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Chapter 24 Credit Cards, Fast-Food Restaurants, and Rationalization 273

are now better able to avoid "painful" lulls when we are unable to participate

in the economy because of a lack of ready cash. Most generally, the credit card

even allows people to consume, at least to some degfee, during recessionary

periods. For the pufveyors of goods and services, the availability of credit cards

makes the wodd more predictable by helping to ensure a steadier stream of

customers during bad times as well as good ones.

Nonhuman for Human TechnologY: No Visitors, No Staff

. . . The credit card is itself a kind of nonhuman technology. More impor-

tant, it has given birth to technologies that intervene between buyer and seller and sefve to constrain both. Most notable is the vast computerized sys-

tem that "decides" whether to authorize a new credit card and whether to

authorize a given purchase. Shopkeeper and customer may both want to

consummate a deal, but if the computer system says no (because, for example,

the consumer's card is over its credit limit), then there is likely to be no sale.

Similarly, an employee of a credit card firm may want to approve a sale but

be loath, and perhaps forbidden, to do so if the computer indicates that the

sale should be disapproved. The general trend within rationalized societies is

to take decision-making power away from people (customers, shopkeep- ers, and credit card company employees alike) and give it to nonhuman technologies.

ru7ith the advent of smart cards, the card itself will "decide" whether a , sale is to be consummated. Embedded in the card's computer chip will be such information as spending limits, so the card itself will be able to reject a

purchase that is over the limit. Not only do some aspects of our credit card society take decision making

away from human beings, but other of its elements eliminate people alto- gether. Thus, widespread distribution of the smart card may eliminate many

of the people who now operate the credit card companies' extensive com-

puter systems. Today, ATMs have been increasingly replacing bank tellers.

,q. bank vice president is quite explicit about the substitution of ATMs for

human beings: ,,This might sound funny, but if we can keep people out of

our branches, we don't have to hire staff to handle peaktime booms and the

like.ThatdrivesdowncostS.,,Asimilarpointcanbem.A^^r cards,whichinvolvefar1esshumanlaborthandothechec designed to replace. The growth of debit cards has undout loss of many bank positions involved in clearing checks. Sir

credit cards are designed to be used in place of cash, the ir