29 thoughts on “Your Money’s No Good Here

    1. The Old Boy

      Legal tender is a much misunderstood term. It means that it must be accepted as payment for a debt, but someone selling goods or services may specify in advance that he wants a certain kind of payment before selling the goods or rendering the service.

  1. Zaccone

    Makes perfect sense. Cash is heavy and costs a lot to deal with. Society can’t become cashless soon enough.

    1. eoin

      So, it’s a crafty Ryanair ploy to cut the weight, reduce fuel costs.
      What next, everyone is administered a laxative at the check in desk so by the time they reach the door to the plane, they’ve dropped a couple of lbs?

      1. milk teeth

        Ohh that’s a bit ignoble – made me actual lol but now im wondering if the weight saving would offset the costs of procuring and distributing the laxatives. Exactly how much are we spending a year to fly poo around??

        1. Cian

          um, quick research suggests average human weight = 137 lbs, ‘average’ poop = 0.25-1lb;
          we’re talking less than 1% of body weight. (a laxative may produce more liquid, but that would be quickly replaced on the ground before flying).

          A plane (Boeing 737-800) has max takeoff weight of 175,000lbs (plane = 90,000lb, fuel = 40,000lbs) leaving 20,000lbs for passengers, crew, food + drink and luggage. 200 passengers @ 2lbs each (being generous) is a saving of 400lbs on a 170,000lb plane – about a quarter of one percent of saving.

          A full fuel-load costs about $28K, so a saving of €$65.

          1. millie vanilly strikes again

            I do love that you are able to provide answers to these questions, Cian.

            The important stuff too!

    2. Kolmo

      Privacy is an issue to a cashless society, a technical “outage” will leave you stranded, hackers/hostile agents could wreck your day/life, economic power of individuals would be placed more so into the hands of the oft-bashed banking fraternity, (Tracker mortgage fraud scandal, Libor scandal, Anglo-Irish criminality, Overcharging as a policy, PPI, etc…) a trustworthy bunch. There are benefits to cashless systems but cash should not be done away with.

        1. spudnick

          Popped into an small icecream shop on Dawson St last month on a particularly hot day with the fam. Line was down for his POS and so he couldn’t take cards, and he was tearing his hair out, understandably – lines of punters turned away.

      1. Zaccone

        Scandinavia is approx 80% card payments these days, and rising, and everything works fine. It makes for more convenience for customers and businesses, higher tax income and reduced costs for the state, and reduced criminality. Its a big winner all round.

        I wonder how many of the people who seem to give out about these “privacy concerns” with a largely cashless society are fully tax compliant.

          1. Zaccone

            Cash handling costs are 5-15% for most businesses, depending on sector.

            Even with excessive card processor fees (4% is higher than most) its still cheaper for a business to deal with cards only.

            That is unless they’re unusually “tax efficient”. Like quite a few city center, old man style pubs in Dublin that are still cash only…

          2. B9Com From No

            I doubt your figures are accurate
            For a small town retailer the only cash handling cost he had is walking to the local bank

          3. Rob_G

            Where are these ‘small town retailers’ that you know who walk around with thousands of euros of takings, and about what time would you say they make this trip to the bank…

  2. Termagant

    People are less reluctant to spend when they can’t see the money they’re handing over. Card money isn’t the same as real money.

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