That colon is leaving me hanging.
1: There are medicines that help with that.
Are all articles about people off-puttingly anthropological now? That's a shame.
M-pesa is a pretty interesting development. Moving cash from place to place to pay bills is difficult and dangerous.
A cheap, cell-phone based alternative to cash is a big help. Maybe someday in the future, poor people in the US and maybe even in Mexico will have a system like that.
I was going to put in another good word for The Stealth Of Nations and, when looking that up, I see that he has a TED talk covering some of his themes.
It's odd -- the audience seems very uncertain about where he's going with it, but interesting.
A cheap, cell-phone based alternative to cash is a big help.
I'm not sure I want one my think that I have to worry about if I lose my phone. Cash has been working very well for me. I don't know about Ghana.
How often do you need to personally take a week's wages via sketchy transport to somebody?
Ubiquitous ATMs and branches for deposits and withdrawals and good physical security are a big deal, missing lots of places. Using cash to circumvent minor fees in the US makes sense often, but it's a different kind of thing because of good infrastructure and basically effortless alternatives for middle-class people.
(so much easier and faster to pay for a few groceries or coffee with cash here, why do people use a slow credit card for tiny purchases? Also, why does nobody bag their own groceries, everything is smoother when you do)
How often do you need to personally take a week's wages via sketchy transport to somebody?
Basically never, but that's not the kind of thing that I've ever heard of a cell phone being a substitute for.
Are all articles about people off-puttingly anthropological now? That's a shame.
All articles written either by, or for, people who are not members of the groups being written about will be seen that way by somebody.
I don't know, cash has been a fairly convenient means of exchange through several stages of development. People often use cards now in developed countries because it is even more convenient, and because the charges which are levied are often hidden or ignored.
But like others, I don't actually know anything about Ghana.
Cash has all of the advantages of bitcoins plus it works without a computer and libertarianism.
BUT WHY WOULD I TRUST THE WORD OF SOME SO-CALLED GOVERNMENT WHEN I CAN TRUST THE WORD OF A POSSIBLY FICTIONAL JAPANESE AND/OR NON-JAPANESE MAN OR GROUP OF MEN
so much easier and faster to pay for a few groceries or coffee with cash here, why do people use a slow credit card for tiny purchases?
1. People at the register are quite often bad at money math, but fine at punching in four digits and swiping.
2. Cash is germy
3. It removes the temptation of paying with exact change, which sucks because 1 (and because many consumers are clumsy *and* bad at money math).
Cash is germy
How is a credit card going to be that much cleaner? Lots of people handle it.
I'll probably start using more cash soon. What some people may not realize, and what I often choose to ignore, is that credit card companies charge grocery stores and the like for use of check and credit cards, which costs are ultimately passed onto consumers via pricing. But I use cards anyway because I don't plan my day around going to the ATM. For those who do, there really is no excuse.
But perhaps I should tap into the ATM more often, as I don't mind getting my finger dirty.
8 I'm not sure I want one my think that I have to worry about if I lose my phone.
That's a really interesting typo.
I always tough the ATM buttons with my knuckle. That way the finger tips stay clean and I don't need to wash my hands as much.
20: Stupid desktop computer without autocomplete.
It is really hard to get crud out of a fingertip.
why does nobody bag their own groceries, everything is smoother when you do
You're obviously standing in line behind a different sort of person than I am generally standing behind.
germy
Commercial food preparation, travel, and physical intimacy with other human beings are much commoner sources of contamination to eliminate. Do either of you have elaborate elbow-based strategies to deal with restroom doors?
The biggest middle-class risks (aside from touching your own mucosa with your own personal unwashed bathroom hands and eating out, even at Starbucks) are ground beef, cut/minced chicken, and poorly rinsed greens.
credit card companies charge grocery stores and the like for use of check and credit cards
Sure, but handling cash isn't free, either. It can take more time (see the change-making complaints above), it can be stolen or misplaced, you need to take it somewhere at the end of the day to deposit it, which takes staff time and transportation. Deciding that you're doing a merchant a favor by paying cash isn't obviously correct and may well depend on the details of their operation and CC rates.
They have to take their cash somewhere and transport it no matter how much cash they have. Wherever with the CC rates, it's a percentage of all the money they take in, I think.
CCs provide a service of convenience, and it's hard to imagine a future without them, even if it means the ass pennies are taken out of circulation.
lw: there's no accounting for irrational fears.
