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Comment by dangus | Hacker News Reader

I think your second sentence/paragraph points out exactly why this restriction is needed: the only people who would ever in their right mind transact in that much cash are very likely to be either avoiding taxation (a.k.a. stealing from the common taxpayer), or keeping money off the books to hide illegal activity.

The average person isn't affected by this type of government surveillance and potential overreach because the average person doesn't buy things that are priced at over 3,000 euros per transaction. They can easily hide all their daily transactions from the scrutiny of government and surveillance capitalism just fine.

This regulation only impacts the wealthiest people and/or the organized criminal.

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I purchase, restore, and sometimes sell old woodworking machinery as a side gig to subsidize my own purchase of woodworking equipment for my shop.

I have had multiple cash transactions above $3,000 every year that I've done this. Not to avoid taxes, not to keep them off the books, but because one of the parties has either the unwillingness or inability to take electronic payments. Elderly people, those located in rural or otherwise isolated areas, those with a natural distrust of government for whatever reason, or those with a distrust of banks in general. These are all valid use cases.

This law would make it nearly impossible for me to do what I do (on the side).

Yea, assuming you're in the USA, I don't think a similar restriction would be workable here in America. Too many people are unbanked or for other reasons transact mostly in cash. And even for those who do have bank accounts, we don't have the nice, bank-based money transfer solutions that are commonplace in the rest of the developed world--we're stuck with shit-tier solutions like Zelle and Venmo and PayPal.

I wouldn't say I routinely do large (>$3000) cash transactions, but I do them often enough that I guess I'd be a criminal in the Netherlands.

> we're stuck with shit-tier solutions like Zelle and Venmo and PayPal.

Hopefully not for too much longer:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FedNow

A mechanic we used before moving had a strict no checks policy. He had a bad check for the repair of a church bus, from a church, framed in a fancy gold-painted frame, with "IN GOD WE TRUST, ALL OTHERS PAY CASH" below it.

But that's because you still use checks over there :)

A stolen credit card isn't any different.

Considering that the last time one of my CC numbers was stolen, it was used to pay for air conditioning service, I'm sure that is also a concern for tradespeople!

No pin? No 3d secure?

In the US? Nope.

Really really, it's like that here. I guess it's somehow cheaper to write off fraud than updating everything? Probably some actuary sweating the day the scale tips the other direction.

It's incredible how lax the rules are for how verified the CC information needs to be for a transaction to clear. There was a HN article about it not that long ago, w.r.t. dealing with Stripe or one of the other big processors. Stuff like the CVV can be wrong, the issued name can vary by some heuristic, etc.

You are paying a mechanic face to face with a stolen credit card? Man, this whole string of posts has become utterly farcical. <Adjusts tin foil hat>

I’m confused. You’re under the impression people don’t use stolen cards face to face? The sibling commented about AC service being charged to his stolen card. A credit card is easier to use than a bad check. I’ve never seen anyone take a check without ID.

Yeah, apparently people do that. I write "ASK FOR ID" in the signature area on my credit cards, and have never once been asked for ID, so it's at least been my personal experience that no one really looks at a credit card when handed one. Perhaps it's a totally unique and isolated experience :P

It’s unwillingness, not inability.

> The average person isn't affected by this type of government surveillance and potential overreach because the average person doesn't buy things that are priced at over 3,000 euros per transaction.

"Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive."

Do you believe that someone is stealing from you when they don’t allow you to take something from them?

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