The recipients need to think about were to shop, switch cards once in a while, all extra work to get 1% back of the 2% that the card issuers extract from the economy.

Meanwhile in Europe the issuers are capable of running a profitable business on only 0.3% fees (and much lower for debit). So even though you may think rewards programs are nice, they are in the end costing you more, not giving you free money.