with cash. They have a large amount of self-service pin-only checkouts, and one or maybe two workers accepting cash at the manual checkout lane.
One path is to make an effort to resist this digital move and pressure politicians so that they enforce these type of rules and that cash is accepted. But I think this can at best slow this process down.
The other path is to embrace the digital move and start integrating crypto currencies into our societies in a more substantial manner. I know that many people have given up in crypto, but, putting speculation and hype aside, crypto is the best way we know of to integrate cash-like payments into the digital world. Right? Or is this something others disagree with?
I read in the linked article that the upcoming digital Euro will be sort of a cryptocurrency, and is as close to digital cash as it can get. I think it’s a very interesting development. Transactions can even be made if both the sender and the receiver are offline.
Interesting. I haven't followed development in the space of "official" crypto currencies, but my impression is that these will probably be centralized, have little to no privacy features, and that the governments will be able to control access to the funds.
But I may be wrong - maybe they are actually building decentralized crypto networks? I just find it hard to believe that a government would do this.
Cash is still the least common denominator because cryptocurrency excludes low tech users & it’s also unusable in a variety of tech failures. So cash should be held in the highest regard and protected as such. Cash is also the only instrument by which two people can transact without interference. E.g. cryptocurrency is not 100% fungible because a gov can issue an order that certain addresses are blackballed.
I also welcome cryptocurrency though to fill gaps where cash is impractical, like sending money remotely. Cryptocurrency is 2nd best to cash and banks should have the lowest regard because they can (and do) bully, exclude, and mistreat people in a variety of ways. Banks also push political agendas like blocking donations to #wikileaks. This will only worsen once cash is out of the picture.
Also consider the transparency. E.g. if an American buys a beer at a bar, there is currently nothing to stop the bank from selling that info to data miners who then sell that info to insurance companies. A health insurer could increase premiums based on that risk info. Also if the bar is mostly only reachable by car the car insurer might be interested as well. In Europe you have to trust the GDPR to protect (that’s a big ask!) So I’m only willing to buy alcohol, tobacco, mj, smart shops, etc using cash. Cryptocurrency does not solve the privacy problem sufficiently enough.
In my experience, it is often the opposite, many small businesses refuse to pay the banks excessive charges for the right to use a card machine, and so have "cash only" policies.
Are you talking w.r.t. Netherlands, Belgium, or elsewhere?
Europe used to have a fair number of cash only stores for the reason you mention. But Belgium recently changed the law. There are 3 laws on the books now:
You must accept cash (per the old still-existing Belgian legal tender law)
You must accept at least two forms of payment (new law)
Of the forms of payment you accept, one of them must be electronic (new law). Note that “electronic” need not necessarily involve a bank. E.g. cryptocurrency satisfies the compliance.