Motorists (lovely British word btw) are the perfect financial milking cows, be it through taxes, fines, or fuel. What are motorists gonna do, take the bus again? Not after all the investments they've made. And the more rural motorists oftentimes don't even have other options.
Hit the nail on the head there, it's exactly why we're so abused like this.
Where I live paying by card for fuel has become the only option. Nothing but those staffless 24/7 self help stations where you stick the card in first and then pump. Not entirely a fan of this, though that has more to do with my aversion to the cashless society we're heading towards, which is the real ultimate control tool.
Yeah, I don't like those much either, especially if I have to use one late at night, it all gets a bit lonely and I feel vulnerable to getting attacked by a thug. Thankfully, the vast majority are manned, and I still avoid using them late at night, anyway.
As far as cash, I think it's going that way partly due to the control you mention as there are no anonymous transactions making interference by the state or bad actors hacking the system possible, but also efficiency as computerising any process makes it orders more efficient. I do like the ease of paying by card and have never had Big Brother curtail access to my money so I don't have a problem with it and avoid paying cash for anything if I can help it.
Since you really don't like cashless, how do you think we might be controlled by it?
Got an interesting story now we're talking about cash and petrol stations. The other day, I filled up with fuel at around 10am or so, paid and came back to my car. Meantime, another car had parked behind mine at the pump. A man was standing by it who then politely asked me to help him with petrol money and looked quite distressed by his situation. Said he had no cash, had lost his wallet and was really low on petrol. He asked me to go to the cashpoint onsite and get some money from it for him. He would then give me an IOU and phone number and I'd get paid back shortly. His distress looked quite genuine, too.
Hmmm... I thought, there's no way this could be a scam or potential mugging, I mean, doesn't happen in just this way, does it? So, I
duly went to the cashpoint and politely refused and told him that I can't do that as I don't know him and suggested he call someone, but he said he didn't have* his phone with him either. He pleaded a bit, but I just apologetically (didn't want to trigger him) repeated that I didn't know him, got into the car and drove off sharpish. He carried on looking distressed as I looked in my rearview mirror, so perhaps he was genuine, I'll never know, but no way would I ever fall for a potential scam like that.
Think, had I been stupid enough to go to the cashpoint, it's possible that he'd have knocked me out as soon as I'd put the PIN in, then taken the cash and driven off, CCTV be damned. If not a violent attack, then it would have been the last I'd seen of my money for sure.
If I somehow ever found myself in a situation like that (rather unlikely, no?) first thing I'd do is go to the kiosk and ask the staff member for help. Not sure what they could do, but it's the starting point, not approach another motorist. Ever.
Now, imagine how vulnerable I'd feel if I'd had this encounter late at night at an unmanned petrol station. Even if it was manned, I somehow can't see the cashier jumping out of the kiosk in Hero Mode to save me. At least they'd report the incident sharpish, hopefully. So, nope, daytime fillups for me at a manned station, only.
*I'm impressed at how he'd covered every eventuality here, making it as difficult for me to refuse him as possible, bless. I'm almost certain that was an attempted scam.
@Astro What @Geffers @Mars @Tiffany I think this story will interest you.
www.theguardian.com
