Comment by onetrickwolf | Hacker News Reader

Comment by onetrickwolf | Hacker News Reader

We completely privatized payments without realizing it. Credit cards are no longer some extra benefit on top of your bank account, it's how basically almost all commerce is required now. Private companies collect basically a tax on almost all transactions in our economy.

I don't know how we let them get away with this. Facilitating commerce should 100% be a government operation and be free. To accept cash I pay paying the US government a fraction of a percent I'm taxes compared to credit card fees.

The fact that, on top of all this, they are essentially policing what can and cannot be sold and bought should be outrageous to people. It's a complete conflict of interest that companies can shut down payments to and from competitors to their investments.

People can say "oh just don't use or accept visa etc" but good luck staying in business or buying anything online.

We absolutely need some kind of government backed digital payment system in my opinion. Credit card rewards should also be illegal they are nothing but hidden fees passed to you by charging the business more.

> Private companies collect basically a tax on almost all transactions in our economy.

Forget transactions, they collect a tax on almost all money in the economy. Something like 97% of money in circulation is simply bank loans (like mortgages) that haven't been paid back yet.

I encourage anyone to walk around a financial district somewhere and really think about what it's all for. On the inside of some of those buildings there might be people, but they aren't doing much. On the inside of many there aren't even any people.

Finance definitely has value, but is it really that much? It's a fraction of what they take.

How they get away with it is the interesting part. There's just something about money. There will always be a very large part of the population who just don't get it. Then there are some who excel with it. It brings out the worst in many and it downright scares the rest. All that's clear is we need to get a grip on it. Bitcoin was the latest attempt.

I can't recommend enough the book Other People's Money by John Kay.

I have a feeling that a government run payment system would also forbid illegal activity (eg laundering, etc). I agree that a private payments network is not ideal but the question at hand is how should transactions facilitating illegal activity be handled?

To be clear I’m not passing a moral judgement on sex work - just pointing out the fact that it’s presently illegal in many forms and jurisdictions and that fact is relevant.

The problem isn't that laws are being enforced. The problem is private institutions are enforcing extra-legal penalties on legal activity.

Well Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover combined have almost a $1.5T market cap - so if you think the government is going to put them out of business - you must have a different perception of what the government does than I do...

> is going to put them out of business

Going to put them out? Probably not. Can they? Absolutely.

A dystopian digital currency as CBDC will come after FedNow.

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