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Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by Teandw on Saturday December 10, 2022 @05:58PM (#33937950)
"Bizarre how the EU is penalizing everyone in order to 'make it harder for criminals to launder dirty money'."

This likely affects a number of people that is so small, that it's irrelevant. Not sure it makes sense to say that such a law that effects a tiny number of individuals is penalizing everyone.

Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by bbarnett on Saturday December 10, 2022 @07:04PM (#33938442)
This likely affects a number of people that is so small, that it's irrelevant

No. Just no.

Rights are not a for-profit balance sheet, such as when Google support provides crappy service, or ghosts you, in the name of profit.

Rights are rights. Entrenched, untouchable, everlasting. And each loss affects us all, for the next right taken, is from you.

Telling people they must use private enterprise, a third party and pay a fee, to conduct commerce between them, is a fascist act.

And guess what. 30 years from now, when that 10k is like 500, what then?

Because limits like these are never raised.

Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by B8MGHCBekDuRi on Sunday December 11, 2022 @08:23AM (#33942921)
> Rights are not a for-profit balance sheet,

the right to use large amounts of cash is a fictional right.

Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by bbarnett on Sunday December 11, 2022 @03:28PM (#33947126)
The way you are defining it is fictional, and not the right being abridged.

By forcing the use of 3rd parties, to be able to trade, for people to sell goods they craft and create, there is an abridgement of multiple rights.

This will be overturned.

Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by rrrrrrrrrrrr2 on Monday December 12, 2022 @06:14PM (#33961852)
Gosh I hope it will be overturned. My impression as an outsider is that banning large cash transactions is yet another step down a slippery slope of increasing authoritarianism in Europe. I hate to make this style of argument, but: after anonymous transactions, what will be next, restricting anonymous discussions online?

The Cold War days seem so nostalgic; it seems there was a shared camaraderie between Europeans and Americans as "Westerners", all on the same team, etc. Now as an American I feel increasingly like Europe and the U.S. are drifting apart, and policies like these are additional wedges driving the split.

Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by csomar on Saturday December 10, 2022 @08:38PM (#33939077)
> Because limits like these are never raised.

Inflation will take care of that. Also, you can't convert that money to Gold or Crypto and a house is too damn expensive to buy. So someone with 20k Euros will end up with 2k euros in value.

Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by justahuman74 on Saturday December 10, 2022 @11:15PM (#33940012)
That part of the problem, it wont be long before 10000 in EU currency wont buy much at all, effectively making cash unusable
Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by bonzini on Sunday December 11, 2022 @12:57AM (#33940508)
At 4% a year, it will be roughly 70 years before 10000 euros have become 600 euros of today (which is still above the size of a typical cash transaction).
Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by mxscho on Saturday December 10, 2022 @07:42PM (#33938698)
> everlasting

There are many non-constitutional rights (such as this one) that are not everlasting and laws can also be adapted.

I really don't understand the value of your post as it sounds like speculation based on wrong preconditions.

Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by Teandw on Saturday December 10, 2022 @07:40PM (#33938681)
The problem with your thinking there is that you're making an assumption that removing rights is automatically a bad thing or a loss that affects us all, which is quite simply not true.

Removing rights can be a good thing.

Shall we bring back the right to have slaves? Shall we bring back the right to murder those we don't like? Removing those rights from people has only made the world a better place.

As you say, rights are rights.

Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by pgodzin on Saturday December 10, 2022 @09:10PM (#33939314)
Well you're also removing rights from the people who would be slaves or killed in your examples.
Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by 1337biz on Saturday December 10, 2022 @07:47PM (#33938735)
Shall we bring back the right for privacy now that we have no crime anymore?

Removing those rights from people has only made the world a better place... ...

Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by biztos on Saturday December 10, 2022 @09:14PM (#33939340)
In some parts of the EU, it’s still pretty common to do the down payment of a private real estate transaction in cash, and that can easily exceed €10K. I’ve done it myself and I’m not even a local.

