Comment by dboreham
2 years ago
I went to Stockholm last week for a couple of days, worried that I didn't have any local currency. It turned out that nobody takes cash, so everything worked out fine.
2 years ago
I went to Stockholm last week for a couple of days, worried that I didn't have any local currency. It turned out that nobody takes cash, so everything worked out fine.
Europe varies a lot from largely cashless to you will probably need cash if you want to have a beer.
Don't the public restrooms take coins there?
As an American, this concept still makes no sense to me. It's public infrastructure of a sort, don't real estate taxes in the surrounding area pay for upkeep and repairs?
See also, subway stations in Japan, which IIRC operate under a similar model.
Transit is so good it replaces cars. That means users can afford to pay for it.
Free transit is a terrible idea because e.g. it means tourists don't contribute and anyone who passes a tax cut will have defunded it without the actual users being able to help.
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Public restrooms in Czechia often can take cards now. I imagine it works similarly in Sweden.
it's even more intense in China
What is more intense than nobody taking cash, punishment for even having it?
Your ability to make purchases turned off, with no other means to transact.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Credit_System
Not even big cards like Visa or Mastercard work everywhere.
Instead you need an app installed on your phone (alipay or wechat), where you transfer cash into the app in advance. All with Chinese as the only language. (From what i heard, there now is a tourist-version of alipay in English. Last time i tried it was mostly Chinese)
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as in it is very difficult to find anyone willing to transact in cash for any transaction whatsoever in most chinese cities