New York Times Takes Aim at Use Cash Movement

[Joanne98]

For OpEdNews: Chaz Valenza - Writer

New York Times "Your Money" writer Ron Lieber took a veiled mainstream media shot at the Use Cash Movement in his January 9, 2010 column "The Damage of Card Rewards."

I call it veiled because he cited a "boycott" of credit card use without directly mentioning that any organization, like the Use Cash Movement, was attempting to challenge Big Banking's substitute payment system as a means of profit denying protest.

In the piece, Lieber poses as a guilty consumer all too aware that using credit cards that offer rewards could be "selfish." He acknowledges that his rewards are, in fact, paid for through higher prices merchants must charge all their customers.


He owns up to the fact that credit card use, rewards or no rewards, costs an average American family, paying with credit cards or not, between $427 to $600 per year. At $500 a year that's $59 billion dollars in revenues to Big Banking.

Then, his dubious argument begins: "Bringing that cost down to zero means that everyone would have to quit cards cold turkey."

Whoever said that this was an all or nothing proposition? Nobody, but it serves the rest of Lieber's justification to keep supporting Big Banking and Finance through plastic use.

If Mr. Lieber knows anything about business he might know that if a profit center's annual revenue is $59 billion and their marketing budget is $7 billion, which it is, and it follows that overhead and variable costs are probably 50-60% of sales, it doesn't take much to destroy their profits. Rough guess: less than $10 billion.

"But let's pretend that a boycott is feasible," Lieber continues, "Then what?" According to him some merchants would keep the money they no longer have to fork over to the banks.

What's wrong Mr. Lieber, afraid the free market system doesn't work? Merchants won't use that money to attract more customers?

Continued>>>>
http://www.opednews.com/articles/New-York-Times-Takes-Aim-a-by-Chaz-Valenza-100120-575.html

[niyad]

1. using cash also keeps you from getting into debt--no cash, no purchase. simple.

[northernlights]

2. a NYT financial writer chose a use cash movement to write about

I'll take that as good news. The movement must have enough steam behind it to have our financial overlords worried. Good.