Political Discussion

She will probably be arrested and charged with murder when she returns home. Again, it's not about life, it's about controlling as much as possible who can get abortions. My hope is she did all of this on her own as the state will go after every single person who helped her.
 
Was listening to Boston Public Radio and the MA state AG was on the last 2 hours taking questions and talking about topics.

One of the things I found interesting was that Boston Calling came up.

Boston calling as well as other event venues in MA have gone cashless. You either have to use your credit card, or in the case of Boston Calling your wristband. And the State AG's office have received lots of complaints about this. Whether it's from people who don't have credit cards, or can't give their 12 year old kid cash to go buy a hotdog and have to entrust them with a credit card.

According to state law all vendors/merchants need to accept cash. And this is something they are going to be cracking down on in 2024 to force these vendors into compliance.


For me, I really prefer cashless. I never carry cash and don't want to. I hate fee's to get cash out of ATM's and you don't have to worry about how much cash do I need. Not to mention things move a lot quicker at the vendors.

MA has been in a weird spot. Small business have been shifting back to cash only. And large events have been moving towards cashless in recent years. If anything, I would love for them to require small business to take more payment options rather than only focusing on the places that don't take cash. Cash is archaic and less secure. If someone robs you, you can't recover it like you can with credit cards.

I get accessibility. And cash should be accepted in some manner. And at Boston calling, it is in a way. You have a few weeks to either tie your wrist band to your bank account or credit card. Or load up an account with cash. There are even machines where you can deposit cash to add to your wristband. Every ticket hold has a wristband. It's not like they don't have access here. But yeah, other large events that don't provide wristbands, they should be able to take cash someway or another.
 
"Jews are only safe if Israel exists" is certainly a take from the guy in charge of the most powerful country in the world, not to mention the continued shrug at 17k dead and counting, and bypassing congress to facilitate those deaths faster. Joe is finding new ways to disgust me at rapid pace these days. Genuinely blows my mind that this sack of shit is the better option.

 
RenegadeMonster said:
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"Because the chains often share records across all locations, a pharmacy in one state can access a person’s medical history from states with more-restrictive laws."

This is seriously effed up. I use my independent pharmacy as often as I can, but unfortunately, insurance will no longer cover my monthly rx's, instead I am forced to use CVS mail order or go to one of their pharmacies.
 
I hate how articles and studies on the economy, especially when it comes around to people living paycheck to paycheck blame the people's lifestyles more than inflation.

For example, a recent study and article found that a little over 60% of people who earn $100,000 a year or more are living paycheck to paycheck. The article says this is because of lifestyle creep. As they make more money they increase their spending. That they are living above their means and rather should be downsizing and saving more money.

However, they never touch on the fact that someone buying a house today will almost always fall into living above their means and lifestyle creep. Home ownership is expensive. I for sure the hell can not afford a home in my area on a single 100k salary.

The reality of it is, even for people who make 100k or more, living the "American dream" that was all to easily obtainable by previous generations is putting them into a place of living paycheck to paycheck and not being able to save money.

Sure, that's not to say there are people who spend more just because they have more and are making poor financial decisions. But you have to look at the other sides of things. Not everyone who is living paycheck to paycheck is doing so because of overspending and poor financial decisions.
 
RenegadeMonster said:
Was listening to Boston Public Radio and the MA state AG was on the last 2 hours taking questions and talking about topics.

One of the things I found interesting was that Boston Calling came up.

Boston calling as well as other event venues in MA have gone cashless. You either have to use your credit card, or in the case of Boston Calling your wristband. And the State AG's office have received lots of complaints about this. Whether it's from people who don't have credit cards, or can't give their 12 year old kid cash to go buy a hotdog and have to entrust them with a credit card.

According to state law all vendors/merchants need to accept cash. And this is something they are going to be cracking down on in 2024 to force these vendors into compliance.


For me, I really prefer cashless. I never carry cash and don't want to. I hate fee's to get cash out of ATM's and you don't have to worry about how much cash do I need. Not to mention things move a lot quicker at the vendors.

MA has been in a weird spot. Small business have been shifting back to cash only. And large events have been moving towards cashless in recent years. If anything, I would love for them to require small business to take more payment options rather than only focusing on the places that don't take cash. Cash is archaic and less secure. If someone robs you, you can't recover it like you can with credit cards.

