Re: more ideas on anonymity

[tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)]

Marc Horowitz writes:

>With certain exceptions, like the mailbox example, most situations of
>"rent foo" require the lessor to take a risk, and he wants *some*
>assurance that he'll get his rented thing back.  I'm not going to rent
>a car to someone without ID, for cash, because I have no guarantee
>that he isn't going to drive away with it and never come back.

Precisely. The car rental company _does_ have a continuing relationship
with you, at least until you return their car.

(BTW, digital escrow services may allow relative anonymity--and perhaps
true anonymity--while still assuring the rental car company that they'll
get paid and will get their car back. Think of this as a surety
bond...though I suppose that many of those who don't have credit cards, for
economic reasons, will also not have $10,000 in cash laying around to post
such a bond.)

>I'm not saying discrimination against cash doesn't exist.  It does,
>and that's reprehensible.  But not all cases of "plastic, yes, cash,
>no" are discriminatory.

I see nothing reprehensible about discrimination against certain kinds of
payment. Maybe I don't want to carry $10,000 around in East L.A. and
instead want to be paid with a cashier's check. Maybe I just think folding
money has too many germs on it. 

The point is, nobody is being coerced into an economic transaction. If I
offer my car for sale for $10,000 in copper pennies, that's the way it is.

(There is some confusing legalistic stuff about debts and "legal tender,"
applying, as I understand it, to debts already incurred. But I'm arguing
the principle, not the situaion in these Beknighted States.)

-Tim May
--
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