Thread: Banks & Credit Cards

Originally Posted by 350RRC

No mention of the resurgence of vinyl records (analogue) as opposed to digital (CD's or MP3', 4's etc).

No mention of the continued growth of sales of printed books alongside 'spoken books'.

One could think that quality of product and many downstream benefits to society have taken a back seat to short term profits.

DL

Vinyl? Could go either way but not to the extremes it once was. Vinyls are a novelty. Is It Over? Sales of Vinyl Records Down 9.1% In 2016...

Books. Same. I think some people want to be distinguished from people with their heads buried in electronics. Fair enough.

Originally Posted by Bigbjorn

When I was a fraud investigator at Social Security we did some joint projects with the ATO. One of the ATO team supervisors told me that cake & pie shops and hot bread kitchens were one of the last refuges of the black cash society. No cash register, how much product did they make, how much did they throw out? I told him I had come across a local pastrycooks who pocketed every $100 "Grey Nurse" that came over the counter. These never went in the banking.

We got budget for a joint project, a test case, on flea markets to see if a nation wide strike on these would be worthwhile. We picked two busy flea markets that operated on Sunday mornings. Staff recorded every number plate that went in the gate at set-up time. We did this for six Sundays, entered the plates into a data base and selected those who had been there three times out of six. Got the registered owners names and addresses and ran these through the DSS and ATO data bases. Those not reporting income from this endeavour were sent an invitation to visit an office and "please explain". Those on unemployment payments had their allowance cancelled as they were not unemployed but self-employed. All were asked to provide ALL their bank statements and profit and loss statements and balance sheets. We raised many thousands of dollars of overpayments from undeclared income. The ATO were likewise busy busy. Well, the uproar. The flea market operators were into the ears of the politicians. We had destroyed their business as the stall holders had vanished. The vendors screamed and yelled that it was not a business, only a hobby, an interest, just to make a bit of pocket money, and so on and so on. Orders came from on high to cease and desist even though considerable dishonesty was revealed. Official reason being "not cost effective".

I pay a good portion of tax. I don't mind some people doing a bit of trimming here and there because there are other benefits to society in general. I just don't like it when they pay nil, claim benefits and roll around in AMGs

Originally Posted by Andrew D

I just don't like it when they pay nil, claim benefits and roll around in AMGs

You refer to the tech giants, amongst others I assume?

It's great that we pay a large amount of tax relative to income and they don't. Well done us.

I tell you what let's invite those private companies to tax us too by getting rid of cash and letting them control movement and access to money entirely. Surely they will put all that well deserved transaction tax into new hugely profitable ventures that will help society in general.

Originally Posted by manic

You refer to the tech giants, amongst others I assume?

It's great that we pay a large amount of tax relative to income and they don't. Well done us.

I tell you what let's invite those private companies to tax us too by getting rid of cash and letting them control movement and access to money entirely. Surely they will put all that well deserved transaction tax into new hugely profitable ventures that will help society in general.

My comments were in reference and context to Bigbjorn post.

I don't know wtf you are referring to. Time to wind this thread up. As much as new age and electronics make life more enjoyable they can also be a bit of a ball and chain.

Originally Posted by Andrew D

My comments were in reference and context to Bigbjorn post.

I don't know wtf you are referring to. Time to wind this thread up. As much as new age and electronics make life more enjoyable they can also be a bit of a ball and chain.

You threw up some pros for phasing out cash, I threw up some cons.

Last comment was about big tech companies not paying their fair share of tax (only mentioned because of your tax concerns), and the huge increase in profit they stand to earn, at our expense, if they succeed in defeating cash as a payment option.

IMF warns of giant tech firms' dominance - BBC News

You are right we have strayed a bit from initial post. But not too far off topic considering the thread title.

No worries, I'm still bowing out.

Originally Posted by Andrew D

Vinyl? Could go either way but not to the extremes it once was. Vinyls are a novelty. Is It Over? Sales of Vinyl Records Down 9.1% In 2016...

Books. Same. I think some people want to be distinguished from people with their heads buried in electronics. Fair enough.

Analogue vinyl contains several orders of magnitude more information that can be played to one's ears than CD, etc.

That would mean nothing to a techno drone, but when you hear the difference in the sound of Hendrix's early soundscape '1983......' on a good stereo off vinyl, digital just does not cut it.

As far as books go............ say you've read something special, you can hand over the hard copy to someone who you think might enjoy or relish the content.

I did this recently with a certain topical tome and the response was info propagation because it involved human contact, discussion, etc and something that you could just pick up and go back through.

The info only spread via paper books.

DL

Originally Posted by Andrew D

Vinyl? Could go either way but not to the extremes it once was. Vinyls are a novelty. Is It Over? Sales of Vinyl Records Down 9.1% In 2016...

Books. Same. I think some people want to be distinguished from people with their heads buried in electronics. Fair enough.

Book sales are up year on year since 2016 - not including Ebooks, etc - just physical copies.

As for music, what is the new 'thing' as peak streaming was 2016 and has been declining since. Not sure what the new normal is to be honest.