If it’s illegal then it’s just going to go off the books, at a small cost to taxes and accuracy of records, for some people; but for others it will force them to end this traditional practice, and I can imagine that might cause hardship.

But yeah, Russians under the bed, sure.

Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by p1esk on Saturday December 10, 2022 @07:12PM (#33938489)
Even if no one is affected today it does not mean many won’t be affected tomorrow. What if your government decides to take all your money from you for no good reason?
Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by ceejayoz on Saturday December 10, 2022 @07:46PM (#33938727)
> What if your government decides to take all your money from you for no good reason?

They will succeed? With or without this limit, you're fucked.

Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by p1esk on Saturday December 10, 2022 @07:50PM (#33938753)
Imagine you’re a dissident and you’re running from your government. You’re are more likely to succeed if you have cash.
Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by ceejayoz on Saturday December 10, 2022 @08:03PM (#33938845)
If I'm a dissident running from the government I probably don't want the attention generated by bringing 10k Euros in cash into a business to buy something.
Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by csomar on Saturday December 10, 2022 @08:41PM (#33939098)
We don't know what circumstances this "dissident running from the government" is facing.
Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by XorNot on Saturday December 10, 2022 @09:23PM (#33939408)
Government is under no obligation to make it easy for you to overthrow it (which is by definition, a criminal enterprise).

You want to avoid problems? Get involved in local politics, or start a media publication or literally any one of a thousand things you could do right now which is going to be a lot easier then "become an off the grid fugitive dissident".

Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by cute_boi on Monday December 12, 2022 @10:04AM (#33955357)
>"You want to avoid problems? Get involved in local politics, or start a media publication or literally any one of a thousand things you could do right now which is going to be a lot easier then "become an off the grid fugitive dissident"."

It isn't as easy as you are saying. If it was this easy, there would be no issues, no poverty, no refuge etc.

Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by akimball on Saturday December 10, 2022 @10:41PM (#33939837)
No one becomes a refugee by choice
Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by Rebelgecko on Sunday December 11, 2022 @09:08PM (#33950030)
Common bartering trick is that you don't keep all your money in your wallet. Then you pull it out and say "golly gee, I can only afford to pay X", and you can bypass some of the back and forth. Similar technique would let the dissident avoid raising suspicion. Keep a few hundos in their wallet, a thousand in a different pocket, rolled up in their socks, stuffed in a bra, etc etc
Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by p1esk on Saturday December 10, 2022 @08:17PM (#33938936)
Good point. Still, this law is a step on a slippery slope.
Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by yardstick on Saturday December 10, 2022 @07:43PM (#33938702)
Let’s assume that there was no cash limit, a malicious government could still achieve the same result by changing the currency or even just issuing new notes and instructing banks not to accept old notes.

I guess you would have an underground economy for a while by those that are willing to be old-cash only, but good luck paying tax and other items that require the new currency/notes.

Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by p1esk on Saturday December 10, 2022 @07:57PM (#33938802)
It’s much harder for a government to change currency than to freeze your bank account.
Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by lazide on Saturday December 10, 2022 @10:31PM (#33939783)
The Uk has been doing that forever with the pound.
Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by SergeAx on Saturday December 10, 2022 @09:45PM (#33939548)
> This likely affects a number of people that is so small, that it's irrelevant

We as society are spending literally billions to make our cities and infrastructure accessible for people with disabilities. Their number also very small, but we decided it is well relevant.

Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by Teandw on Sunday December 11, 2022 @07:40AM (#33942651)
The percentage of people with mobility disabilities is extremely high.

With medical breakthroughs increasing the age of life too, this is only likely to increase with time

Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by ls15 on Sunday December 11, 2022 @05:56AM (#33942113)
> This likely affects a number of people that is so small, that it's irrelevant.

That's not how we deal with minorities

Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by ur-whale on Saturday December 10, 2022 @06:29PM (#33938185)
> This likely affects a number of people that is so small, that it's irrelevant.

