Originally Posted by
rpenmanparker
I don't see the problem. Their fees are no higher than credit card fees. Just as with credit cards the decision whether to bear the expense of the fees rests with the merchant.
Why do they need to be a bank? Why do they need to be insured? They aren't holding my money. If I have a balance, I take it out immediately. But most importantly, do you know of an alternative service that allows small merchants to accept secure, online payments in any currency without resorting to a credit card acceptance structure. How would we be better off without PayPal?
The world is full of people who don't see the problem with violating and wrecking other peoples lives because hey it must be their own fault or it wouldn't be happening to them, or mostly just because they don't really bother to stop and think about what if it happened to them.
The problem is that in any "litigation" process that is company owned and internal, the end result will almost always protect the interest of the company and not the interests of anyone else. This really goes against every thing the US is built on and stands for. IMO, it is also contributing to somewhat too the "wall st recovery that has left main street behind". The big commercial interests are being served and the individuals are increasingly left to eat cake. Now it hasn't broken down yet... but this trend is definitely not healthy for the country and probably not for the world either.
Paypal takes arbitrary and sometimes devastating actions against people, sometimes completely destroying their livelihood, and there is no effective check, balance or due process to which an aggrieved party can appeal. Google does the same thing with their revenue producing products like adsense.
While one can argue "just don't do business with A or B and you won't have anything to worry about" that sophomoric argument fall flat when A or B represent over half the market share. Imagine monetizing a publishing enterprise today without Google and tell me how successful you'll be?
When amazon, ebay, paypal, google and facebook eventually control 75% of ecommerce.... This lack of checks and balances will be untenable. It already is really. But it will have to reach the point where it's obvious even for the people who don't like to think too hard about things, and then it will still require a couple poster child examples before anyone can really work up the energy to care. Hopefully by then it won't be too late.
Do we have any historical references that may shed any light on how human nature will manifest itself with good will and decency given such a concentration of economic power? Yes, I think we might:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_town
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feudalism
Sorry for the ramble... but this is effectively why Paypal (as it is currently operated) is vile and evil.