The U.S. Internet Preservation Society writes about chokepoints in the financial processing system (inspired by recent events with games stores) and the several layers present that are not obvious to people outside the system.
UPIPS covers why payment networks are effectively immune from competition, and why creating a new competing payment network without restrictions will not provide benefits due to contract lock-in and other problems.
They also cover proposed legislation's benefits and weaknesses for addressing the problem.
This situation (Visa and MasterCard determining what's acceptable or not commercially on the internet) is a side effect of having privatized electronic money. The US federal government runs the ACH system for free, and it works fine. The feds could have done electronic money, and it could have been more secure and less costly, But noooooo, we had to have a market based solution. The consequences include a few unelected CEOs making decisions about what's pornographic and what isn't, and it's safer to assume that the entire system is corrupted.
These financial services have way too big of a power imbalance over customers, businesses, and this gives them influence over the entire economy. It is extremely unfair and there isn't an easy alternative. While crypto exists, one can't simply ignore the trillions upon trillion of dollars flowing through these traditional means.
Businesses being cut off from the prominent financial system of society is very stressful, damaging, and really shouldn't be a thing if they are not breaking any laws of where they are operating.
Consortia of credit unions and national postal services all need to offer universal p2p and electronic payment methods that do not depend on the patronage of fickle, moralizing corporate crooks. Banking and ability to make purchases and receive funds are human rights, not privileges to be dictated by technofeudal overlords.
There needs to be a push for private moneys and more digital cryptocurrencies. Especially as wealth concentration and automation are pushing people out of jobs. People cannot be forced to use the same currency system and compete on a playing field which systematically values their labor as approaching $0. They must be allowed to form parallel economies which work for them.
Currently, it feels like it's illegal to be poor. You can't do anything without a license due to regulations. Not to mention the media conditioning you have to overcome to achieve the simple goal of living sustainably.
I'm becoming jealous of cavemen because a caveman did not have to convince his wife to live in a cave without tap water and electricity, it was a given. They just made the most of what they had knowing that there was no alternative. They would just hunt and wash their clothes in the river. The inconvenience came with some benefits of having lots of time to be out in nature, enjoying the sights and sounds, never knowing what they're going to encounter. Also, they didn't know about bacteria or parasites so they didn't have to worry about anything.
The most difficult part of being alive today is convincing your loved ones to cut on expenses. Even if you can have a comfortable life without all the consumable junk, it's impossible to convince most people that this is the case. Life is a constant struggle against media conditioning.
The media creates this narrative that you need to have a lot of things just to be alive. For some people, it's possible for them to have all these things without too much struggle but for others it's basically impossible for them to have... so these people have to spend a ton of their energy just fighting these media narratives because that's all they can do.
It's like being a salesman except your customers are your loved ones, your product is 'cutting expenses' and your biggest competitor, 'consumerism' has an unlimited advertising budget and its product is totally incompatible with your product... And your competitor runs its ads on repeat 24/7.
It is important to note that the author of this article (and the founder of this organization) is also the owner of notorious harassment forum Kiwi Farms: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiwi_Farms
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[ 42.5 ms ] story [ 668 ms ] threadUPIPS covers why payment networks are effectively immune from competition, and why creating a new competing payment network without restrictions will not provide benefits due to contract lock-in and other problems.
They also cover proposed legislation's benefits and weaknesses for addressing the problem.
Businesses being cut off from the prominent financial system of society is very stressful, damaging, and really shouldn't be a thing if they are not breaking any laws of where they are operating.
Currently, it feels like it's illegal to be poor. You can't do anything without a license due to regulations. Not to mention the media conditioning you have to overcome to achieve the simple goal of living sustainably.
I'm becoming jealous of cavemen because a caveman did not have to convince his wife to live in a cave without tap water and electricity, it was a given. They just made the most of what they had knowing that there was no alternative. They would just hunt and wash their clothes in the river. The inconvenience came with some benefits of having lots of time to be out in nature, enjoying the sights and sounds, never knowing what they're going to encounter. Also, they didn't know about bacteria or parasites so they didn't have to worry about anything.
The most difficult part of being alive today is convincing your loved ones to cut on expenses. Even if you can have a comfortable life without all the consumable junk, it's impossible to convince most people that this is the case. Life is a constant struggle against media conditioning.
The media creates this narrative that you need to have a lot of things just to be alive. For some people, it's possible for them to have all these things without too much struggle but for others it's basically impossible for them to have... so these people have to spend a ton of their energy just fighting these media narratives because that's all they can do.
It's like being a salesman except your customers are your loved ones, your product is 'cutting expenses' and your biggest competitor, 'consumerism' has an unlimited advertising budget and its product is totally incompatible with your product... And your competitor runs its ads on repeat 24/7.