> The big takeaway I got is that it was a mistake to let corporations set up electronic money
What's stopping the US govt from building a solution and competing for market share? If they can do it cheaper and better, it would gain adoption, but I suspect cheaper would just mean "offset by taxes".
>What's stopping the US govt from building a solution and competing for market share?
It's obnoxious enough to have credit cards (/especially/ Visa and Mastercard) breathing down my neck about what and where I spend my money, I definitely don't want to make that even worse by having the government feast upon that data instead.
The Feds already do check clearing, and they do it for free or nearly so. That's why your ISP probably gives you a discount on your bill if you (a) go paperless and (b) pay by ACH.
As near as I can tell, check clearing is fast and accurate and very rarely screws up. It's also adequately funded. The divisions of government, local state and federal, that are funded, do well. The ones that aren't funded adequately are awful. This is consistent with companies like CenturyLink that don't fund branches properly: those branches are terrible.
What's stopping the US govt from building a solution and competing for market share? If they can do it cheaper and better, it would gain adoption, but I suspect cheaper would just mean "offset by taxes".