Citation required.

Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by Teandw on Saturday December 10, 2022 @06:35PM (#33938238)
No citation needed. It doesn't take much brain power to know that certain things are or aren't likely.

It would be like asking me to prove that not many people have done the calculation of 15435 divided by 12.5 in their life. I can just tell you from basic logical thinking, that it's not likely that many people have.

Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by pclmulqdq on Saturday December 10, 2022 @08:00PM (#33938824)
Really? Using $10,000 in cash is like doing a very specific math problem?

A lot more people have used large quantities of cash for non-criminal activity. The few times I have used huge quantities of cash, it has been for stupid reasons: someone doesn't take credit cards or bank transfers, and won't trust a check until it clears, so it's easier to just use a pile of cash. By the way, I keep plenty of cash around so I can still pay for stuff even if the internet goes out regionally.

Also note that this does not really stop criminals or rich people from moving money around: there are plenty of ways around these laws.

Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by stev-0 on Monday December 12, 2022 @01:55AM (#33951743)
Explain a single scenario of how one acquires large amounts of cash that:

1. Isn’t easy to provide provisions for.(which is how cash payments can be made legal). 2. Doesn’t require criminal activity in Europe.

I think a lot of people are thinking about this with the US tax system in the back of their minds.

The tax system in many European countries is very different. We pay WAY more income tax. That means that the incentives for tax avoidance are much greater. As a result tax avoidance is a European pastime.

I think that a more transparent financial system is a great thing to strive for. Less financial privacy is is likely to lead to. 1. less money going toward lobbying. 2. Less tax avoidance 3. Less hidden wealth. 4. Less/more expensive money laundering.

It might someday even lead to successful taxation of wealth instead of income.

Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by purerandomness on Sunday December 11, 2022 @08:32PM (#33949777)
> someone doesn't take credit cards or bank transfers

That will change with this law, finally. Or put them out of business. That's a good thing, don't you agree?

> so I can still pay for stuff even if the internet goes out regionally

If you having to pay transactions >10k frequently enough that network outages block you, I'd wager you're doing exactly the kind of something this law should prevent.

> there are plenty of ways around these laws.

Sure, but now there's an instrument in the toolbox which wasn't there before. Or are you arguing that outlaws gonna outlaw no matter what, so why even try?

Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by helloworld11 on Wednesday December 14, 2022 @06:56AM (#33982346)
>That will change with this law, finally. Or put them out of business. That's a good thing, don't you agree?

Or here's a novel idea: Try not to support coercive laws and rules that seek to stamp out the possibility of people having unorthodox or somewhat unusual voluntary payment preferences, just because you don't personally like them.

>If you having to pay transactions >10k frequently enough that network outages block you, I'd wager you're doing exactly the kind of something this law should prevent.

Because somebody has cash and payment needs, or levels of preparedness that your own narrow thinking doesn't digest isn't a good reason to automatically assume that they're probably a criminal who should be targeted by invasive and authoritarian controls. Frankly, it's something of a sick mentality to immediately treat with suspicion of criminal activity those who support or personally prefer conducting their financial affairs differently from how you do.

As for your final comment, People wanting to transact privately aren't nuts and bolts to be removed from the scene by some nasty, dirty little toolbox of edicts by politicians who regularly protect corruption on larger scales. It's absurdly malicious, or at least plain ignorant to think that way. There are much more fundamental and obvious reasons underpinning the fight against parasitic, invasive financial laws. Read a little about both modern politics in much of the world and modern history even in Europe itself to at least slightly understand the basis for resisting these rules on cash.

Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by alasdair_ on Saturday December 10, 2022 @09:36PM (#33939496)
Have you ever spent time in Germany? It is a very cash-based culture because people are understandably worried about government surveillance of their financial transactions.

Germany initially wanted there to be 10,000EUR notes for this very reason.

There are a whole lot of people there that want to pay cash for everything, including things like cars and houses.

Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by sva_ on Saturday December 10, 2022 @07:54PM (#33938784)
It is fairly common to buy a used car in cash here in Germany.
Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by Rebelgecko on Sunday December 11, 2022 @09:10PM (#33950045)
I know tons of people who have either bought used cars or sold a car at least once. A decent chunk of those transactions would've been more than 10k euros at current exchange rates.
Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by ETH_start on Saturday December 10, 2022 @07:43PM (#33938703)
€10K is not that much.
Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by tormeh on Saturday December 10, 2022 @09:01PM (#33939251)
1k EUR is a lot to carry in cash. 10k is absurd. I'd guess 95% of people doing it are doing it because they're doing something illegal.
Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by alasdair_ on Saturday December 10, 2022 @09:40PM (#33939520)
When I played a lot of poker, I would routinely carry 30k or more. A single buy-in could be 10k. The people I played with all did similar things.

Moreover there are some countries (like Germany) where people routinely use a lot of cash to (say) buy a car or a business.

Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by ceejayoz on Saturday December 10, 2022 @07:49PM (#33938744)
It's a lot to put in a sack and bring to a store to pay for something.
Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by pclmulqdq on Saturday December 10, 2022 @08:02PM (#33938841)
$10,000 in US $20 bills weighs about 1 pound. In $100 bills, it fits nicely in your pocket or in a small purse. I assume 100 euro notes are about the same.
Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by ceejayoz on Saturday December 10, 2022 @08:13PM (#33938913)
It's a lot of money to put in your pocket. I didn't say anything about weight.
Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by throwaway09223 on Saturday December 10, 2022 @08:43PM (#33939113)
It's not, though. I remember carrying that much cash when I saved up for a summer to buy some computer components. They didn't take checks, and at the time I was like 19 and my debit card didn't have a high enough limit to buy the items I wanted (a couple of high end workstations, nothing super fancy- computers used to be expensive!)

It's actually pretty common to need to buy things over $10k. It's pretty common for vendors to not take checks. It's pretty common to not have high enough credit limits to cover these types of purchases.

There still isn't any way to do this other than cash.

It's unusual to carry around this much cash every day, but it's totally normal to carry this much cash sometimes for specific large purchases.

Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by WastingMyTime89 on Tuesday December 13, 2022 @12:17PM (#33972011)
> It's actually pretty common to need to buy things over $10k. It's pretty common for vendors to not take checks. It's pretty common to not have high enough credit limits to cover these types of purchases.

That's a very USA-centric comment. Checks are virtually unheard of in Europe and no one would pay so much money in cash. You would do a wire transfer or a card payment for that.

Payments in cash to a professional from a French citizen have been capped at 1000€ in France for years with virtually no impact. I have never seen or heard of someone attempting to use that much cash.

Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by pclmulqdq on Saturday December 10, 2022 @09:34PM (#33939480)
I personally don't have enough fingers to count the number of times I've carried around a huge amount of cash. Buying computers, cars, and collectibles can all involve a ton of money. Also, when I was playing poker a lot, that wasn't an unreasonably large amount to have on hand.
Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by SergeAx on Saturday December 10, 2022 @09:47PM (#33939565)
They also have 500 EUR bills there in Europe. 10000 EUR will fit in a postcard envelope.
Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by thdespou on Sunday December 11, 2022 @06:08AM (#33942185)
500 euro bills were scrapped some time ago.
Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by SergeAx on Sunday December 11, 2022 @07:36AM (#33942624)
Well, I am holding one in my hands right now, I got it from European bank several days ago.
Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by thdespou on Monday December 12, 2022 @04:44AM (#33952796)
It may be still a legal tender but it has stopped being issued https://www.centralbank.ie/consumer-hub/notes-and-coins/euro...
Re:EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments by ericd on Sunday December 11, 2022 @03:00PM (#33946871)
It fits in a standard envelope, but you can use a sack if you want.