Friday, April 05, 2019
Unspecialized idiocy
Trite but true.... When you've actually done something, or actually lived in a place or situation, you can instantly spot nonsense written by people who haven't done it or been there. This rule normally applies to specialized job skills, but occasionally works for a perfectly ordinary experience.
For instance, this sneaky piece pretending to argue against cashless payment systems.
Cash is cumbersome, dirty and increasingly too tangible for our digital desires. And while we’ve already given it up to a fair extent for the credit and debit card--it still means we have to wait in lines, and that’s so 1990s. In an effort to cut costs and avoid long lines in front of the cash register, a small-but-growing number of retailers have stopped accepting paper currency entirely. Over the past couple of years, some retail stores and restaurants in large cities have simply ceased cash operations. But the problem is that while it may be safer and more convenient to pay without cash, banning the use of cash could be discriminating against low-income individuals without credit or bank accounts because of the fees and minimum balance requirements.CUMBERSOME? STILL MEANS WE HAVE TO WAIT IN LINES? AVOID LONG LINES? SAFER AND MORE CONVENIENT? This idiot has never been in a grocery store, or else has never OPENED HIS FUCKING IDIOT EYES when he was in a grocery store. ALL ALL ALL ALL ALL ALL PRECISELY 100.00000000% of the delays in a checkout line are caused by card transactions. Every transaction with paper cash goes smoothly and quickly. THEORY KILLS. EXPERIENCE SURVIVES. [Footnote for clarity: There are other sources of delay, like a price check on an unlabeled and embarrassing item, or a customer who plops down a pile of expired coupons and then argues about each one; but I'm talking here about delays caused by form of payment.] ¶ 2:24 AM