I get accessibility. And cash should be accepted in some manner. And at Boston calling, it is in a way. You have a few weeks to either tie your wrist band to your bank account or credit card. Or load up an account with cash. There are even machines where you can deposit cash to add to your wristband. Every ticket hold has a wristband. It's not like they don't have access here. But yeah, other large events that don't provide wristbands, they should be able to take cash someway or another.
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The problem here is that credit card companies make vendors pay 3% on every transaction so in many cases, if a vendor has a tight margin, they could be losing money. What often happens is that vendors have to charge more (aka inflation) when they don’t want to to offset the cost of accepting credit cards. People who pay with cash and debit cards are ultimately going to pay more so that people with credit cards can get sky miles or cash back—that is, of course, lower than their vendor fees.

Credit cards are rather insidious for running many small businesses out of business during the pandemic because of increased fees—largely for more profits. And small businesses demanding cash only is their only way to fight back against excessive fees.
 
nolalady said:
The problem here is that credit card companies make vendors pay 3% on every transaction so in many cases, if a vendor has a tight margin, they could be losing money. What often happens is that vendors have to charge more (aka inflation) when they don’t want to to offset the cost of accepting credit cards. People who pay with cash and debit cards are ultimately going to pay more so that people with credit cards can get sky miles or cash back—that is, of course, lower than their vendor fees.

Credit cards are rather insidious for running many small businesses out of business during the pandemic because of increased fees—largely for more profits. And small businesses demanding cash only is their only way to fight back against excessive fees.
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This is why nearly no shops over here accept AmEx. They charge a 10% fee whereas 5% is more regular over here.

Thankfully other than a few independent machines the main bank ATMs are free for withdrawal, I just got out of the habit because covid.
 
nolalady said:
The problem here is that credit card companies make vendors pay 3% on every transaction so in many cases, if a vendor has a tight margin, they could be losing money. What often happens is that vendors have to charge more (aka inflation) when they don’t want to to offset the cost of accepting credit cards. People who pay with cash and debit cards are ultimately going to pay more so that people with credit cards can get sky miles or cash back—that is, of course, lower than their vendor fees.

Credit cards are rather insidious for running many small businesses out of business during the pandemic because of increased fees—largely for more profits. And small businesses demanding cash only is their only way to fight back against excessive fees.
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Meanwhile interest rates are at record highs credit cards. The number of cards people have with interest rates around 30% is insane.

I remember my first ever credit card when I was 18 had 7.99% interest. That same I still have that card today, only they have raised the interest rate several times so that it's now 22.99% and it's one of my lower interest rate cards with most around 24.99% now. Got to love those letters "due to current economic conditions we are raising your interest rate".

The new barber shop I found in Salem charges you $7 more to use your card.

I'm like, it's debit, not credit. Why can't I get the cash price. This should be illegal in my opinion. And screw these transaction fees. They make more than enough profit of the interest.
 
RenegadeMonster said:
Meanwhile interest rates are at record highs credit cards. The number of cards people have with interest rates around 30% is insane.

I remember my first ever credit card when I was 18 had 7.99% interest. That same I still have that card today, only they have raised the interest rate several times so that it's now 22.99% and it's one of my lower interest rate cards with most around 24.99% now. Got to love those letters "due to current economic conditions we are raising your interest rate".

The new barber shop I found in Salem charges you $7 more to use your card.

I'm like, it's debit, not credit. Why can't I get the cash price. This should be illegal in my opinion. And screw these transaction fees. They make more than enough profit of the interest.
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It shouldn’t be illegal for the shops, they’re passing on a charge that’s being levied on them. It’s a fundamental of pricing as a small business owner. The alternative is to just have a higher price for everyone because they shouldn’t be made to take a loss because someone wants to use a card.
 
Joe Mac said:
It shouldn’t be illegal for the shops, they’re passing on a charge that’s being levied on them. It’s a fundamental of pricing as a small business owner. The alternative is to just have a higher price for everyone because they shouldn’t be made to take a loss because someone wants to use a card.
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There was a period of time that in areas of the United States it was illegal to have a different price for cash. That seems to be largely non existent anymore.

But seriously, is the Barber Shop getting changed $7 in fees for me to use my debit card? I highly doubt it.
 
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