phantom784

Given that money is fungible, SNAP could in theory be replaced by a direct cash payment with no strings attached. This would also have the benefit of reducing overhead costs.

I think it could be argued either way. There's plenty of non-food necessities (toilet paper, feminine hygiene products, etc.) that aren't covered by SNAP.

I don't see why this would be the case - it's not like the private system in the US today has different premiums based on how much junk food you eat (the closest to that I've seen is higher premiums for tobacco users).

EBT is already money with strings attached - you can only spend it on food. I don't see narrowing the definition of "food" here to exclude soda to be a huge problem.

I switched to RedReader, which Reddit decided to still allow.

Plus the fact that it's been running for 5 years. Does that mean they bought 7 year old hardware back then? Or is that just when it was last restarted?

I was once taught that serif fonts are better in print, and sans-serif is better on a screen.

Ah. I've never come across this in the US - every bank I've seen also has a website. The only thing the apps do that the website won't is mobile check deposit typically.

Would they not just let you keep the account but not use their app in that case?

Interesting, that also permits:

> Real-money gambling apps where the core purpose of the app is real money gambling and where the app requires broad package visibility in order to comply with technical standards mandated by applicable geofencing regulations.

I presume that's to allow the gambling apps to make sure you don't have a location spoofing app installed?

https://www.1x.tech/neo, but from what I've heard a lot of times it still has to be remote controlled by a human.

Agreed. Essentially it's either you create jobs directly, or you contribute to the UBI fund.

Can an Amazon account be made anonymously? (I've never tried).

But then how is that more secure than just paying Mullvad directly? Either way, there's a record of "this person gave money to Mullvad".

Perhaps some sort of tax that looks at the ratio of a company's profits (or perhaps revenues) to employees, and the tax scales up if that ratio gets too high.

Arguably, a "public good" that companies provide is employment, and as they increase automation, they reduce that "public good" and direct more of their revenue to themselves rather as salary for their employees.

Amazon, but that kind of defeats the point.

What I've commonly seen in the US is that the lowest toll is for passenger cars, and then it goes up by the number of axles that the vehicle has.

How does this work with coupons, discount for loyalty card holders, etc.?

Presumably that's fine because a SNAP recipient has access to those same discounts. So wouldn't this be the same - the "cash rounding" discount is available to SNAP and people paying cash?

Unfortunately I think this is much easier said than done. No single store is going to want to make this change, because it'll make their prices look higher than the competitors'. It'd require legislation, (and even that'd likely be state-by-state legislation).

It also means a company wouldn't be able to advertise a single price for a product nationwide, since sales tax rates vary by state (and many times even within a state).

Also worth noting that Canada also doesn't include sales taxes.

Google Wallet supports this as well, but not for passports, only select state drivers licenses.

https://support.google.com/wallet/answer/12436402?hl=en

I wonder if passports will come to Google soon as well - that'd open it up nationwide as long as you have a passport.

It gets tricky because sales tax is added on top of the sticker price.

For the SNAP law, could they just round down SNAP purchases in the same way to be compliant?

Per Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_North_American_Numberi...

"The syntax rules for area codes do not permit the digits 0 and 1 in the leading position."

My guess would be it's to avoid ambiguity with the fact that 1 is also the country code. If I recall correctly, historically, dialing the 1 was necessary for any long distance call (even if not international).

Technically it's the country code for the North American Numbering Plan, which is used by several other countries as well as the US.

But in this context it'd be the first digit of the area code, with no country code being used because the call is within the US. There are no area codes in the the North American Numbering Plan that start with a 1.

I've heard of cruise lines banning travel routers as well.

If you live near the border, of if you regularly travel to Canada anyways, then the travel cost isn't an issue.

I worked for a company that asked users for their gender, with language along the lines of "choose the gender that best matches your identity."

There was a special case for Middle Eastern countries that removed this language.

The problem with Facebook, beyond just ads, is that its algorithm pushes so many posts from groups that I'm not in and don't want to see. I want an option to only see posts from people I'm friends with and groups that I'm in.

That is the logic for using city-based timezone names rather than countries. Country borders change but cities tend to be more stable.