I do use elbows as much as possible in or near restrooms, yes.
Bigger is that I'm just so sick of people digging that last penny from the bottom of their purse or flinging it to the ground accidentally etc., etc.
sometimes, digging for gold, one just winds up with a pinky coated in shit.
32. Or, about equivalent for the purposes of sanitation, while cooking, one winds up touching the raw meat. In both cases the solution is handwashing with sustained hot water and scrubbing.
Tangentially related (spoiled hotdog scene) the recomendatio for Adventureland somewhere around here was great, that was really nice.
http://earbuds.popdose.com/feerick/OMG/5-13%20Let%20the%20Music%20Play.mp3
Basically never, but that's not the kind of thing that I've ever heard of a cell phone being a substitute for.
That's pretty much precisely what MPESA does and it handles about 30 per cent of Kenya's GDP. And no, it's not libertarian or anything to do with bitcoins.
34: I thought it was for small amounts.
33: When it happened to me, I did wash vigorously, but I think my girlfriend was more embarrassed than I was aghast.
But like others, I don't actually know anything about Ghana.
Careful, or J/ Ot/to Poh/l will show up here...
33. I'm intrigued by the implication that you only touch raw meat by accident, and have a phobic freakout when you do. How do you dice it, slice it for stir-frys, rub spices on it, etc. from a distance?
Back about a dozen years ago it was still common for people in Poland to pay rent in cash and pretty much obligatory for those without Polish bank accounts since the banks charged massive international transfer fees on both ends and took their own sweet time in processing payments. So at one point I was carrying some $1400 in zloty (first and last month's rent set in dollars to be paid in zloty at the day's exchange rate plus a broker's fee). At least they had ATM's by then. IN 1992-3 depositing or withdrawing cash, or making a transfer payment, required going to a bank and standing in multiple lines for several hours.
For anyone: what's the most cash you've ever had on you? I'm trying to think of when I've had more than $500. Which happened recently when I sold the Volvo.
Either that, or my idea of recreation is pretty gross to the general public. Or there's the possibility that I'm rhetoricaly sloppy. Basically I'm making fun of germophobes, by saying that there's a bunch of normal activity that's pretty unsanitary (hopefully doing this with a light touch, don't care much either way).
I do have a separate cutting board for meat, and basically avoid ground meat unless I know the source, with the hypocritical exception of sausage and chorizo because I like their taste. But no nuggets or restaurant burgers.
I was a low-level drug seller as a teenager, still carry a fair amount of cash. Not all in a wallet.
Japan is expensive and very cash oriented, I think that I had $2k at the start of one work trip.
41: Probably pretty similar, that time I ran out of checks and had to get the month's rent from an ATM.
Even a not-particularly high rolling trip to Vegas can create gobsmacking amounts of cash on hand. After some winnings I once had on the order of $4k in cash on me and so so many people are walking around with much more than that.
I've seen -- only once, and never counted or touched-- an actual briefcase full of neatly-stacked bundles of cash. That was pretty sweet. Unfortunately for our attempts to eliminate mostly bogus right-wing narratives, it was in a Democratic Party campaign office in Mobyville.
41: For my old job, I would often take the weekend's cash receipts to the bank on Monday or Tuesday. I believe the most I every had to carry was in the $8,000 range, but I frequently had $4,000 or $5,000 when we had a decent weekend. I was never that worried about it, as I was usually taking public transit in the middle of the day, and who suspects that some schlumpy looking guy on the bus has five grand in his messenger bag at 2 pm on a Tuesday afternoon?
Of my own money, not even $1,000 -- maybe $600 or so?
While waiting in line for Clinton to sign a book, a woman in line next to me talked about how she realized she was carting bundles of cash around town for various pols. She was trusted by all and, at least at the start, naive enough not to guess what was being carried.
I've probably never carried more than three thousand. I used to work in a different state and my bank would only cash the paycheck, not deposit it.
One time, I was walking down the street and notice a bunch of suspiciously check-like pieces of paper blowing around. Turned out they were all checks, uncancelled, for a well-known local restaurant in the neighborhood. I guess the good citizenship thing to have done would be to have dropped my other plans and try to pick them all up and get them back to the restaurant, but I didn't. No $5 to be found.
Man, a duffle bag full of cash just screams "action movie" so loudly. If one were anywhere near me, I wouldn't be able to resist taking tough guy poses, looking for window blinds that cast shadows in black-and-white bar patterns, and talking really low and really fast.
