The pitfalls of e-payment
“We have forgotten the true virtues of money,” Jean-Pierre Landua wrote in a recent opinion article (“Will artificial intelligence put an end to money?” Aug. 1, page 8) before going on to quote Fyodor Dostoevsky: “Money is minted freedom.”
Yet on the front page (“Health, employment and education policies start today,” Aug. 1, page 1), the Taipei Times reported on planned discounts for frequent train commuters — but only if they use electronic tickets.
This might seem like a reward for frequent commuters, but it can also be seen as a form of penalty for those unable or unwilling to use electronic payment methods.
This is already evident worldwide, where visitors to cities such as London are in many cases only able to pay for public transportation using electronic cards.
For single-use journeys these can be prohibitively expensive. On top of that, private citizens’ personal movement data can inevitably be tracked by authorities.
Worse even than that is the situation in which such tickets are, for certain journeys, required to be linked to credit cards. Turn up in Singapore as one of the billions of people worldwide without a credit card and want to pay for the fare for a single metro ride from the airport into the city center? Good luck.
Electronic payment can be convenient and offers advantages, but it should be only one of multiple options in a society that purports to be free.
Cash should always be a payment option for public services, including public transportation, and its use should not be penalized.
Christopher Ruane
Taipei
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