The reason for today’s excursion to Akihabara was a private lesson with the CEO of a food service chain. I told him about Ecute being all cashless and this sparked a discussion on the topic. More on that in a later, longer post. Two points he brought up of interest to the narrower topic of cashlessness are that when he was in Europe a couple of years ago, he could not use cash. The places he visited were 100% cashless. Between last week’s lesson and this week’s, he attended the World Expo in Osaka. One of his friends has connections that provided pre opening tickets to their group of friends. It was 100% cash free.
Whoa boy! Here we go. A headline from tonight’s The Japan Times.
“Banks freeze withdrawals for foreign nationals upon expiration of visas”
Can’t do that without the data from immigration and your banks being linked. No surprise that they are for that is the whole publicly stated purpose of the My Number system, to have EVERYTHING linked to a single number.
I love the convenience of cashless, and of course. that is the carrot of it, so freaking convenient. I am sure also that including an ATM in restaurants isn't lost on people at how ridiculous it seems. I mean, why should you have to go to an ATM, pay a fee, extract cash, and pay said cash if you can simply swipe your card in one step? What's the opportunity cost of that?
1. They know what you are buying.
2. They know where you are buying it.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out if they can find out where and what you are buying; it's a mere small jump to decide if you "can" buy something and where you can buy it.
In the states right now, there is a bit of ruminating over if you can use your SNAP" to buy soda. But this is a different argument. If you are going to use taxpayer money to buy things, shouldn't they get some say in what you buy?
For what its' worth, I've never had hay fever and not had any jabs or medicines pretty much my entire adult life and very little even before that. Not suggesting there's a link but it certainly does make you wonder. From studies that are available, certainly unjabbed kids a many times more healthy than their jabbed peers and have fewer of the usual childhood illnesses and those they do get tend to be less severe.
Truly sad to hear that Japan has fallen to cashlessness and I fear Hong Kong is not far behind. The only reason it hasn't already happened is due to the risk averse nature of our bureaucrats who tend to favour doing nothing (even when action is necessary) to avoid getting blamed for getting it wrong. Once they retire on their fat government pension, it's the next guy's job and so the cycle repeats again and again. One idea did come to mind, and while it may not reverse the damage already done or stop further onslaught, it might be a way to show some form of protest. It will need cooperation from other likeminded people and trust but I wonder if multiple people can share one e-cash account. You could also get friends who are already cashless to pay when you're together and reimburse them with cash. Just because some of your friends and acquaintances have copped out for what they see as an easier life doesn't mean they won't listen to your concerns and possibly show some support. Many simply just haven't thought it through and some might even wake up once the grim reality sinks in. Like I said, it's not a true solution but anything you can do to thumb your nose at the system is surely better than nothing.
Anyway, hope you feel better soon and looking forward to reading about your camping adventures!
A short reply for now, a more detailed one later. I have long wondered about vaccines causing allergies. This suspicion began long before the panic. I know not a single person older than my generation who had any allergies. I am sure there were some, but none amount my parents’, grandparents parents, and great grand parents’ generation that I knew had any allergies. A few of my childhood friends did. I was (am?) allergic to poison ivy as a child but my other allergies let themselves be known after 20. This is my 16th year dealing with hayfever.
The push towards cashless in Japan is from banks and businesses. The government may be pushing them but necessarily. Industry here can be quite proactive. None of my employers waited for the government to recommend any anti covid policy before they instituted their own. That is not to say that all that the gov. Would later decide followed what companies were already doing, however. Masking, segregating the different sections of their workforce, cancelling farewell, welcome parties and the like were done even without government suggesting them. Closures and lock downs were not performed without the government “recommending” them, at least not to my knowledge of recollection, but masking, shortened work hours, various forms of unsocial distancing were started before public announcements of recommendations to do so. I get the feel that cashless craze is similar.
Yeah, similar situation here during the panic. That was why I was so shocked when the government brought in actual mandates as 99% of the morons were already doing all that nonsense, just as they had in the SARS dress rehearsal nearly 20 years earlier.
They are trying to put in a system like this in Jamaica. When hurricane Beryl barreled through, though, the grid in my village was down for more than three weeks. That cashless shit isn't going to work when that happens! I read somewhere that a solar storm that can take down the grid happens about once every 150 years. The last time it happened there wasn't any grid so people didn't notice much. But they would surely notice now! Especially if you couldn't buy anything.
It seems so. Jamaicans, bless their hearts, are the most non-compliant people in the world. Who knows. “The best laid plans of mice and men/Gang aft aglee.”
