Comment by Habgdnv | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Habgdnv | Hacker News Reader

Sorry for the long post, but I've got to vent about something... Near my office, it's almost impossible to pay with a card for food within a 1km radius. It's either cash or nothing, even though there's no shortage of places to eat. And when you do find a shop that accepts cards, they often want you to spend at least 5 to 10 euros. So, forget about using your card for just a waffle. Speaking of, I found out my favorite waffle spot operates on such tight margins (buy for .3, sell for .35 euros) that card fees would actually cause them to lose money.

Don't get me started on the times I've tried to pay by card and it just doesn't work, forcing me to always have cash on me if I don't want to skip lunch. Banks aren't much help either, with their daily withdrawal limits that make it a chore to access your own money in full. Here's what I think could help:

1. Make it mandatory for all transactions to accept card payments, no matter how small. If a card gets declined for no good reason, that meal or service should be free.

2. Banks should give 24/7 access to our money. Fail to provide that, and they should owe us big time, like 1 million euros big.

3. If authorities mistakenly place a distress or freeze on your assets without just cause, the compensation should be tenfold the standard rate—meaning 10 million euros. This ensures accountability and fairness in financial dealings.

3a. Any compensation due for mistakes, such as wrongful distress on assets, should be personally paid by the government employee responsible for the error, not sourced from government funds. This would promote diligence and personal accountability in official actions.

Maybe it sounds extreme, but something's got to give for a cashless society to work here.

> If authorities mistakenly place a distress or freeze

First I wanted to write that good luck suing you government, and even if you win, getting your money in several years… Maybe…

> personally paid by the government employee responsible

… but then I continued to read, and I’m sorry but if you think any government would be willing to do that, you might be mistaken or even delusional.

The sad truth is that as a layperson you can’t do much about it, if anything at all. And no government will be willing to let you hold it accountable in any way for even the smallest amount of money, let alone millions like you suggest.

I suggest this as a form of theoretical equilibrium, i know it won't happen.

The question is about fairness. You work for these money, did not steal them. If you steal, the court can decide to take them from you, but mistakes happen and you know that you have some X amount of money, go to the grocery store and boom-you have nothing. No court, no police, no judge. And then you must go to court and write tens of pages of proofs to get your own money, not my or their, YOUR OWN! I am starting to become a bit angry exactly because this happened to me. They saw the mistake, and unlocked the money in about 2 business days, but the block was put friday evening, so 2 business days was 5 real days for me.

I know the benefits of cards and things, i like how I don't have to count coins but there must be some balance.

Currently it's like the DMCA thing. I can right now just send youtube few DMCAs for few random videos I choose. If they even come to me and tell me that I am lying, i can tell - "sry, my bad, won't happen again for the next few weeks" and i'm fine. The difference is that this can have more real and immediate consequences. What if you're in another city and have no where to sleep except hotel, and suddenly you have no money for hotel. You have no money to get a ticket to go home. And no food? You may carry some cash of course - 20-30 euro? Most of the hotels are 50-60 euro (unless its a real hole). And then what?

This is not some joke torrent site where we play pirates vs Big Corps. This is real life. Last such example was in Canada where many protesters found out that their cards were frozen. I can't remember the exact time or what they protested against but i'm sure you also heard of that.

I sympathize with your point of view and kinda share it, and enjoy cash myself very much, but I'm afraid "fairness" doesn't really exist, therefore it's a bit pointless to call for it. The rules of "the game" are such and such, either you play by rules, or try to get more money to switch to more comfortable rules.

What I don't understand though is why are "they" doing it, tightening things up for laypeople. It's not like most people in Europe are rampant criminals and money launderers, or even rich. Real criminals use different multiple schemes too. Why does government there want more control, exactly? What they don't see yet, but want to see that bad? I don't get what's the point, but maybe I'm just not very bright.

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