You could argue that commercial plane passengers deserve some kind of check (there have been hijackings etc), but for a train? They already know who the driver is, why does it matter who the passengers are?
I'm amazed that travelling by Amtrak requires id. That's like China, the only other place I've been where I had to show id to buy a non-local train ticket — and I've been to a few former-Soviet or communist states.
I've opened a couple of accounts in the last 3-4 years, and neither gave me a cheque book by default, so I don't have one. I think there was an option to request one.
I "used" a cheque last week, since my grandma gave me one at Christmas. That's the one cheque per year I receive.
Electronic transfers are "instant" in the UK (which guarantees within 2 hours, and is usually within 5 minutes if between banks, or instant at the same bank). This was introduced about 6 years ago.
Wikipedia says the system was introduced to increase competition, so it sounds like something every country should have.
The only reason the rest of the world thinks 1-3% is normal is because VISA/MasterCard/AmericanExpress/DinersClub have tons of extras in forms of "free" credit, kickbacks, insurance and so on.
I think by "rest of the world" you mean "at least the USA", because much of Europe has cheap debit card transactions — the EU has limited it to 0.2%, for example.
I think you've added a 0:
"We can see that cash payments are less expensive from society’s point of view for payments below SEK 20" so that's $2.50. In Sweden, that's really only going to buy a large candy bar.
I never said that it was, but the Institution here is already paid for, and all that remains are recurring costs, such as printing Notes, minting Coins, and Five-Finger Discounts.
As the Riksbank points out, these costs scale in proportion with the use of cash. But card transaction costs decrease as their number increases.
So I will look with Interest what happens in Sweden; maybe the fact that they have just one National Bank will make it work.
Riksbank ~= federal reserve.
A final comment: the two Gas Stations that I regularly go to offer me a 5% discount for Cash. They aren't doing this because they like me.bork.bork.bork
They are probably doing it because it makes it easier to fiddle the books, and pay less tax...
Cheque-books, that's something people over 70 uses in Sweden, rarely used by anyone else these days. If you are young and shows up with a cheque you could as well come from Mars - and many shops may even refuse to cash it today to avoid fraud risk.
Britain is slightly behind, but no shops will accept a cheque since a few years ago (when it was already rare).
Old people still use them for paying workmen or donating to charity.
You can get this one: https://www.gohenry.co.uk/ at age 8, although there's a fee.
In Denmark the minimum age is also 8, but there's no fee from Danske Bank.
3.7m is a decent size, going by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Perhaps you're thinking of the colossal squid?
Perhaps this one is closer to the source video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Whoever put it there may well have hacked a developer's computer, whether they were working at Juniper or not.
https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2...
Sign Git commits with GPG.
It's not enforced, so you'd need a commit hook or whatever to check commits are signed.
Is the government going to seize matches now?
Matches have been known to start fires, btw.
People are well aware of the danger of matches, and of the two kinds of matches (safety / traditional) all brands are similar. They aren't well aware of the significantly greater danger of some brands of these toys.
I don't know the detail of the law, but I think you can still buy one of these dangerous toys -- but you'd need to import it yourself, and it needs to be clear that you don't intend to resell it. (The regulations are called "trading standards", they're rules for retailers.) This is how things like cheap Android development boards are imported, since they don't meet the criteria for shielded electronics etc.
Would governments ban hoverboards (or other fun yet somewhat less safe devices, like bicycles) if it was determined there were savings to be made to universal health plans? Does the public good of tax savings/resources outweigh individual choice of risks?
What about universal fire fighting service? Which is probably more relevant, since the BBC article references two fires in two weeks in London due to these devices.
Bicycles are considered healthy, and are slightly subsidised (reduced tax if bought through your employer to use to cycle to work).
People not paying them back is probably a result of the huge increase in tuition fees, and the increased interest rate of the new loans.
My 2004 loan was ~£1k fees per year, plus ~£4k living costs, so £20k in total, at (currently) 0.9% AER. This would be paid back in 30 years assuming a constant salary of just £26000.
A student now, with £9k tuition fees plus the same living costs, would have £52k of debt at 3% AER. They would need a constant salary of £46k to pay it off in 30 years, which is less common.
Plus the government just changed the terms of the newer loans (which is terrible! No bank would be allowed to do this) meaning most students still won't pay it off, but will pay back more of the interest.
Almost right, but the third rail system is mostly south of the river. North of the Thames you will find overhead electric on almost all routes (including commuter routes, London Overground etc).
Neutrinos have bad breadth.
