[nfb-talk] A different perspective on money

[T. Joseph Carter]

I've been sitting on the fence about this for about a week, but I think I
just fell off of it today based on a perspective I hadn't considered.
First, for anyone who hasn't been keeping score thus far (people who know
the score can skip the next three paragraphs):

We don't actually NEED to be able to identify individual notes to use
them.  We have access to people and technology for this purpose.  Sure,
there's some inherent dependency in this, but it really is a minor thing,
and the risks are pretty low overall.

The question remains, however, whether or not an adaptation should be
made.  Many Federationists do not believe so either because they are
comfortable with their current techniques.  Others fear dangers both real
and imagined in trying to fix what doesn't seem all that broken.

Still others, most of whom could not be dismissed as ACB people causing
trouble on our lists (again), believe that our currency is broken, and
that there are numerous examples of how to fix it.  Fixing it is the right
thing to do, even if there are other things we'd call priorities.  Perhaps
the ACB managed to finally do some good.  (Unless those dangers mentioned
above are more real than imagined, of course..)


I stumbled onto a very good comparison to a group of people with other
disabilities: People who use wheelchairs.  Those who use manual chairs and
have the upper-body strength to do it can learn techniques for dealing
with steps and curbs safely.  Nearly all of the rest could find ways to
deal with curbs.  Installing a curb cut is expensive.  Making them a
universal fixture is incredibly expensive, and highly visible as being
done specifically for them, even though there are more moms with baby
strollers using them than people in wheelchairs.

Does their existence cause the general public to think less of people in
wheelchairs?  Katie's experience is that people can at least imagine her
working in an office setting where she'd be expected to be mostly seated
anyway, whereas they couldn't imagine how I could do the same work.  How
is she going to get up the curb so she can get to work?  The general
public would answer, "Easy, she'd use the curb cuts!"  Well obviously,
since they are universal and easy to use, she would.  The fact that she
could do it without a curb cut is irrelevant because she doesn't have to.

The cost of making them nearly universal was high, but in most cases it
was not paid solely for the sake of wheelchair users.  Most of them were
installed when work was being done on those intersections.  If they're
going to be messing with the intersection and sidewalks, they might as
well add curb cuts while they're there to reduce the cost of doing it.

Just because Katie does not absolutely require curb cuts doesn't mean she
shouldn't have them.  And just because we do not absolutely require a
currency that we can identify without vision doesn't mean we shouldn't
have it.  The same cost-cutting mechanism can be employed (as discussed
elsewhere), and should be.  The transition will be slow and gradual, and
while it's going on we're all just going to have to use the skills we
already have to the best of our ability.

It should happen, though.