I got all excited the time I got to take a million dollar check out of an envelope addressed to me. Real money, not Publishers Clearinghouse. Sadly, while the envelope was addressed to me, the check was made out to my client.
A bunch of companies would like to replace credit cards and the like. Stripe and Square are two of the better known. I'm not sure a privatised currency is an awesome thing.
I once had $5 in my pocket. Other than that, max would be a few thousand to pay for airfares.
I've handled a million dollar check before. It was, indeed, fun.
Cash-wise I think I topped out at around five thousand.
Oh wait I think I sold my car for cash. That would have been more, maybe $7k?
I have encountered germier risks.
BOY HOWDY
I was given a strikingly large amount of cash in euros when I was studying at the Goethe Institut; I had a fellowship from the DAAD which they just gave to me all at once. I can't remember how much it was, though.
I had about $3000 in cash at one point, to open a bank account for my brother. He left a ziploc bag packed with $20 bills in my sock drawer. Would have been nice if he'd mentioned it in advance, though.
We sold our car for $2200 cash.
My brother often has large amounts of cash on hand, he resells tickets. I think he's had up to $10k on hand at times.
Are all these exciting million dollar checks certified checks I assume? I mean, I could go write a check for a trillion dollars right now if I wanted to. The largest certified I've ever had was probably about $90k.
Are all these exciting million dollar checks certified checks I assume?
I don't think? It was from a large real estate developer to a law firm or something, so it wasn't, like, personal checks.
My cousin found a duffel bag full of cash and a gun on the street in Manhattan. She took it to the police station. Turned out it was the take for a club. I forget which -- wherever it was that they filmed MTV's Unplugged. Anyway the owner gave her a cash reward and told her she was permanently on the list to see anything she wanted. She was psyched to see Metallica, I remember.
60: I don't recall if it was certified, but it cashed just fine.
62: I sure hope nobody got fired. Wait, wait, no. I hope the opposite of that.
A friend of mine was given a lot of money by her father, who did well in Silicon Valley in the 90's. She made mostly good decisions with it, but also decided that she wanted to know what it felt like to be a big roller in Vegas. She took out $30K in cash and lost $15K in one roulette spin. She said she instantly felt nauseous and horrible and hated the whole thing. She said that within the minute, there were two casino employees with her, soothing her and asking whether they could comp her a suite. She took the suite for the weekend and tried to get as much of her $15K back as possible.
Anyway, that was one stop on a drive that ended in California and my friends and I were the second to last stop. She stayed over for a day or so, and told us the story. We were actually out walking around when we got to the part about how she had the other $15K in her purse, with us right then. We turned incredibly dumb, all bunching up and looking around. She told us to try to play it cool, that she'd been carrying it on her road trip for days. We split the difference between incredibly dumb and playing it cool and that's the most cash I've ever been near.
Now ask me how much I've had on my person in bearer bonds.
If nobody gets hired, the unemployment rate is high and PhDs are then stuck in the bad jobs for which they are overqualified.
66: How much have you had on your person in Barry Bonds?
62: Putting the gun in the bag with the cash sort of defeats the purpose of carrying a gun.
54 - AFAICT Square isn't attempting to get rid of credit cards; it's attempting to become everyone's merchant bank, which is a different proposition entirely.
65.1 reminds me of a story about Bob Stupak's Vegas World that I reread every couple of years. This was an expected value of +$112 per room, it was too good to refuse. We each of my friends got his own room. We were nervous that there would be some catch. We discussed how to thank Bob this time. The options were: 1. Releasing live chickens into the casino (required buying chickens). 2. siphoning the rooftop pool off over the side of the building during the night (required a garden hose or two). 3. releasing thousands of ladybugs into the casino (required buying ladybug eggs from a store specializing in food for lizards). 4. clogging the public restrooms with clear Jell-o. We chose number four.
Maybe the gun was a booby trap, you're lucky it didn't go off when you looked in the bag.
I just got a call from credit card co that another of our card numbers was stolen while we were in Canada. We never used different cards at the same store so my conclusion is that at least 20% of merchants in Canada are compromised (we only made about 10 charges.). The thrives even ran $1 test charges at the same Australian surf shop. WTF Canucks?
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1652966788/tuls-flat-tools-round-world
> this is awesome, but I only mention it because I was putting off spending the money and now it's closed.
