• Lord Wiggle@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      How though. Over here cash isn’t accepted anymore at most places. I only use cash for buying drugs. Most stores and groceries only accept card. Same with bars and clubs. I honestly have no idea besides drugs what to use cash for.

      • the_doktor@lemmy.zip
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        6 months ago

        I cannot imagine such a dystopian, nightmarish place where you can only pay with something that personally identifies you. Congrats for living in a nightmare. I’d leave.

        • Lord Wiggle@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Yeah, sure, where to? I live in the Netherlands, one of the wealthiest countries. I’ve seen many parts of the world in my time in the navy. There aren’t many places better then here, honestly. Only Norway scores higher, they have a lot of things worked out much better then the rest of us. But paying with plastic is very common there too. Also, digitalization doesn’t have to be bad. Look at Estonia, I think many countries can benefit from their system. See here a video on it by Kraut. There’s a difference between digitalization and a system like China has. But my expenses should be private at least, so cash would be best. They just make it harder every day. We used to be able to say “I’m not interesting, no one cares what I do, no one is going to check me”. But now we have AI, now every one of us indeed IS interesting. And everyone is being checked to teach the algorithm. Countries with few laws to protect privacy and welfare of it’s inhabitants, like the US for example, can turn to a totalitarian control state in no time with just one crazy idiot as a leader. At least the US never had idiots as president 👀. At least the US doesn’t have a history of wanting to collect everyone’s data 👀. At least they are not actively doing anything with the data, like China or Russia does 👀.

          But on your point of living in a dystopian world: Yeah, we fucking do. But it doesn’t matter where we live. It’s dystopian everywhere. We live in World War III while we have to fight to get the bare minimum of privacy, we must work our ass off for the bare minimum of living standards and we buy products we do not own. Difference between the rich and poor has never been as high as now and the military strongest countries are run by idiots and dictators. Mass amount of people see Elon Musk as our savior for a better future, the biggest narcissistic hypocritical scam artist our there. At least Trump isn’t president anymore. Oh wait… Seriously, the movie Idiocracy isn’t a comedy, it’s a documentary. I seriously think the US would benefit if it had Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho as president over Trump.

          While the rest of the world turns more extremist every day (especially right wing) with rising world tensions.

          So if I plan on moving it will be out of the world of the living at best.

          • the_doktor@lemmy.zip
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            6 months ago

            It’s funny how in our dystopian America (and I agree, it is), at least we can still pay for things anonymously.

            What a concept.

            • Lord Wiggle@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              In Berlin people will hate you if you’d draw your card. But to get cash is hard, not many ATM’s. Also in many countries the limit of what you can withdraw and deposit is being lowered more and more. But at least it helps against criminality. But it’s not like they care about that in the US seeing the corrupt judiciary system, privatized incarceration system (including slavery), corrupt and racist police, organized crime with tight connections to government officials, the insane amount of guns widely available (including military guns), the massive drug use, etc etc.

              But at least they have their freedom. Or well, except for the insane amount of incarcerated people. Oh and if you’ve got a really weird and twisted idea of freedom. Like, free to grab a gun if you want to shoot around at your school, but not free to feel safe anywhere anytime. No safety you won’t become homeless if you have a medical issue. But you’re free to do forced free labor when you get wrongfully incarcerated for being black, or because the incompetent jury fell for the charmes of the prosecuter or didn’t like the face of your lawyer.

              Talking about dystopian, the US really ticks all the boxes. They could do a great dystopian TV show. Every season a different dystopian world. US, China, North Korea, Russia, Turkmenistan, South Africa, Venezuela, etc. I’d watch that.

    • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      That is correct, but you do lose out on all investments that have generated the wealth to make people wealthy these days.

      So let’s say inflation was 4 percent for the year and you could have made 10 percent invested in stocks for the year, you would have made 6% profit on your money for the year. Instead you lost 4% that year.

      That difference could make or break someone long term, completely different retirement options.

    • ji17br@lemmy.ml
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      6 months ago

      You’re only robbing yourself if you go cash only. $1 will be worth less tomorrow than it is today.

      • the_doktor@lemmy.zip
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        6 months ago

        The $1 in your scam account is worth the same as a real $1 bill. Maybe less when the entire financial system inevitably collapses in on itself as the rest of the world does and people will actually value real money again.

        • ji17br@lemmy.ml
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          6 months ago

          If that actually happens money is literally just paper at that point.

          The $1 in my account actually grows. Sorry you don’t understand basic finance.

          • the_doktor@lemmy.zip
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            6 months ago

            It “grows” because you don’t own it and these scamming places want to encourage you to “invest” in their scam. It’s like investing in any other scam. At the end you can be screwed over by all these banks – as I have so many times because they don’t care about me or my money – and decide to destroy every bit of savings I have because of some “error” that they ultimately blame on me.

            No thank you. I have been scammed by banks (and credit unions) far too many times in my life. They’re just greedy, hateful businesses, like any others, and you shouldn’t trust them. Just part of our capitalist nightmare.

            • ji17br@lemmy.ml
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              6 months ago

              Damn dude. You really have no clue. You lend the bank your money. They can use that money to lend to others. They give you some of the profit.

              If you deposited money in a bank, and they told you it’s now their money and you own nothing, then you didn’t deposit money in a bank.

              You are clearly leaving out important details. Banks can’t just take your money.

              The fact that it seems to have happened multiple times to you is extremely suspicious.

              • the_doktor@lemmy.zip
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                6 months ago

                They have. Multiple banks and a credit union. Mismanaged my money and screwed me over while I was trying to get it right leading to owing them huge fees and ultimately no money in the account. Never again.

                But just keep throwing money at the scam and have every single store track your purchases by your credit card. I refuse to participate in such a nightmarish society.

                • ji17br@lemmy.ml
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                  6 months ago

                  Again, I believe you are leaving out key details. They didn’t just take your money.

                  My assumption is that you didn’t understand how banking fees work and overdrafted your account or something. Perhaps got a credit card and only made minimum payments, which essentially just covers the interest.

                  • the_doktor@lemmy.zip
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                    6 months ago

                    I understood just fine. I knew what they were supposed to do and how. I knew about fees, about account limits where you have to have a minimum amount to not pay any monthly fee, I knew everything about their corrupt little operation except for, apparently, their ability to take away your money at a moment’s notice and I have to go in and show them I had more, to which they ignored me and didn’t give me any real reason beyond “it’s not us, it’s you” bullshit despite extensive records I had.

                    They don’t care. It’s all about screwing over people who are struggling to bottom them out of society so they can never recover. Fuck the system.