Visa and Mastercard have surged over the past two decades, reaching a combined $1 trillion market cap. That has attracted unwanted attention from regulators.
Even the most succdem brained person should understand this. Payment systems are so reliant on the network effect because nobody is going to use on a network that people don’t accept. Like, try traveling with a Discover card outside of the USA (China and Japan excepted).
I don’t know enough to say that payment networks like Visa and Mastercard are natural monopolies, but it seems like this is structurally something that’ll happen. Therefore, even the most succdem brained person would understand that payments need to be public infrastructure, not a duopoly of US-based megacorps.
The solution is simple
: state owned alternative with zero fees.
Remember talk of postal banking during Bernie’s campaign?
Even the most succdem brained person should understand this. Payment systems are so reliant on the network effect because nobody is going to use on a network that people don’t accept. Like, try traveling with a Discover card outside of the USA (China and Japan excepted).
I don’t know enough to say that payment networks like Visa and Mastercard are natural monopolies, but it seems like this is structurally something that’ll happen. Therefore, even the most succdem brained person would understand that payments need to be public infrastructure, not a duopoly of US-based megacorps.
Even in Europe the fees they can charge customers is capped at like 1/10th of US fees