She took the suite for the weekend and tried to get as much of her $15K back as possible
Do you mean by gambling more? She knows it doesn't work that way, right? Or did she use the access panel in the suite to try to break into the vault?
74: They say the money is from oil but now you know the truth.
She was also comped for meals and everything else, so she ordered as much expensive stuff as she could. She didn't break even.
Surprising number of people voting by NYC primary standards. Also much more black people - around 2/3 or 3/4 of the voters - than either the present day neighbourhood demographics or the 2012 elections. Then again, that generally has seemed to be the case here, though when I moved here that meant I would be the only white voter in the polling place. Also, lever machines are so much more satisfying than the standardized test thingies.
I love the lever machines, too, but apparently they've been malfunctioning today all over the city. Too bad.
Good turnout in my district! I was the 44th voter at 8 am. We have a wide-open primary to replace Tish James, and all of the candidates have had serious ground operations for weeks.
My polling place was also pretty busy before work. I did like seeing the lever machines one last time -- there's just something about swinging the big lever back over to the left that makes you feel like you're really committing democracy.
I personally have always enjoyed imagining Dick Cheney on a rack beneath my polling places. The little old ladies in church hats officiatiating at the booths are the virtuous guardians of democracy, and every voter draws the ropes a leetle tighter...
The NYTimes interactive primary results map is awesome. Very fine grained down to the election district with income and ethno-racial filters.
I once received a check for $5,000 for a (ridiculously large, by our standards) gig payout. I had to cash it and walk it a few blocks to my bandmate's office. I was extremely nervous for the entire walk, constantly tapping the envelope in my pocket to confirm it was still there.
Man, Quinn, who I was told was basically the anointed candidate a few months ago, sure is getting her ass handed to her. Looks like she might not be the number 2 even if there's a runoff. Also I can't remember a time when the demonstrably farthest left (barring total no-hopers) candidate in a more than two person election for a major office won, or at least won by being the candidate of the left. Interesting!
Based on the current map, Quinn won the Upper East Side and . . . that's it.
My wife and I carried $7000 in crisp hundred dollar bills halfway around the world in connection with a third world adoption. It was divided among several different pockets and belts. It was fun walking out of our local bank with the loot, rather unpleasant after that, especially in the first few days at our destination. We were not searched at any airport or at customs and were not mugged. We still had over $2000 when we returned to the u.s., some of which we hid in the diaper bag for the return flight.
Oh, right, does anybody have advice on whqt to look for in a diaper bag? I need to go post that on facebook. (We just got word this afternoon that Baby Selah wll probably move in Thursday afternoon, almost exactly a week since we got the call that we'd been chosen for her. It's awesome news, but yikes!)
87: Nate Cohn has it at: Quinn at 13% in areas beneath $150,000; 39% above $150,000
Oh, right, does anybody have advice on whqt to look for in a diaper bag?
My finding was that what I wanted in a diaper bag was: Not a diaper bag.
Whee, de Blasio. But what happens if he falls just short of 40%? Would he win the runoff?
It occurs to me that I don't even know the name of the mayor of the city I live in. That's kind of sad.
91: Right, but I think just throwing all the stuff in a reused plastic bag from the grocery store like I've been doing is frowned upon. Surely there's some middle ground, right?
Oh, right, does anybody have advice on whqt to look for in a diaper bag?
Besides wads of bills, apparently.
93: I just had to look her name up, embarrassingly.
We were trying to solve the diaper bag issue when my dad showed up at the hospital with a tote bag he got at his 50th college reunion. Works pretty good,
Do you have a large purse? You can pretty easily stick a few diapers and wipes in there (n.b. -- I have never had a purse). Or an ordinary tote bag works fine, or more or less whatever bag you'd be carrying anyway.
I guess "live" is ambiguous. She's the mayor of the city I work in but not the one I reside in, since I'm in the -erville half of Camberville.
n.b. -- I have never had a purse
I bet dudes on the veldt found purses really useful to haul bits of animal carcass home in. You should market the Paleopurse.
53, 55: Well, if we're playing that game, there were any number of days where I've journaled several million dollars from one account to another. Handled some fairly large 6-figure checks, if I remember correctly, but no 7-figures -- obviously, it's mostly wire transfers at that level.
