this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2024
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Cash transactions are way down. These advocates say the feds need to do something (www.cbc.ca)
submitted 4 months ago by girlfreddy@lemmy.ca to c/canada@lemmy.ca
30 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

A consumer group is urgently calling on the federal government to follow other jurisdictions in the U.S and Europe and bring in legislation to stem the slide toward a cashless society.

Only 10 per cent of transactions in Canada today are done using cash, according to Carlos Castiblanco, an economist with the group Option Consommateurs.

"There is a need to protect cash right now before more merchants start refusing [it]," Castiblanco recently told CBC Radio's Ontario Today.

It's critical to act now, he added, before retailers begin removing all the infrastructure required to store and maintain physical money.

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[–] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 48 points 4 months ago (5 children)

The main thing that concerns me about a fully cashless society is that the means of buying and selling stuff shifts fully into the hands of the for profit, private company payment processors.

If cash is no longer an option, then ever increasing payment fees can become a growing profit center for those banks, credit card companies and payment processors as they gouge the public worse than they already are.

[–] brax@sh.itjust.works 16 points 4 months ago

Which is why we need to nationalize banks. Why the fuck are they private institutions when you literally can't get by without a bank account?

[–] Beaver@lemmy.ca 11 points 4 months ago

Yup. Mastercard, Visa and American Express are about to get much worse on consumers and merchants.

[–] villasv@lemmy.ca 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

The main thing that concerns me about a fully cashless society is that the means of buying and selling stuff shifts fully into the hands of the for profit, private company payment processors.

Not necessarily true. The federal government can and should roll out their own instant payment mechanism under the supervision of the central bank or federal reserve. For reference: the FedNow initiative in the US, FPS in Hong Kong, and PIX in Brazil.

Interac is an aberration and it should be killed by a real public service.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

And, y'know, you'll never be able to buy anything illegal again, even if that's just a book a la Fahrenheit 451.