I don't have any stats or anything, but I lived in China in 2018 and would see them on my way to work. Usually amputees dressed in very sad attire with a QR code on the ground in front of them. My coworkers told me not to give them money because all the money is going to organized crime groups that manage all the beggars in town. I have no idea if this is true, but I heard it multiple times
In China where digital payments are done mostly via apps like Venmo, there are beggars with QR codes in front of them. However they're mostly being used by organized crime rings
CBDCs would grant immense power to the state. They would know every purchase you make and have the ability to block specific transactions or even freeze your account fully. It's an authoritarian's dream.
Stablecoins have drawbacks too, and the state could exercise control over them somewhat. But blockchains have more property rights and privacy (although not total privacy) built into it by default. It would be much more difficult for a state to overcome those hurdles.
Totally hear you — crypto isn’t perfect, and yeah, hoarding happens just like in any system. But that’s more a human problem than a crypto one.
Crypto is a tool, and how it is used is what matters. It can be used to speculate on ridiculous monkey JPEGs, or scam people or it can be used to send money across borders without middlemen, resist censorship, and invest without being subject to the big banks.
It’s not a silver bullet, but it does open up new possibilities that the current system just doesn’t.
Don't worry about the downvotes bro. Lemmy has a knee jerk aversion to crypto, even though the ideals of the fediverse and the ideals of crypto are very much aligned
Iran is unique in that it is run by a government that claims to be Islamic fundamentalists. This could make mutually assured destruction less effective if the ones launching the nukes truly believe that if they die in the retaliation they will go to heaven with their 72 virgins.
I'm not convinced that the Ayatollah is ok dying in the name of killing infidels, but I do see the merits of this argument.
There are multiple models for teaching that do something similar, let kids approach a subject when they're ready. Yes, they goof off a lot early on, but eventually even STEM and literature call to them, and they pass equivalency exams in their late teens.
Can you link to some more information on this? I'm curious about alternative education models
I don't like it. I might be able to get on board with read-access to my brain (especially if I end up paralyzed or something) if I felt the tech was secure enough, but I'd be very worried about abuse of write access (writing in loyalty to the community party, for example)
president of CPA Nova Scotia, said under the bill, member accountants could flock to whatever regulator charged the lowest dues, threatening the association’s very existence
Good! Competition between regulators will mitigate rent-seeking. Professional licensing is (mostly) a tax on everyone for the good of the priestly class of licensed. IMO there are very few professions where a license makes sense, and it seems like the complainers are those who would stand to lose their political power over their profession
I tried to hide my identity as much as possible when I made the account. This included using a pseudo-random email address, fake name, fake address, and (unfortunately) fake birthday, as all of those things could be used as foreign keys to try to match my identity
I'm convinced the guy is literally doing this because of how it would look on a map. He took a look at how big Canada looks (partially due to Mercator) and thought "Wouldn't it be great if the my country was that big?"
My apologies, he does make that point. I mis-read into your comment that the poor people using credit cards (who pay interest) pay for the rich person's credit card rewards. But it's worse than that, anyone who doesn't use a credit card (which includes many poor people as you point out) are subsidizing the rich person's rewards
Good video showing how credit card culture basically makes poor people pay for rich people’s luxury.
That's not what the video shows. The real issue is that credit cards are a monopoly which takes ~3% cut on almost all consumer purchases in the economy and adds little value
This video is incredible! We need more action on this. Anyone know how one could get involved to ensure there are more reliable indicators of ethical meat
At this rate, everyone in Toronto will be homeless by 2050 /s