Stupid client story: Some old lady had a margin call or bounced check or something like that, and owed us $7,897.38 or something. So instead of just writing a check for $7,900 like a normal person, she tried to squeeeeeze the whole Seven-thousand eight-hundred ninety-seven and 38/100ths onto the written amount line, and bungled it, and so we couldn't accept the check and had to make her broker get another check out of her. It was so stupid.
100: You'd wanna work in some extinct marsupial angle into it -- call it a Thylacine or something. They were pretty badass.
92 Judging from the Times interactive map, even when you pull the toggle over to 75% black or higher de Blasio is still winning a majority of the electoral districts. So while I'd normally say that moderate black dem (by NYC dem standards) who is seen as a lesser evil by the business elites beats wine track liberal darling in a Dem primary, that's not the case when he's doing better than the black moderate in working class black districts. The Quinn voters will probably break majority Thompson if there's a runoff, the also ran voters will probably break for de Blasio. And it's a lot easier to get to fifty from thirty nine than twenty five. In the general, Lhota is a first class asshole wannabe Giuliani. This is not a good year for that in NYC.
Yay, no diaper bag! The nice thing about having her in the Ergo is I can stuff what I need in the little pouch, but I can go back to carrying an over-the-shoulder bag I convinced myself Inshould set aside for a purse. And that has room for a sewing project and book and iPad and everything. I predict I will get absolutely zero done except supervisin and parenting for my two months of leave, but at least I can have plans!
I hear cloth diapers take up less room.
89: There was a messenger-bag styled one that was sort of a semi-masculine brownish floral/paisley quilted fabric that was super popular around here a couple of years ago. Can't seem to find the exact one online, but there do seem to be a lot of messenger style ones that aren't too awful looking.
105: I have friends who foster elsewhere who've gotten complaints from caseworkers about cloth, and while at this point everyone on her case seems sane, unless she's going to go to a cloth-friendly daycare I'll probably just keep destroying the environment for the sake of not rocking the boat.
NYT shows that de Blasio just hit 40% with 93% reporting. His margin has been going up as the last votes come in.
Although it now seems to have stabilized.
Quinn looks like she won Chelsea too, by like 100 votes. Also, on the map, what is that area that bisects the middle of Queens from the north that has no precincts in it at all? Part of it is LaGuardia airport, but I don't think the whole thing?
I guess maybe Citi Field/Shea Stadium/whatever they call that place where they have the tennis US Open?
The environmental impact of cloth diapers in energy use, I understand, is great enough that parents shouldn't feel so bad about using the more convenient disposables. At least, that's what I've heard.
La Guardia is right on the water. Flushing Meadows and the various ponds and lakes associated with it extend down into Queens between two highways.
I also hadn't realized that such a ginormous portion of the Bronx is taken up by parks.
What does it mean that Weiner is carrying a few districts around Bronx Community College? Everywhere else it seems to be a fluke.
I'm very suspicious of the single block on Dyckman that has 1,102 votes for Credico, as well as the neighboring larger empty district on the Harlem River with 1,000 for Grimaldi.
Just got back from the mayoral candidate forum. Our Dem central committee endorsement vote was unanimous, which is a pretty big deal for Dems. But not a surprise, all 3 challengers were kind of weak.
I've told the story before about having a case in Saudi Arabia on a mid-six figure bounced check. And how it was necessary to put the actual original check with the filing: no courier company would insure it, so I had to transport it myself. To London, where I could give it to my Saudi counterpart. Annoyingly, this developed while I was on vacation in Montana, and needed to fly from here to London with a long stop in DC (to pick up the check from my office).
I have a bad feeling about the mayoral race here. And the city council races. There's a stealth Repug running for mayor, and a lot of unknowns and conservative Dems running for city council. Not that the current bunch are much to write home about, but it could always get worse.
owed us $7,897.38 or something. So instead of just writing a check for $7,900 like a normal person,
WTF standards of normalcy do you have?!
This was in a big account, just short of actual cash at that momnet -- it's not like she was leaving it flat. An extra few dollars wasn't going to put her on a catfood diet for a month or anything like that.
115: depends where you live. If you live in a desert and have a top-loading washer and get your power from coal, then sure. Cloth is certainly much cheaper, even taking water bills into account. But no way is it more compact.
If only precincts with over 200K median household income voted Quinn would have won. And Thompson dominates in heavily white areas outside of Manhattan and the most gentrified parts of Brooklyn.
Di Blasio's been at 40.2% with 97% reporting for a while now, for anyone who hasn't been following along. It may take a while for that final 3% to come in.