Swiss vote places right to use cash in country's constitution
politico.eu
politico.eu
- The franc is the national currency - The swiss national bank is responsible for the supply of cash.
This doesn't have any effect in practice, since this is straight up copy and paste from the law about currency. This change only means that a change requires a mandatory referendum rather than having to launch a referendum.
It does nothing about acceptance of cash, afaik that initiative failed to reach the neccesary support to be voted on.
This seems a way of making sure that a future with Switzerland being part of the EU requires a vote to adopt the Euro. I do not see many other situations in which Switzerland changes its central bank or currency.
The concern was about CBDC and "cashless", the original initiative comes from a conspiracy-adjecent group. They just kind of failed of doing anything major about it, the initiative was worded badly. The counter proposal was explicitly a symbolic copy paste with no real effect.
Biggest problem may be keeping that coalition - AI-phobics, Christians (real ones, not the "Blessed are the rich" hypocrites), Data Center opponents, Disabled & Elderly, Homeless advocates, ... Preppers, ... - working coherently enough to pass the laws.
- If you have a good local politician who'd likely support this (probably from already being a supporter of affected groups), you could ask them.
- If your area has even half-decent services for the homeless, or a church serving meals to the needy, or a Salvation Army, or etc., then the people you want to talk to are within 2 or 3 degrees of separation from those. Or if your local transit org has in-person monthly public meetings, you could attend one of those & ask around.
Yes, I'm biased toward established, old-fashioned groups, which are already doing stuff in your area. They're the ones with the accumulated experience, local knowledge, and track record. Vs. (say) AI phobics are more like Level 0 NPC's, with default-to-zero skills or experience getting along in a group.
NYC is the most recent that I am aware that is in a payment system transition, but the new system has physical cards you can buy and reload to use with the new tap to pay system.
You know I heard that the same bus driver was insulted by someone so we should probably ditch freedom of speech too.
The 30% usage stat makes it even more interesting. These aren't cash diehards. These are people who tap their card for everything but still don't want the analog option killed off. You protect the thing you might need, not just the thing you use every day.
They argue that digitization will enable governments to monitor financial transactions, restrict purchases, travel, and access to healthcare, freeze accounts, and punish people for exceeding their carbon limits or for dissent.