The Housal ATM

Whenever I go to a restaurant these days, I'm paying cash. I take the effort to get cash ahead of time to try to eliminate the 3% loss the restaurateur would take if I paid with a debit card. For me, it's not about some faceless corporation stealing money from a small business -- banks do need to charge to allow for this service -- but I figure that the 3% that stays and circulates in the local economy is much better for both me and the small business owners, so I take some efforts to work mostly in cash.

Amid the endless suburban shitscape of the Sacramento region, I am unbelievably privileged to be able to work in a building within 400 feet of a light rail station and within a quarter mile of a bank, pharmacy, independent grocery, a hardware store and twelve restaurants. It takes zero effort to hit the ATM first before patronizing everything else.

If I do use a card, I always ask which is cheaper for them, debit or credit. The pricing structure that processors charge is so convoluted and opaque that it's often impossible for them to even know beforehand, but I ask anyway. It might be only a matter of a few nickels. I don't care. I do it anyway.

Quite recently, three three! co-workers have received letters in the mail from their credit card companies indicating their rates are going to be jacked up. I believe this to be a preemptive strike against the coming 2009 credit card act which will limit their ability to change rates. Two of them have said fuck it, they're closing their account. One asked me yesterday if it would hurt her credit score, and while I am one to hardly know, I believe it will -- closing a long standing account in good standing would not likely improve one's creditworthiness, you think?

Easy credit is what fueled our pre-2007 boom, which ultimately led to our current mild economic slowdown. Personally, I hope that going forward credit becomes much harder to get. Bear in mind that we homeowners pulled out $5,000,000,000,000 from our housal ATMs over the last decade to buy shit we didn't need with money we didn't have. To buy shit we didn't need with money we didn't have. I am extremely hard pressed to figure out how a 70% consumer spending economy such as ours is going to dig out any time soon if consumers aren't consuming more consumables on credit.