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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 12, 2026

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The ubiquity of credit card use allowed the companies to charge higher interchange fees, and since the fees were accounting for a share of revenue on par with interest payments, it made sense to try to attract these no-balance customers through reward enticements, which are paid for out of the fees.

This right here is how I think the poor are subsidizing the rich.

@Opt-out's claim is that market segmentization means that each category is profitable on their own. But your claim is that the high end market only exists because of the infrastructure provided by the low end market.

My hypothesis is that if credit cards never made any money via usury, then they would never have been in a position to make money off of interchange fees. And a slightly stronger hypothesis is that, if we limit their ability engage in usury, then we will see a drop in their ability to offer good rewards.