Yes it will. It will be a shock to you but I fear not to most. Until recently Japan had been a cash based society. I used to get paid in cash here. Every once in a while there would be a news story of a company owned vehicle being held up for the cash it was bringing to the worksite to pay their employees for the month. We had to walk in the equivalent $10,000 worth of yen to secure that contract for the house the wife bought 20 years ago. Few places accepted credit cards and fewer those issued overseas and almost all had a minimum purchase of 5000 yen before they would accept what plastic they did. That was true less than ten years ago. Now more and more places will not accept cash at all including an entire shopping may. True, it is small, but still, no cash accepted and most are gleeful over it.
Of course they are gleeful. It’s sooooooo convenient. AND, they don’t have to touch anything that another filthy human being has touched, like bills and coins.
Just don’t try to inform them that the touch screens they are using at the self checkout E-payment kiosk has been touched by many humans, hence the name “Touch screen”.
You know, I am beginning to come to the conclusion that most of humanity deserves what is coming. I just wish there was a way for us to opt out.
Sadly, I don’t think this is realistic. The Internet of Things (IoT) is being set up specifically to thwart that. SMART refrigerators are already on the market. I do not know the specifics, but I image that currently it goes something like as follows.
After being set up, your new SMART refrigerator will monitor and track everything that is placed inside and taken out. It will alert you of approaching expiry dates to help you reduce waste. When you are running low of an item that either you have programmed into it or AI realizes you normally keep stocked, your SMART fridge will automatically order it.
This tech already exists and can be used to also alert when something that is from outside the approved supply chain is placed inside, or something that is not also in the data of what you have purchased with your idiot phone is. There is a lot more they can use that data for too.
I, like you have been involved in an intolerable program, I have had to put my Jeep back together to pick up one or the other grandchild, with about 10 minutes to spare, yesterday.
Today will be another 4:30AM till 7/8PM at the dreaded Masters. I hate golf, really hate it.
And the other one has a dental appointment @ 8:30, with no heat and very little clutch. Only supposed to get down to 46 F tonight.
Update on Cashlessness
The reason for today’s excursion to Akihabara was a private lesson with the CEO of a food service chain. I told him about Ecute being all cashless and this sparked a discussion on the topic. More on that in a later, longer post. Two points he brought up of interest to the narrower topic of cashlessness are that when he was in Europe a couple of years ago, he could not use cash. The places he visited were 100% cashless. Between last week’s lesson and this week’s, he attended the World Expo in Osaka. One of his friends has connections that provided pre opening tickets to their group of friends. It was 100% cash free.
Whoa boy! Here we go. A headline from tonight’s The Japan Times.
“Banks freeze withdrawals for foreign nationals upon expiration of visas”
Can’t do that without the data from immigration and your banks being linked. No surprise that they are for that is the whole publicly stated purpose of the My Number system, to have EVERYTHING linked to a single number.
I love the convenience of cashless, and of course. that is the carrot of it, so freaking convenient. I am sure also that including an ATM in restaurants isn't lost on people at how ridiculous it seems. I mean, why should you have to go to an ATM, pay a fee, extract cash, and pay said cash if you can simply swipe your card in one step? What's the opportunity cost of that?
1. They know what you are buying.
2. They know where you are buying it.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out if they can find out where and what you are buying; it's a mere small jump to decide if you "can" buy something and where you can buy it.
In the states right now, there is a bit of ruminating over if you can use your SNAP" to buy soda. But this is a different argument. If you are going to use taxpayer money to buy things, shouldn't they get some say in what you buy?
For what its' worth, I've never had hay fever and not had any jabs or medicines pretty much my entire adult life and very little even before that. Not suggesting there's a link but it certainly does make you wonder. From studies that are available, certainly unjabbed kids a many times more healthy than their jabbed peers and have fewer of the usual childhood illnesses and those they do get tend to be less severe.
Truly sad to hear that Japan has fallen to cashlessness and I fear Hong Kong is not far behind. The only reason it hasn't already happened is due to the risk averse nature of our bureaucrats who tend to favour doing nothing (even when action is necessary) to avoid getting blamed for getting it wrong. Once they retire on their fat government pension, it's the next guy's job and so the cycle repeats again and again. One idea did come to mind, and while it may not reverse the damage already done or stop further onslaught, it might be a way to show some form of protest. It will need cooperation from other likeminded people and trust but I wonder if multiple people can share one e-cash account. You could also get friends who are already cashless to pay when you're together and reimburse them with cash. Just because some of your friends and acquaintances have copped out for what they see as an easier life doesn't mean they won't listen to your concerns and possibly show some support. Many simply just haven't thought it through and some might even wake up once the grim reality sinks in. Like I said, it's not a true solution but anything you can do to thumb your nose at the system is surely better than nothing.
Anyway, hope you feel better soon and looking forward to reading about your camping adventures!
