@lauren @dalias @huitema @lauerhahn @nikatjef Well, if we don't try we're certainly not going to find an answer. And again, unlike the GOP and Obamacare, I'm not saying "abolish it now while we think of something" (and remember that the part of Obamacare they objected to most, mandatory coverage, was essential to the financials of the scheme, which is why they could never find a replacement).
There is a problem: checks are expensive, environmentally awful, insecure, and subject to all sorts of crimes. What are we going to do about it? DON'T flash-cut, don't announce a short-term deadline, but let's start seriously thinking about this as a systems problem. (Aside: many years ago, I saw an article, I think in CACM, discussing the costs of EFT versus checks. The problem was that no one knew what it cost banks to handle checks—the accounting systems were not set up to capture that kind of data; they broke down costs differently.)
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Steve Bellovin (stevebellovin@infosec.exchange)'s status on Sunday, 07-Dec-2025 11:56:24 JST
Steve Bellovin