Comment by maerF0x0

It's a mess, much like tip culture[1], because it just real equalized like this:

1. Merchant sells for price X

2. Credit card is invented

3. Merchant has to sell for price > X (say, 1.02 X) to cover some buyers using CC

4. Credit card offers 2-3% rewards on some goods

5. Merchant has to sell for prices even > X (say 1.04 X) to cover nearly all customers using cards. Customers who do not use the cards pay 1.04X and do not get rewards to compensate.

6. Merchant loses because they're beholden to processors, Customers lose because they're getting 2-3% of semi-currency for the cost of ~4% cash currency.

7. Processors get their profit

[1] - Employees deserve good wages for good work, tipping is just a bad algorithm to accomplish that