A short reply for now, a more detailed one later. I have long wondered about vaccines causing allergies. This suspicion began long before the panic. I know not a single person older than my generation who had any allergies. I am sure there were some, but none amount my parents’, grandparents parents, and great grand parents’ generation that I knew had any allergies. A few of my childhood friends did. I was (am?) allergic to poison ivy as a child but my other allergies let themselves be known after 20. This is my 16th year dealing with hayfever.
The push towards cashless in Japan is from banks and businesses. The government may be pushing them but necessarily. Industry here can be quite proactive. None of my employers waited for the government to recommend any anti covid policy before they instituted their own. That is not to say that all that the gov. Would later decide followed what companies were already doing, however. Masking, segregating the different sections of their workforce, cancelling farewell, welcome parties and the like were done even without government suggesting them. Closures and lock downs were not performed without the government “recommending” them, at least not to my knowledge of recollection, but masking, shortened work hours, various forms of unsocial distancing were started before public announcements of recommendations to do so. I get the feel that cashless craze is similar.
Yeah, similar situation here during the panic. That was why I was so shocked when the government brought in actual mandates as 99% of the morons were already doing all that nonsense, just as they had in the SARS dress rehearsal nearly 20 years earlier.
Guess in both cases, the government felt they needed it to appear that they were driving the reactions.
They are trying to put in a system like this in Jamaica. When hurricane Beryl barreled through, though, the grid in my village was down for more than three weeks. That cashless shit isn't going to work when that happens! I read somewhere that a solar storm that can take down the grid happens about once every 150 years. The last time it happened there wasn't any grid so people didn't notice much. But they would surely notice now! Especially if you couldn't buy anything.
I should also say that it is my belief that this system is intended for would wide use.
It seems so. Jamaicans, bless their hearts, are the most non-compliant people in the world. Who knows. “The best laid plans of mice and men/Gang aft aglee.”
Hope for their sake that they remain that way.
You're keeping a good historical record of the end of an era. Sad to see it die - or rather, helplessly to observe it being murdered.
I hope your hay fever clears up soon!
Kitsume, that is very bad news, very bad.
It will be a culture shock when it gets here, but get here it will!
Yes it will. It will be a shock to you but I fear not to most. Until recently Japan had been a cash based society. I used to get paid in cash here. Every once in a while there would be a news story of a company owned vehicle being held up for the cash it was bringing to the worksite to pay their employees for the month. We had to walk in the equivalent $10,000 worth of yen to secure that contract for the house the wife bought 20 years ago. Few places accepted credit cards and fewer those issued overseas and almost all had a minimum purchase of 5000 yen before they would accept what plastic they did. That was true less than ten years ago. Now more and more places will not accept cash at all including an entire shopping may. True, it is small, but still, no cash accepted and most are gleeful over it.
Gleeful? The idiots must know what comes next, they must know.
Simple insanity is what it is!
Of course they are gleeful. It’s sooooooo convenient. AND, they don’t have to touch anything that another filthy human being has touched, like bills and coins.
Just don’t try to inform them that the touch screens they are using at the self checkout E-payment kiosk has been touched by many humans, hence the name “Touch screen”.
You know, I am beginning to come to the conclusion that most of humanity deserves what is coming. I just wish there was a way for us to opt out.
I suspect (hope) that barter systems will grow quietly, under the radar of the petty tyrants who would jail us for such evil actions.
Sadly, I don’t think this is realistic. The Internet of Things (IoT) is being set up specifically to thwart that. SMART refrigerators are already on the market. I do not know the specifics, but I image that currently it goes something like as follows.
After being set up, your new SMART refrigerator will monitor and track everything that is placed inside and taken out. It will alert you of approaching expiry dates to help you reduce waste. When you are running low of an item that either you have programmed into it or AI realizes you normally keep stocked, your SMART fridge will automatically order it.
This tech already exists and can be used to also alert when something that is from outside the approved supply chain is placed inside, or something that is not also in the data of what you have purchased with your idiot phone is. There is a lot more they can use that data for too.
Not a chance!
I, like you have been involved in an intolerable program, I have had to put my Jeep back together to pick up one or the other grandchild, with about 10 minutes to spare, yesterday.
Today will be another 4:30AM till 7/8PM at the dreaded Masters. I hate golf, really hate it.
And the other one has a dental appointment @ 8:30, with no heat and very little clutch. Only supposed to get down to 46 F tonight.
Never ends, does it?
No, it never ends, never, ever!
And then to put a cherry on top, the youngest said I lost her AirPods, me, the one guy that kept them charged, “Lost them.”
I really do not care what happens now, I really do not care.
But of course I do, otherwise what the hell am I doing up at 3 AM talking to you. You can tell me, Kitsune!
Your youngest sounds very similar to my oldest.
I'm mercurial when it comes to humanity.
Half the time I'm aghast at the evil being forced upon the global population.
Then I witness ( some ) people and think "I can see their point. You actually deserve this".