I've been this way for at least 3 years and it's not really a struggle in a major metro area. The only times cash is needed is for tipping, and we don't really valet that often or have other need to tip.
NYC is really an outlier on this. Lots of businesses here are cash only, including all 3 pizzerias near my house, all halal food carts, hot dog carts, many small performing arts operations, and most bodegas (unless you're spending $10+).
Yep - I've also been unintentionally been cashless for the last few years. Part of it is I don't like carrying a purse and like being able to only have my cards stored in one of those card-holders that attach to phones. I do feel guilty about not being able to tip sometimes but most of the time, tipping is done on a card, and my city has raised minimum wage enough that tipping is supposedly on its way out.
Wow - I would've never thought things could be so easy when you just give in to loving big brother!
It's a bit disingenuous to describe this as an "experiment" when the actual effects of the increased surveillance won't be felt immediately, or even in a concentrated fashion. Card companies could easily implement untraceable payment technology. But they don't because they want to profit not just on transaction fees, but on selling your personal transaction data on the back end.
I've personally begun a deliberate effort to use more cash, especially for routine purchases (like groceries) that would be easy to default to using a card for. If needing to interrupt your plans to find ATMs becomes a burdensome occurrence, the problem isn't cash but your planning.
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[ 0.23 ms ] story [ 27.3 ms ] threadReplace Cash with digital, drug dealers, etc with different bad actors and you could... come up with the same conclusion as the author.
It's a bit disingenuous to describe this as an "experiment" when the actual effects of the increased surveillance won't be felt immediately, or even in a concentrated fashion. Card companies could easily implement untraceable payment technology. But they don't because they want to profit not just on transaction fees, but on selling your personal transaction data on the back end.
I've personally begun a deliberate effort to use more cash, especially for routine purchases (like groceries) that would be easy to default to using a card for. If needing to interrupt your plans to find ATMs becomes a burdensome occurrence, the problem isn't cash but your planning.